SMS Automation: How To Automate Text Messages?

Automating your messaging is sometimes a necessity. But with these tips, you can do it in a way that sounds and feels human—and keeps your customers coming back.

You click on a live chat icon and ask a question only to have a clearly automated bot respond with several requests for personal information. Just as you’re responding, the bot replies that you’ve taken too long and now have to start the conversation over. When you finally jump through all the hoops, the bot doesn’t even accurately answer your question.

When it comes to business communication, automations can save you valuable time, cut costs, and vet your incoming leads in ways that help you close your sales cycle faster. But if your automated features sound like a bot, you can lose customers quickly.

Using automated texts while maintaining humanity is a carefully crafted balance that centers around transparency, convenience, and personalization. And there are definite do’s and don’ts. Luckily, we’re here to get you in “the know.”

How to Send Automated Text Messages

With automated text messages, you can set your business up for success and engage customers for a higher chance of conversions. In fact, customers are 209% more likely to respond to texts than emails, Facebook messages, or even phone calls. You can send automated text messages in multiple ways. Try these methods:

Automate Texts Via a Business Platform

Send automated texts with a business platform by setting up a trigger for incoming messages with identifying keywords. A great example of this is setting up a trigger for new messages that include the phrase “more information.” Once you set up the trigger for the word or phrase, you can set up an action for your platform to perform when that keyword comes through. In this example, you might send out a link with more details for your product or service. You can make this process even easier by using SMS templates, preset, reusable text message templates, to reach back out to the customer.

Set Up Automated SMS Drip Campaigns

Automated SMS drip campaigns send out multiple texts in a series, but you designate the time. Your SMS campaign can also be set up to enroll contacts in your services if they use certain keywords. For example, if your SMS says “Join Now” and they say “Yes,” the platform will automatically enroll them.

Set Up Cross-Platform SMS Automation

Cross-platform SMS automation requires you to integrate your customer relationship management (CRM) software with an SMS platform to use the text messaging service. You will need to map custom fields across platforms and then send texts via custom workflows.

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Have a picture of a person instead of a bot on your live chat feature. This is a very simple but extremely effective way to help your customers feel that they are connecting with a human instead of an automation. Consider using a high-quality picture of you or an employee when you schedule text messages to go out to the crowd.

Customize your message so that it sounds like you and your brand. Using personalization, conversational language, and emojis, customize your automated messages to have a tone and feel that serves as an effective introduction to your brand.

Make the messages interactive. The more interactive a message is, the more human it feels. For example, if you have automated a text to be sent to confirm an appointment, you can use a name, informal language, and a question that can be responded to with more than a “Y” or “N.” An auto reply text is also perfect for ensuring someone feels they’re being heard if they have questions.

Hey! This is Heidi from Podium. I have you down to come in at 10am tomorrow. Are you still good for that time? 

Allow responses more complex than letters and numbers. Asking a customer to respond with “Y,” “N”, “1,2,3” gives a very robotic feel. With the right software, your system can recognize the intent of a response such as “Yeah, that sounds good. Thanks so much.” and trigger a response like, “Okay, great!” This substantially increases conversational feel and reduces friction between your business and the consumer.

Tie your automated messaging system directly to your CRM. With the right platform, your automations can be directly connected to your CRM. This allows you to automate messages that are automatically personalized with information such as customer names, preferences, and history.

Send messages during business hours. When it comes to things like confirming appointments and offering updates, messages feel more human when sent between 9-5 (when employees would normally be working). However, many businesses successfully use automated messaging specifically for after-hours communication. Consider actively sending texts during business hours and using automated messages when leads engage with you after hours. An after-hours automated text might look something like this:

Thank you for contacting Belview Tires. These messages are not regularly monitored on weekends & evenings. We will reply during business hours. We appreciate your business!

Implement two-way communication on automated messages. With the right technology, you can respond automatically to FAQs with auto-reply messages. As the conversation continues, if the consumer asks a question that requires live assistance, the right platform can trigger an employee to respond back. This saves a huge amount of time for you and your employees.

Be transparent. When your system reaches a point in the conversation that calls for a live employee, set up a triggered message such as “a live employee will text you shortly” so that the customer knows she is changing hands. Many consumers understand the need for automations and just want to feel that they are being communicated with openly and honestly.

If used correctly, automating your text messages means each of your employees can connect with more customers and have more meaningful interactions. And with those interactions, you can convert customers for life. To learn more, check out our Local Business Guide to Digital Transformation.

Podium’s automations give local businesses the ability to automate text messages to customers. These messages can be timed based upon a triggered event from Podium or some other source so customers get messaged at the right time, every time. Every message remains interactive and encourages customer engagement. These messages can be customized for any purpose including sending appointment reminders, getting appointment confirmations from customers, sending customer follow-up messages in order to help you win more business, keep more appointments, convert more leads, and keep customers coming back.

Automatic Text Message Examples

Some automatic text message examples include:

• Automated text message FAQ replies. For example, an inquiry that reads, “Hi, are you open on Monday at 10:00 a.m.?” gets a response like, “Yes, we are open every day from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.”
• Incoming message automation, which automatically replies to a customer’s first inquiry.
• Channel-based automation, which responds to “hello” or other simple greetings with a question to triage to customer service.

Automate Text Messages with Podium

With Podium, you can automate and schedule text messages on Android or iPhone. Podium’s AI Employee can also work as an autoresponder with human-like speech that helps you make the most of incoming inquiries and leads—all so you can get more leads and make more money.

Watch a demo to learn more.