Business Online

Using Sms Can Help You Improve Customer Service

Using SMS to provide customer service could provide your clients with a better experience. Text messages are a convenient way to communicate with your audience and people will appreciate having an additional option to communicate with your customer service department. Here is why you need to use SMS for customer service and how you can provide a good experience for customers who need help.

Let people know that they can text you but make sure they have other options. Some customers will prefer calling, sending emails or using a chat room. Texting should be presented as an additional option and should not replace other ways of contacting customer service since not everyone will want to text you when they need help.

Determine what kind of issues can be easily resolved via text messages. A simple request such as letting a customer know when a payment is due, what their account balance is or when they can expect their delivery can be easily fulfilled with a text message. However, a customer having an issue with their order or needing help with a more complex issue might not be fully satisfied by the kind of customer service you can provide via text messages. It might be best to suggest that these customers call or email you instead of communicating via text messages.

Make sure customers have an excellent experience when providing customer service via text message. The text messages should be easy to read and understand and should not be too long. You can set up an automated system to send links to your website or to send out information about a specific topic if this is what the user wants. You can for instance, use a system that detects some keywords in the user’s original request and sends relevant information. If you use an automated system, make sure there is an easy way for customers to ask for additional information or to text with a live customer service agent in case the automated system is not providing them with the information they needed.

If you offer customer service via text messages, this option should be available 24/7 and they should receive a response within a short time frame. If you cannot guarantee an immediate response or cannot offer this service 24/7, set up an automated answer that provides people with other ways to contact you.

If you decide to use an automated system to answer to the text messages people send, make sure the answers are written in a natural way so that people do not get the impression they are talking to a machine. You should also train customer service representatives to answer to text messages in a helpful and polite way. Use surveys to learn more about the experience people who contacted you via SMS had so that you can improve the way you answer to these messages.

Sending SMS online could help you provide better customer service since people want more options to contact you and text messages are a quick and convenient way to communicate with each other. However, you need to make sure you will be able to provide people with a good experience and with relevant answers if you decide to offer customer service via SMS.