It’s no secret that an uncertain economic outlook has brought tighter corporate budgets, which means businesses of all sizes are challenged to do more with less, especially when it comes to customer service. This leaves contact center leaders with a conundrum: If you cut costs only to see your CX quality go down you risk losing your most valuable asset—your customers.

So, what’s the way forward? To start, If you haven’t optimized your channel mix, we recommend you do so now, beginning with leveraging the benefits of SMS, also known as the humble text message.

Go Where Your Customers Are

While it’s tempting to overlook SMS in favor of flashier messaging apps, that would be a mistake. To remain competitive, your business needs to offer service where your customers are, and text messaging is still the most used form of non-voice communications globally.

Not only is SMS use ubiquitous, it’s also a convenient and non-obtrusive way to communicate on the go. According to the SMS Marketing Statistics 2023 Report by SMS Compare, the average open rate for SMS messages is 98%—for perspective, email only has a 20% open rate. This means you’re more likely to get your customers’ attention more quickly and communicate critical information when it matters most.

In the United States, SMS plays an especially strong role, with 80% of the population using it. Texting is still the most popular form of non-verbal communication in the United States primarily because most mobile service plans offer unlimited free SMS without extra fees, whereas in other countries messaging apps are more popular because text messaging is not free on most plans. Plus, text is seen as more secure and less intrusive because others cannot see if you are online or whether you’ve read their message.

The bottom line is: nearly everyone uses SMS at some point in their day, making it a crucial component of your channel mix.

Deliver Customer Choice and Convenience

According to the 2021 Dimension Data Global Customer Experience Benchmarking Report, ease of contact is one of the top three factors that make consumers stay loyal to a brand. SMS offers nearly effortless service by allowing customers to communicate on the go. Businesses can get customers' attention while they’re in the flow of their daily life and quickly resolve issues or preempt problems.

Consider the following statistics from the EZTexting 2019 Mobile Usage Report:

  • Nearly 70% of people open a new text message within five minutes.
  • Over 90% of consumers check their new text message within 30 minutes.

By offering a fast and easy way to communicate with customers, SMS levels the playing field for small to mid-sized businesses, allowing them to deliver the rapid, personalized omnichannel experiences customers have come to demand based upon their experiences with larger brands. For businesses with small marketing budgets, SMS allows for customer outreach for pennies on the dollar.

Proactive Reminders

Nothing quite does the job of sending customer reminders like SMS. Phone calls are too intrusive, not to mention expensive, and emails often fail to get customers’ attention. Consider leveraging SMS to alert customers of matters such as:

  • Appointments
  • Prescription pick ups
  • Service outages

Follow-up communications are an alternative form of proactive communications. SMS allows your business to show your customers you care and can boost CSAT by following up after appointments and reaching out to those customers you haven’t heard from in a while.

Simply put, proactive notifications are a win-win, offering a fast, low-cost interaction that’s popular with customers. Customers appreciate the convenience, while the businesses are able to further operational goals such as reducing the number of calls into the contact center, avoiding missed appointments, and furthering retention.

Convenient for Quick Changes

In many industries there’s often a need to allow customers to make quick changes/updates to their account. For example:

  • Updating health records
  • Changing insurance coverage
  • Adding or deleting a payment method
  • Adding or deleting individuals to a policy
  • Changing an address

Best of all, sending an SMS offers the advantage that customers are more likely to actually perform the update, compared to other low cost channels such as self service or email. Since these changes are not urgent for customers, often they need to be performed by a live agent when a customer reaches out. Prompting customers to ensure all their data is correct and updated smooths the wheels of effective operations.

Take an Omnichannel Approach

8x8 Contact Center offers SMS as part of a single omnichannel routing engine that ensures your SMS communications are prioritized along with other digital and voice communications for a seamless customer experience. Consumers are more willing than before to embrace digital, including SMS, and leveraging this to reduce costs is a smart move.

An omnichannel strategy allows you to provide customers with the convenience and choice of using digital channels, all while reserving voice service for more complex issues. By taking advantage of the universal queue and unified reporting of 8x8 Contact Center, you can optimize efficiencies while ensuring that customers receive the same high level of service, regardless of how they interact with your business.

When adding channels, it’s critical to meet the needs of the customer segments you serve. Because SMS is near-ubiquitous, you’ll reach a wide swatch of demographics in a way they find convenient and effortless. Your CSAT levels rise all while operational efficiencies improve. Talk about a winning strategy to balance your critical CX goals in a challenging economy!

Learn more about how SMS and the omnichannel capabilities of the 8x8 Contact Center can transform your customer experience.