5 ways SMS can trim costs and still improve your CX

OpenMarket – November 24, 2017

When budgets get tight, CX often takes back seat. But there are five ways text messaging can put CX up front, driving – and still save you a stack of cash in the process.

CX professionals often face tough decisions. You have less money to spend, but the standards and expectations for customer experience are higher than ever. Only eight years ago, 41% of customers would interact with a company after a bad experience. But within the last four years, that number has gone down to only 14%.

So brands need to maintain customer satisfaction and in turn, customer loyalty. After all, it costs five times more to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one, which means you end up looking for the shortcuts that you hope your customers will feel least. That, however, isn’t a simple task.

But what if it didn’t have to be that way? What if you could cut your costs, and not just protect your customer experience, but actually improve it?

Too good to be true, right? 

With SMS, not necessarily. Text messaging can turn the cost of CX on its head, simply and reliably. So we’ve collected five of the most powerful ways that brands are improving customer satisfaction while reducing CX costs overall, all thanks to SMS.

 

  1. Save the cost of missed appointments

 Missed appointments are frustrating for the customer and wasteful for your organization – and most of the time, they’re avoidable. But brands have always struggled to send reminders in a cost-effective way.

Imagine phoning every customer who has an appointment with you. By the time you’ve spent precious resources and money doing it, it’s probably cheaper to absorb the loss of someone not turning up. You could send an email, but not everyone checks their inbox that regularly.

Automated text reminders are a simple, cost-effective answer. They’re timely, they get read and what’s more, you can even give your customer the opportunity to rearrange by texting you back – reducing missed appointments, and cutting costs in your call center too.

 

  1. Cut out marketing waste

For customer interactions, timing is critical. And in marketing, good timing is the selling sweet spot. Picture this: it’s a Tuesday evening, Jane’s watching TV at home, and she gets your email, offering 10% off breakfast on the train she catches to work. It’s spam, she forgets it, and you’ve just wasted your money.

But catch her with the same offer by text, just as she’s arriving at the station? That’s an Empathetic Interaction; a moment when you’re there for your customers when it counts.

Happy days: you’ve sold another breakfast, and you’ve reduced your customer comms budget too. All you did was focus your message to when it’ll interest your customer most – and sent it through a channel you know she’ll check almost instantly.

 

  1. Reduce call center pressure

 Remembering loads of login details can be annoying. But forgetting your password is even worse.

So, if your customer loses their login details, they’re already frustrated. And that’s before they’re confronted by a time-consuming phone call. That’s a costly way of handing out password reminders and resets, and it doesn’t even help their experience.

The answer: a text message with a reminder, or instructions to reset. It’s quick, it’s easy and you’d better believe it’s cheap. Happier customers, lower call volume. And because it’s a text, it doesn’t matter where in the world your customers are.

 

  1. Deliver the goods, every time

Research by logistics company Frontier says 60% of customers will have a negative opinion of a brand if they miss a delivery. And that’s before you even start to calculate the costs of your driver having to turn up twice… or more.

Enter SMS delivery notifications.

By sending a simple text to customers the day before their planned delivery, you can give them a gentle reminder – that they’ll actually read – and you can also let them reply to reschedule if the date and time is no longer convenient.

Their experience improves, and you save on driver hours and fuel.

 

  1. Make quick fixes quicker 

According to research, one in 10 customers will take their business elsewhere if they have a bad experience with a call center. And that’s exactly what Frank’s just about to do.

After being on hold for 10 minutes, he’ll slam down the phone and go elsewhere. Which is a pity, because with some simple instructions, he could have fixed the issue in two minutes flat.

But imagine Frank’s situation if you’d diagnosed his problem, and sent him the fix, using an automated conversation over text. You’ve saved the relationship, cut your call center costs, and Frank’s thinking “Hey, that was easy”, as he gets on with his day.

Of course, if his problem had been more serious, this initial diagnosis step gives your call center a head start with the issue – so the call is shorter there, too.

Now that’s what we call a return on investment.

 

Better CX, for way less cash

Text has the power to transform your CX and give the satisfaction your customers deserve. But like anything in business, cost is a crucial factor. That’s where text messaging helps you to offer more for less.

All you need is to squint a little bit, and look at your CX costs the other way up. By being a bit more proactive, a quick text can save you bigger costs later down the line – and save a headache for your customer, too.

If you’d like more ideas on saving costs and improving customer experience at the same time, check out our eBook, “The New Age of Customer Experience”. And if you just want a bit of advice, give us a call. We’re always happy to share what we know.

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