How to Use Two-Way SMS to Take Your Small Business Strategy to the Next Level

Ask not what your business can do for you — ask what you can do for your business. Okay, so it’s unlikely that US President John F. Kennedy could ever have imagined his famous 1961 inaugural address being paraphrased quite like that. But the sentiment is there. Instead of questioning why your small business strategy hasn’t reached new heights of success, ask what you can implement to improve operations. And the answer to that question is, without any doubt, two-way SMS marketing.

What is two-way SMS, you ask?

Two-way SMS is, very simply, a form of SMS messaging which makes it possible for recipients to respond. This gives businesses the opportunity to engage directly with customers by enabling them to reply to messages. It also gives small business owners such as yourself the ability to increase engagement success with notifications, and personalized short code and long number options.

Do my customers actually want this option?

Yes! They absolutely do. Imagine the last time a business sent you a message about a new product or service offering. It’s likely that all you wanted to do at the time was to respond with a request to place an order or make an appointment. But you didn’t have the option. You had to phone the business or visit their website. That entire process would have been far easier if you had been able to quickly and easily respond with an SMS.

Studies have found that two out of every three customers - of those able to receive text messages - would prefer to communicate with businesses in this way rather than over the phone.

They feel it’s a better use of their time. At the end of the day, without implementing two-way SMS, you’re making your customers unhappy. And unhappy customers are likely to look for other service providers, ones who communicate in the ways their customers prefer. Successful businesses should always be on the lookout for new ways in which they can make their customers’ lives easier, and these findings will no doubt reveal a change that needs to be implemented in your small business strategy.

Why do customers prefer two-way SMS over phone calls?

Contact centers have long been a part of business models the world over. Whatever the industry, a large business is sure to have a contact center staffed by scores of people whose job it is to answer the phone and attend to customer questions. Obviously, a small business would operate differently, making it the responsibility of a couple of people to answer the phones and attend to customer issues. And it turns out, you needn’t have bothered, they don’t actually want to be on the phone.

Research by Mattersight Centres found that:

66% of consumers are put off before even conversing with a customer service representative

75% of consumers put the phone down feeling frustrated, regardless of whether their issue was resolved or not

Your customers prefer two-way messaging over a phone call — they dislike waiting on hold, listening to the same music and the same updates. They might not want to talk on the phone or the conversation might be about a sensitive issue they don’t want to discuss while other people can hear. They’d prefer to multitask, by continuing with their work or attending to personal issues, still ensuring their customer support queries are attended to.

How can I use two-way SMS in my small business strategy?

Your small business strategy is very likely already using mass text messaging to communicate with your customers by letting them know about special offers, or reminding them of appointments. Making use of two-way SMS is simply just stepping your small business strategy up a notch. There are many ways that two-way SMS can help to take your small business strategy to the next level.

Some of these include encouraging your customers to enter a competition or easily schedule an appointment, getting them to check the status of an order or request for a past order to be repeated. These are all tasks which your customers need to do. By allowing them the convenience of two-way SMS, they’ll be able to check those items off their to-do list that much faster. It’s like the ease and convenience of the poll option of Instagram Stories done professionally and in a manner which all of your customers are familiar with.

You could even use two-way messaging to ask your customers to complete a survey about your business. In this way, you can easily find out what your customers enjoy about your business and where they’d like to see an improvement. Of course, the first item they’ll mention is enjoying being able to send an SMS. But all of the other comments they make will be incredibly helpful for your business. Who knows? You might even be able to implement your next new winning customer experience because of this feedback.

How easily can you make this happen?

Luckily, it’s incredibly easy to implement two-way messaging into your business’ SMS marketing services. Visit Clickatell’s SMS pricing estimator and simply choose the option which enables customers to reply when selecting a mass text messaging product. You’ll be asked whether you want to make use of a long number or a random short code. You’ll then be asked how many text messages you plan to send each month and be given a quote. That’s only four steps.

As you can see, implementing two-way SMS marketing services into your business can take it to the next level. Your customers want to communicate with your business in this way. They prefer sending and receiving SMS messages over answering phone calls and waiting while on hold with a contact center.

So, it makes sense to do what your customers not only prefer, but expect, and implement SMS two-way as soon as possible. Communicating with your customers in this way is inexpensive and convenient. If you’d like to learn more about the benefits of two-way SMS, read our recent article on the topic. It tells you everything you need to know about this form of communication and why your business needs it right now.

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