In order to stand out and gain the loyalty of customers today you must provide exceptional service experiences. One powerful tool that can help is text messaging for contact centers. By adding text messaging to your contact center communications you will increase customer satisfaction and at the same time reduce your operational costs.
According to a recent study, 81% of consumers get frustrated being tied to a phone call or desktop chat to wait for customer service help. With text messaging you’re able to help them no matter where they are. The convenience and speed of messaging creates a positive and memorable support experience.
If you’re not already using text messaging, now is the time to get started. Research shows U.S. consumers prefer companies that offer messaging as a communication channel. Almost two-thirds (63 percent) of respondents would switch to a company that offered text messaging as a communication channel. Besides being the preferred method of communication, there are several other benefits of using text messaging for your contact center.
Benefits of Using Text Messaging for Contact Centers
1. Immediately start a relevant conversation.
With text messaging you can immediately assure customers you have received their request and are working to help them. You can set up automatic case creation and response messages so that you never miss a message. This way your customers are never wondering what the status of their claim is and will be happy to know you’re working on it right away. You can then pivot to 1:1 conversations with agents. Agents are able to enter any automated message thread to immediately answer questions with interactive conversational messaging.
2. Reduce average handle time.
Over 75% of customers expect customer service to be faster. People are tired of sitting on long hold times and expect quick responses to their questions. Text messaging allows you to have those fast responses, ensuring a positive conversation and quick resolution.
3. Increase volume of cases handled by 10:1.
Messaging enables your agents to handle multiple customer requests simultaneously. Today, your contact center might be having to work with less resources, so the ability to still handle a high volume of cases is important. You don’t want to lose business because customers are upset that they are unable to get help. Serving multiple customers concurrently increases efficiency and responsiveness to customer issues. And with the ability to see the entire messaging history with a customer, your agents will always have the necessary context.
4. Ensure customers never have to repeat themselves.
One sure way to lose a customer is to repeatedly ask them redundant questions where they have to ask the same question over and over. It’s a waste of their time and they’ll be sure to take their business elsewhere. With text messaging you can save the entire conversation history so agents can quickly know exactly what the problem is and jump right into solving the problem without asking the customer the same questions that have already been asked. Customers will appreciate the personal conversation and timely resolution.
5. Manage messages from multiple channels.
Omnichannel messaging capabilities allow agents to receive messages from all channels, such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and SMS, all in one inbox. Conversations never get lost and you meet the customer on the platform that they prefer, ultimately increasing satisfaction and gaining loyal customers.
The Bottom Line
Customers prefer short, interactive, and mobile-friendly communications. Text messaging does just that. It’s quick, intuitive, and is their preferred channel for customer-to-business communication. Messaging also makes sense for your business, as it boosts your agents’ productivity and reduces their workload through self-service and lower call volumes.
If you haven’t yet adopted business text messaging for your team and want to learn more, schedule a demo and we’d be happy to share our expertise with you, answer questions and show you what text messaging can do for your contact center.
