How to start and scale SMS customer service that exceeds your team’s goals

1. How to start and scale SMS customer service that exceeds your team’s goals You've probably experienced this before: you purchase a good or service, run into a problem with it, and then pick up the phone to call customer support. You are connected to a phone tree that is automated after a few rings. Since none of the alternatives apply to your problem, you continuously press zero in the hopes of reaching a live person. You are informed by a robot that you must wait 33 minutes to speak to a human. You frustratedly hang up. Is it any wonder that 85% of customers prefer texting when contacting a company? As a result of customer feedback, texting for business is becoming mainstream. And that's good news for businesses because texts are more likely to be opened and answered quickly than emails or phone calls. But in order to achieve your goals, SMS customer service must be implemented the right way. We'll show you step-by-step how to set up a scalable SMS customer support program in this manual. What is SMS customer service? Any form of assistance provided to clients by text message (sometimes referred to as SMS API messages) is referred to as short messaging service (SMS) customer service. Numerous SMS customer care initiatives combine human and automated help, and they frequently form part of a bigger customer service operation that also offers chatbot, phone, and/or email support. Another growing trend is the use of SMS customer service. Customers said they would move to a business that offers mass text messaging as a communication option 63% of the time, according to a 2019 survey, and from 2020 to 2021, the number of Bulk SMS support ticket organizations climbed by 28%.

2. With tips from those who have done it before, we'll walk you through how to smoothly establish and scale an SMS customer service program below. How to build your SMS customer service operations from the ground up Run through this eight-step customer service management methodology if you're thinking about beginning from scratch to serve your customers over text or reevaluating your operations. 1. Establish Objectives and key results As with any new initiative, you should begin your Bulk SMS customer service program by describing the goals you have for it. After all, as management guru Peter Drucker is credited with saying, "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it," According to Dan Barrett, president of social media management company Social Vantage, "you should have a clear understanding of your goals and how the program will help you achieve them." Additionally, you should be aware of what you're not attempting to accomplish with it and any potential issues that can develop if you take on too much at once. A fantastic strategy to establish some specific objectives for your SMS Provider customer service program is to use objectives and key results (OKRs). A bigger-scale objective or goal is followed by one to three important results that are measurable and indicate whether the goal was successful. A few examples might include: Objective: A consumer who texts our company with a question or problem feels well-supported. Key result 1: By the end of the month, we'll reply to every text message received the same business day. Key result 2: Create a resource to train customer care representatives to assist clients via text. Key result 3: By including our SMS customer care to our help page and email marketing, we can make it simple for clients to access and utilize it. Objective:Customer satisfaction levels rise thanks to our SMS customer support program. Key result 1: Customers that are prompted at the conclusion of an engagement rank their SMS customer service experience above a 7 on a scale of 1 to 9.

3. Key result 2: Clients utilize our SMS customer service program repeatedly. Start with just a few OKRs to keep your objectives specific and reachable. You can add more once you've already hit them. 2. Define the Standard operating procedure for texting You'll need a standard operating procedure (SOP) that explains the ins and outs of offering customer care through text before you onboard team members to provide SMS help. An SOP is a written set of detailed instructions that help employees in responding to various circumstances. It ought to contain: ● The overarching objectives, main outcomes, and aims of your SMS customer service program How certain internal processes function How to use the platform for text messaging or customer support What questions can you text customers for information? What details you shouldn't ask for via text (often any sensitive information, such payment details) Common problems and inquiries that may arise ● ● ● ● ● Consider your SOP to be an ongoing document. If you discover that your SOP doesn't address specific circumstances or that customer service representatives commonly ask questions that aren't addressed in your SOP, add those sections as you go. 3. Train your team While your SOP can and should serve as a reference guide for staff, it shouldn't be the only kind of instruction they receive. Train your staff on how to serve consumers by mass text message before launching an SMS customer service program. What is in the SOP should be covered in your training, as well as any exceptions to the rules, additional details, and examples. It should offer specific instructions on: ● Voice and tone guidelines for salespeople when messaging clients ● What details your staff will require to log in to your customer relationship management (CRM) tool and contact properties ● How to add your own personality to correspondence even when using pre-written templates

4. ● When to bring up issues with the right boss ● The key performance indicators (OKRs) you want to achieve (such fast response times or high customer satisfaction ratings) and what it means for your team members Additionally, like with any customer care program, ensure that customer service representatives are free to use their imaginations to delight and help clients. 4. Add base templates Because commonly used text message responses may be recorded, saved, and endlessly reused, SMS API customer service may be less expensive than phone support. Create an initial set of base templates and answers for frequently requested queries and difficulties before launching your Bulk SMS customer service program. These can assist develop best practices for messaging your customers while also saving your team time. To make it simple for customer support representatives to locate your base templates and pre-written responses in your database, give them obvious names. Additionally, they should be simple to change so that sales representatives can tailor the messaging to specific scenarios as needed. 5. Use automation — but only when it’s appropriate Automation can be your customer care team's best friend as your business grows. You may continue providing one-on-one client service without having to treble your staff size. Automation should only be utilized in select situations—never when a client has complex demands or wants to interact with a human—and comes with one important caveat. 74% of consumers, according to Podium, claim they would only Bulk SMS Service a company if they knew a person would be reading and replying to their messages. 6. Centralize your communication No matter how many different platforms clients can use to contact you, such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, or email, it's crucial that all of those conversations enter into the same CRM. This makes sure that any customer care representative joins a conversation with a customer and can continue where a teammate left off. 7. Encourage texting as a support channel If clients are unaware of an SMS customer service program, it serves no purpose. Include a link to your SMS service providers on your website and social media pages to make it simple for clients to access your text-based help.

5. The Contact Us and Support pages of your website, as well as any operational and customer care emails, should all include your SMS number. 8. Continually monitor SMS customer service levels Keep in mind the OKRs you established before starting your SMS customer support campaign. It's time to check your accuracy at this point. The best business phone systems or apps will provide you access to analytics, allowing you to monitor text volume over time, the busiest days of the week for messaging, the amount of time your staff spends texting clients, and the most productive team members. You may learn more about your SMS program's strengths and weaknesses with this kind of data. Get your teams texting today It makes sense that texting is increasingly overtaking other channels as customers' preferred method of communication given the freedom it offers. By starting your SMS customer support program right away, you can meet your clients where they are.To start a free trial with Msgclub.Click here. You can also check our other relevent blog Bulk SMS Service