Business messaging through text, MMS, and SMS is no longer an optional nice-to-have option. It is now an essential requirement. Here are 5 powerful reasons why:
1. Customers Are VERY Open to Receiving Business Messaging
A whopping 97% of Americans own at least one smartphone, and on average they check their device 96 times a day. What’s more, 91% of customers said they have or are interested in signing up for text messages from a business, and text message open rates are nearly 100%.
On the other end of the spectrum, 90% of customers won’t answer their phone when a business calls them. And while email is still a somewhat effective outreach channel, 62% of customers said that they don’t respond to customer service emails.
2. Business Messaging Drives Engagement
Customers do not just like receiving business messaging — they also like taking ACTION based on business messaging! The average click-through rate (CTR) on text, SMS, and MMS messages is 10.63% — which is 5x higher than email.
3. Business Messaging is Highly Efficient and Cost-Effective
Business messaging is both highly efficient and cost-effective. Consider this example:
Sheila is a Customer Service Manager in Greensboro, NC, and earns $89,396 per year — which is the average annual salary for Office Managers in Greensboro according to Salary.com. One of her tasks is to reach out to customers who have purchased a certain product, and inform them that they can contact the company 24 hours a day if they require urgent service. On average, Sheila must contact 20 customers per week.
If Sheila must phone each customer, then the task takes her about an hour — because most of her calls will go to voicemail, and she will have to make repeated attempts. This hour of work costs Sheila’s employer $44.70 a week, or $2,235 a year ($44.70 x 50).
Now, imagine that Sheila sends out text messages instead of making phone calls. This makes her a mere 15 minutes, which costs her employer just $558.75. As we can see, everyone wins with business messaging:
- Sheila’s employer wins because the company saves $1676.25 a year in labor costs.
- Sheila wins because she is more efficient and can get more done during her busy day.
- Customers win because they much prefer getting texts to phone calls or emails.
4. Business Messaging Can Include Media and Images
In the example above, Sheila the Office Manager sent text messages to customers. But what if she wanted to include a video highlighting a new product feature? No problem! She can easily add media and images. This not only improves customer satisfaction but also boosts sales: 51% of customers are more likely to make a purchase if they receive a text message that contains media and/or images.
5. Business Messaging Helps Reduce Customer No-Shows
Business messaging is ideal for reminding customers of upcoming appointments and inviting them to reach out if they want to cancel or reschedule. Also, as discussed earlier, open rates for business messaging are far higher than emails, which means that text-based reminders and updates are much more likely to be seen vs. ignored.
Learn More
Ready to experience ALL of the benefits of business messaging in your company? Then contact Carolina Digital Phone today and schedule a demo of our all-in-one cloud phone system, which has a range of built-in business messaging features — and all at NO additional cost!
Call us now at (336) 544-4000, or chat with us by clicking the icon on the lower-left of your screen.