How to Use SMS for Customer Service and Support + Tips and Best Practices

One of the many potential applications of text messages for businesses is SMS customer service. Your customers will appreciate the ability to reach you via their preferred communication method. As a bonus, you may even generate leads when potential customers contact support via this method.

This guide outlines how and why to use SMS customer service. With our best practices and explanations, you should be well on your way to satisfied customers. 

What Is SMS for Customer Service 

The idea of SMS customer service refers to using text messaging to provide customer support. The customer service communication basically takes place in a text messaging app on a customer’s cell phone. 

SMS for customer service is simply an alternative method that customers can use to contact your support team. Most companies will offer this type of support in addition to the ability to contact them through phone calls, live chat, and email. 

Benefits of SMS for Customer Service and Support

We have already touched on the fact that customer SMS is the preferred method of your clients, but there are also other benefits of using SMS customer service and support. 

Fast responses.

Texting provides a short response time from both ends. 90% of texts get read within just three minutes. 

On top of that, many support requests are quick questions that you can resolve via text in seconds or even have a bot handle. 

Happy customers.

We mentioned that consumers prefer texting, but to what extent? Surveys show that about 69% of consumers would rather text than email or call. 

When you reach out to clients via their ideal contact method, you show them that you care about their preferences. This leads to happy customers.

It should go without saying that happy customers are more likely to become loyal clients, leave positive reviews, and recommend you to others. 

Build relationships.

The fact that texting is interactive and feels more personal than an email or FAQ page helps you build better customer relationships. 

This is crucial, as customers are more likely to have a positive experience and remain loyal if they have a good relationship with your company and feel valued individually. 

No coding required.

You don’t need to have any coding knowledge whatsoever to offer support via text. Your platform will take care of everything for you. 

Attract attention.

Offering text support via text helps you attract attention and separates you from the competition.

This also ties back to the previous point about happy customers. Those satisfied customers are likely to share their excellent support experience with others. 

Cost-effective.

Compared to other contact methods, SMS messages are much more affordable. One study found that, on average, customer service phone calls cost around $16. By contrast, a text thread typically costs just $1 to $5. 

Trackable via analytics.

Because support via text messaging integrates with your other platforms, you can access useful analytics. You can see clear reports that help you learn where your support team has room for improvement. 

How to Starting using SMS for Customer Service

Texting customers for support is different from how you text your personal contacts. You will need to send multiple text messages simultaneously, so you will need a tool that allows you or your team to do that efficiently. Here’s how it works:

1. Choose an SMS provider.

Assess your team’s needs and search the market for an SMS customer service platform that meets your requirements. 

Do you have multiple customer service agents that can respond to customers using SMS? You may want to get a business texting service with a shared Inbox. Do you want to use SMS to promote your products and services? You’ll need something that allows seamless campaign set-up. Podium has these features and more.

2. Enable an SMS customer service number.

Before you can receive and send text messages, you’ll need to enable a phone number. The way to enable an SMS customer service number will depend on the business texting platform you choose. Once the number is activated, you can advertise it on on your social media, website, or landing pages.

3. Create views.

You will want to know at a glance which messages need an urgent response and which can wait a little longer. This is where filters become handy. Filters allow you to configure your Inbox into views for specific people in your company.

4. Set up templates and automated responses.

Automated texts will be useful if you don’t have staff available round-the-clock to respond to messages. You can set up automated responses to basic queries so your customers still get answers when you’re not around. On the other hand, setting up templates can help make your customer service team’s job easier and faster.

5. Collect and track data.

Once your team starts addressing customer concerns through SMS, consider offering options for customer feedback over SMS customer support. The data you get will be useful in making your services even better.

6. Integrate your customer texting software.

Application integrations can streamline your workflow and make it more efficient. That’s why it’s important to check the integrations offered by an SMS service or platform before you sign up. Many of these tools integrate with software for e-commerce, CRM, and customer service.

12 Best Practices and Tips for SMS Customer Service

While simply offering SMS customer service is a great start, there are some things you should do to make the most of it. 

1. Set clear goals

Start with your phone number. You want to use the same number for texts as you do for calls. Even toll-free numbers can be text-enabled. This makes it easy for customers to figure out or remember how to reach you.

Don’t just enable your number for texts; also, let customers know that you did. When you mention contact options, be sure to include a phrase such as “call or text” instead of just the number. 

2. Balance automation with human input

As you set up your text messaging customer support, take advantage of automation, specifically chatbots. Chatbots make your SMS customer service much more efficient; they can handle routine requests. Create SMS marketing templates and efficiently handle a high volume of text message requests. 

However, make sure that chatbots aren’t the only option. You want clients to be able to easily reach a customer service rep, as a human touch is a vital part of the customer experience. 

Customer service agents should be on hand for people who prefer not to use chatbots and for those situations that the bots can’t resolve. 

3. Categorize and prioritize incoming messages.

Come up with a system to prioritize and categorize your incoming messages to make the most efficient use of your agents’ time and ensure your customers don’t have to wait long for solutions or answers to their questions. This is crucial; 66% of respondents to a research survey categorized long wait times spent on hold as highly annoying. 

The good news is that your use of automation can make categorizing and prioritizing simple. For example, have an auto-response to the initial text asking clients to choose a category that their issue is about, along with the option to contact a human agent.  

In terms of prioritization, you will have to choose an organization method. The most common will be first in, first out. However, it can be smarter to come up with another prioritization method. At the very least, prioritize VIP customers. 

4. Select the right mobile app or channel for texting.

Both existing customers and potential ones are likely to have their own preferences of which apps they prefer to use for business texting. To maximize their customer service experience, be sure to offer SMS support through the other apps that are most popular with your customers.  

For example, you may want to offer support via native texting apps as well as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Line, and others. When deciding which other channels to use, think about consumer demand. 

5. Go beyond customer service.

While texting is great for SMS customer service, it also has numerous other applications. Use text messages to communicate with employees. Create SMS marketing campaigns to share promotions and encourage purchases, update customers about tracking information, store hours, or appointment reminders via text. 

6. Leverage SMS to collect customer feedback.

Ensure that your support and service over text include a way for customers to give you feedback and ensure that your customers know. 

This is crucial because 91% of customers with a negative experience just choose a competitor, with only the remaining 9% actually providing feedback. By making it clear that you welcome that feedback, you should improve your ability to retain customers.  

7. Personalize the communication.

By its nature, SMS feels more personal than an email. Take this personalization to the next level by linking your SMS platform and customer service platform to allow SMS segmentation of your audience based on user data you already have. In other words, make it easy for your agents to see details about the people that contact them. Just the ability to view their name, purchase history, and location will offer plenty of opportunities for personalization. 

8. Integrate SMS with other support channels.

Adopt an omnichannel strategy by integrating your SMS platform with the apps you’re currently using. The integration will allow you to send customer service messages on whatever communication channel your customers prefer.

9. Be proactive.

Don’t think of customer support SMS as just reactive. You also want to take a proactive stance. It means proactively checking in with customers about their products or providing information such as tracking data. It is yet another way to use text messaging to boost customer satisfaction. 

When you reach out to clients via text, make sure they respond. Not all text messaging solutions offer two-way communication. 

10. Make use of media.

While SMS technically only allows for text, MMS lets you incorporate media and is the industry standard. Incorporate videos, GIFs, emojis, images, and links when they are helpful.

This should go in both directions. In other words, let customers send you images as well. This can be particularly helpful with troubleshooting and support. 

11. Allow agents to work SMS cases like any other service channel

With the right customer service SMS software, your agents can use text messages just like they would any other service channel. This improves the efficiency of your agents. It also ensures that all of your relevant support data stays in the same place. 

12. Keep the tone in mind

Whether clients interact with a live agent or a chatbot, pay attention to tone. Text messages should have a more casual tone than email, web forms, and phone calls. You want to be friendly yet professional. 

When to Use SMS for Customer Service and Support: Examples

The sooner you use an SMS customer service solution, the better for your business. Multiple studies show that consumers prefer texting, so your clients will appreciate your efforts to offer their preferred communication method. Explore our SMS marketing guide to explore other ways to incorporate text messaging into your business strategy and take advantage of this consumer preference. 

1. Manage expectations

Customers typically contact customer service teams when they need help fixing a problem. Text messaging will allow your team to quickly resolve any hiccups and respond even after business hours. This way, your business can meet customers’ expectations for prompt customer service.

2. Automate reminders and confirmations

No more missed reminders and confirmation and wasted time on repetitive tasks. Set your business texting platform to automatically send reminders and confirmations to customers. In addition to reducing no-shows and smoothing out your daily operations, texting appointment reminders also improves customer experiences.

3. Delivery updates

Send SMS notifications to make your customers feel more secure about their order deliveries. Inform them of any changes or delays in their orders, or let them know about updates to the estimated delivery time.

4. Send customer surveys

Collect more valuable information by sending a brief survey to customers through SMS. Customers are more likely to open and respond to surveys sent through text than email and other platforms. 

5. Ask for reviews

Make sure your customers don’t forget about leaving reviews on your Google Business Profile by texting them a Google review link.

6. Payment reminders

Use text messaging to remind your customers or follow up on their payments. It’s easy and doesn’t take a lot of time. 

SMS and Communication Solutions to Boost Conversions

Good customer service is one of the keys to creating loyal customers, getting more leads, and increasing conversions. And text messaging can help you deliver the quality of service your customers expect. SMS has high open rate than other communication channels.

Podium is an easy-to-use communication platform packed with features designed to help small businesses gain more customers. It has a text messaging solution that makes texting easier with its 500 templates. With this tool, you can send a text that drives thousands in revenue.

Podium can serve as a CRM, phone, and even a payment processing solution as well. It has many things you need to grow your business.

SMS Customer Service FAQs

1. How can I opt out of receiving SMS notifications or promotional messages?

Businesses doing SMS marketing campaigns are required to allow recipients to opt out of text message alerts if they want to. Check the message to see how you can stop the promotional SMS. 

2. Can I reply to an SMS message to interact with customer service representatives?

It depends on what the message says. Some messages are automated and tell you not to respond. But if the message indicates that you can send a reply, you can rest assured that a customer service rep will read and respond to your text messages.

3. How long does it take to receive a response from customer service via SMS?

The best practice for customer service is to respond to a text within a minute, but it’s safe to expect a prompt response to your text messages.