How A2P SMS Can Impact Your Customers’ Experience

Since the inception of internet, SMS, and social media, we’ve been living in a world that’s always “on”—a world where customers expect brands to meet their needs in real time. For companies, the buffer of time between marketing and delivering services to customers has shrunk. The customer’s behavior and experience are about more now than just the “marketing and sales journey”. They’re about feeling: good—versus angry, stressed, or frustrated.

It’s about fixing problems, getting answers, and connecting with a brand. In addition to sales and purchasing, brands need to think in terms of consumer behavior.

How can A2P-SMS improve your customer experience and behavior?

If you have to wait for more than 10 minutes to speak with an agent when you contact a company, how do you feel ? Angry? Stressed? Frustrated? Now there are certainly more productive ways of working with customers that could change that experience. This is where SMS messaging comes in.
Whenever you need to contact customers, you can use A2P SMS (‘application-to-person’ SMS). This makes the experience enjoyable, convenient and productive. Let’s explore what it would look like for SMS to the gauge for observing customer behavior.

Check-in notification

Many businesses, including hotels, have adopted the SMS method. They found that it increased their profits and improved their business. When A2P-SMS is used to inform a hotel guest of their check-in time, the guests feel more appreciated and less stressed. To successfully use the services, the customer must provide their phone number during booking or in another communication with the hotel. After providing their number, customers can expect the hotel might send them information regarding changes in service, adjustments in prices, notification of front desk hours, etc. To send these information a SMS-Gateway is used.

Service and appointment reminders

Service and appointment reminders use the same principle as check-in notifications. Instead, the SMS the customer receives reminds them of the time and location for their appointment, or prompts them not to forget to pick up items at the grocery. Here’s a specific business example: an airline. What could an airline do with A2P-SMS? It could send passengers updates about when a flight will depart. Or, upon arrival at the airport, an SMS text with any changed gate information could reach passengers’ phones and describe directions to get there. Customers who receive these types of updates or offers of assistance will know that you value them . That in turn will start to melt away any anger, stress, or frustration, and give way to a good and relaxed feeling.

Reasons why A2P SMS is the best way to gauge customer behavior moments

In today’s busy world, people don’t have the time to call or sit down and tell you whether or not they enjoyed your services. Instead they go to social media sites like Twitter or Facebook, posting about what they wanted and how your services did or didn’t meet their expectations. Companies need this information that gauges customer experience to better know how to improve their services. But most of the time when companies don’t get the information directly from customers, they don’t get that feedback at all. How can A2P-SMS help you to understand your customers’ behaviors?

Provide instant response

Waiting in line for customer support or automated answering is a challenge for many consumers. For business owners, seeing negative reviews of your services from customers on social media can also be frustrating. SMS gives you the opportunity to engage with your customers, even getting immediate feedback. When it comes to helping costumers quickly and preventing them from seeking answers with your competitors, not all SMS services are equal. The SMS gateway service is the best option in this scenario. To notify customers quickly about services and products, an SMS gateway allows you to immediately contact them with ease via SMS.

Engaging, interactive and useful

Email and phone calls offer very little engagement between a customer and a company. SMS gives companies the ability to create an experience beyond those traditional service channels. Tools like SMS API and SMS gateway help you to engage with customers and provide a better level of service. Suppose you are preparing for an appointment. You get an appointment reminder by SMS from the company. As an extra courtesy, they included the weather forecast for the day. Can you imagine? Not only do you get to the appointment on time—you know to bring an umbrella and stay dry! Not only will you appreciate the service, you’d appreciate that company, and likely return or ever refer business their way.
Creating a great customer experience means a brand anticipates the best ways to provide a consumer with excellent service based on needs the customer may have. Customers really appreciate the little things businesses do that have a positive effect on their mood. It helps to shape their overall experience with the company and helps businesses to warrant customer loyalty. With SMS, you can get better customer feedback, better understand their behavior in response to your services, and then have the opportunity to do something about it. Instead of driving to another store or searching the internet to find answers to their questions, forging SMS relationships can give you the opportunity to put yourself in direct contact with customers so that they can quickly access you (and not the competitors) for answers.
Image Sourge: © thodonal – Fotolia.com

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