Posted on 1st February 2013 by Reinhard Siedel
Is your customer relationship management (CRM) program feeling a little flat? Are your ROI results lackluster? Would you like to see a lot more energy in your customer engagement?
If so, then it’s time to refresh your CRM with a new approach. Customers are tired of media bombardment and want to engage in meaningful communication. Businesses and brands that treat the customer as an individual and not the ‘target market’ are achieving great results.
Unlike an intrusive phone call or an e-mail that is easily ignored, a text message is almost always read. It’s brief, gets right to the point and is delivered directly into the customer’s hand.
Your future prospects and current customers want to receive information that is relevant to their personal needs. And they are very open to sending back a quick response.
Two-way SMS messaging allows you to maintain a direct line of communication with your customers in an impactful, yet economical way. The potential of two-way messaging is enormous and is capable of providing a high return on investment (ROI) to businesses of all sizes.
It’s simple, flexible and effective. Here’s how it works:
- A business sends out an SMS message to an opted-in customer using SMS technology, like Clickatell’s Connect API, with short codes or long numbers.
- The customer receives the message and responds.
- Two-way communication has been established!
Below are several examples of how dynamic two-way messaging can help your business:
SUPPORT SERVICES: Two-way messaging is ideal for any organization offering tech or customer support services. The uniquely personal and instantaneous nature of the SMS message enables the customer to receive exactly the help they are looking for – no matter where they are.
RESERVATIONS & BOOKINGS: Two-way messaging is revolutionizing the services industry by enabling airlines, hotels, restaurants, spas, tire shops and more to keep their customers up-to-date on their reservations, itineraries or appointments.
HEALTHCARE: Doctors, healthcare workers and office administrators have realized the huge benefit of utilizing two-way messaging to improve healthcare services for their patients and reduce their own workload.
POLLING: Want your customers to take a brief survey? It’s easy to create with SMS two-way messaging.
DIRECT MARKETING: Two-way messaging plays a powerful role in direct marketing, allowing businesses to communicate directly with customers using dynamic, interactive campaigns.
With Clickatell’s Connect API, application developers can easily SMS-enable their applications by integrating Clickatell account management, billing and two-way messaging capability. Users can then begin to use the service, monitoring their message credit balance and making subsequent credit purchases or two-way number purchases without ever leaving the developers app.
For more information on how to maintain a direct line of communication with your customers using Two-Way SMS, go to Clickatell’s Connect API web page.
