communication Archives

Written by: Shadz Loresco on Digilah (Tech Thought Leadership)

“Dear Diner, you have an upcoming reservation at La Pergola today. Save up to 30% when you purchase a voucher with us via Pergola. Terms and Conditions apply.”

I’m sure you must have seen similar promotional text messages on your mobile phones. The messages are short and thoughtful, and it has the potential to grab the attention of the recipient.

The message also serves as a reminder, which is a very important factor when it comes to marketing.

If you want your customers to remember something about your business, it has to be memorable and meaningful.

And what better way than through SMS Marketing?

Let’s take a look at why SMS Marketing is the best thing in business.

What is SMS Marketing

SMS marketing means sending marketing messages by text to communicate with customers. Businesses can use SMS to send promotional messages, notifications, and alerts to their customers’ mobile phones.

This can include things like special offers, discounts, and event invitations.

SMS marketing is often used as a means to reach customers quickly and effectively, as most people have their mobile phones with them at all times.

According to Statista, the use of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets has become so widespread that these handheld electronics have become almost indispensable tools for reaching customers.

As more than half of the global population uses them to access the internet, businesses from around the world are seizing this opportunity to promote their products and services online.

SMS marketing is extremely effective, with high engagement and conversion rates, as well as lower costs than many other forms of marketing.

It’s also more personal, fostering stronger customer relationships between businesses and their consumers.

For successful SMS marketing, businesses that rely on text message as a primary means of reaching existing customers must comply with the local laws and structure their campaigns correctly. They also need to provide leads that are easily traceable and useful.

Best practices for SMS Marketing

Text marketing requires sales representatives to maximize the benefits customers receive from interaction with their company while minimizing the amount of time and effort customers have to invest in that interaction.

To get your SMS marketing services off to a good start, let’s consider these 6 best practices.

Make sure you have a clear opt-in

It is important to ask for written permission from your subscribers before you send them any kind of message via SMS. Your message should include words like ‘Subscribe’, ‘Yes’, or ‘Deals’.

Similarly, make sure your recipients have a clear way to opt out of receiving your messages. You can configure these keywords to specific lists for easy campaign management.

Be SMS compliant

Businesses that send text messages to customers should consider partnering with global SMS providers to ensure they are compliant with regulations.

Such providers offer the added protection of a secure authorization process, allowing companies to avoid penalties for noncompliance and keep their brands above reproach.

Don’t bombard your customers

Sending too many text messages will mark you as a spammer, but sending too few leave your customers wondering about your business.

By localizing the content, managing dissemination times across multiple time zones, and segmenting customers to create individual experiences, you can keep them engaged with consistently interesting experiences.

A steady messaging schedule is key to a successful text message campaign and keeping your customers in the loop.

Keep texts short and thoughtful

To ensure that people read your messages, keep them brief and to the point. Long messages can cause users to stop reading or even opt out of receiving future messages from you.

Also, text messages are limited to 160 characters, so it’s smart to grab your customer’s attention with an exciting greeting and then relay details about the coupon or special offer.

For example, “Come to our restaurant and receive a 15% discount on your meal by texting YES to 123456789.”

Identify yourself

Don’t assume that your customers have your number in their mobile phone contacts. If you want them to open the message and read further, start by identifying yourself immediately.

You can do this by putting your brand name at the start of the message, followed by a colon. For example, “Smith Restaurant: Come in today and receive a 15% discount on your meal.” Businesses should also use local numbers for their customers, as this lowers their OPEX (operational costs).

Offer 2-way communication services

When offering two-way communication, be quick and responsive. If your text messages include live chat or call links, you can personalize your service by pairing customers with the same agent they may have communicated with earlier. Keep the channel open to receive feedback from customers and respond to their inquiries.

You can also use the channel to send out surveys, which is a great way to collect feedback and improve your business.

Schedule these series of messages so that they are automatically sent out at a certain time of day or week. If you want to make sure people have received their message, include an “SMS Read Receipt” link so customers can confirm whether they did in fact receive them.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31283gPCwvA

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SMS Marketing campaigns

You’ll find many SMS marketing platforms that can help you send bulk text messages, personalize them, and measure the effectiveness of your campaigns. Most platforms have an API that allows developers to integrate SMS into existing systems.

You can also use these tools to track when people open the message and click on links within it—as well as which ones they choose not to open.

If you’re planning to send SMS messages in bulk, it’s important to choose a platform that has strong scalability and reliability. Many platforms also offer mobile apps that will allow you to view reports and manage campaigns on the go.

Create and send scalable campaigns that are customized to your target audience and your message content. SMS and WhatsApp campaigns can be used to send promotional or transaction-related messages for marketing purposes.

SMS sounds primitive but it’s still powerful

The power of SMS is undeniable; it’s the most effective way to reach your target audience and drive action. With the right messaging, you can build trust and rapport with your customers, increase brand loyalty, improve customer retention rates, and boost sales.

For businesses with limited resources, it can be overwhelming to identify which channels to use for marketing.

Fortunately, SMS is an inexpensive and effective channel that can be used in conjunction with other digital marketing strategies.

SMS marketing is on the rise because it works—when done correctly, it reaches 95% of mobile users. To ensure your campaign is a success, you’ll need a sophisticated SMS service provider that can support your mobile marketing programs.

Most searched question

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Why SMS marketing is the best?

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Written by : Krutant Iyer on Digilah (Tech Thought Leadership)

The travel restrictions in many countries have eased. Hotels and group tours are filling up. The travel and hospitality industry were the worst-hit sectors during the pandemic.

The challenges of going through the lockdown. No more dining out, partying with friends, or even setting out on a staycation with family.

We have come a long way. Even though most countries around the world have lifted travel restrictions, people are still apprehensive about booking a flight ticket, pre-paying for a hotel booking, or even dining at their favourite restaurant. But that doesn’t mean people are not keen to go out again.

The pandemic has changed the hiring landscape in nearly every industry, including hospitality. Now that the worst of the pandemic is over, the industry needs to thrive with the highest focus on customer experience (CX).

Leaders from the hospitality industry are well aware that compassionate customer service is the key to creating an excellent guest experience and winning their trust and loyalty.

Silent Pitfalls of Customer Experience

A New Generation of Well-Informed Customers

The post-pandemic traveller is savvier than before and has higher expectations from businesses.

The new-age customer is smart enough to not make a booking online before searching all avenues for the best price available, and if by chance the price on the official website is higher than the one offered by an online travel agency, then that business is likely to see a dent in their revenue.

From searching and booking the experience to sharing stories about the experience, customers expect businesses to go over and beyond in fulfilling their expectations for ‘something different and hip’ to be considered a full-course 5-star service.

Bad Experiences Shared by Customers

One bad experience is all it takes for customers to take to social media and vent about their negative experiences.

It is also true that customers are not so driven when it comes to sharing positive experiences and need to be goaded with enticing add-ons or coupons to share one.

Customers expect instant gratification and to accommodate customers’ on-the-fly requests, businesses need to have holistic visibility of their entire journey to craft top-notch experiences.

Data Collection and Personalisation

Most hospitality businesses have marked their presence on various digital channels to actively engage with their customers and offer personalised services. However, this is not the case.

Their efforts are hindered by the lack of availability to collect data from various distributed systems and use this data to fulfil customer expectations.

When customer data is distributed across multiple systems that have no way of integrating into one, centralised destination, it leaves the customer-facing teams grasping at straws to fulfil customer expectations.

Disconnected with Customer Service Touchpoints

Multi-channel communication hailed the pre-pandemic era.

However, the landscape has seen unprecedented changes. Most businesses are out of touch with how they handle customer enquiries across individual touchpoints.

To deliver great customer experiences, the hospitality industry needs to first provide its employees with the resources they need to thrive in any situation.

An increased focus on CX opportunities as we head into 2023 and beyond will be crucial to boosting team productivity, performance, and engagement.

Let’s take a look at some important pillars of how the hospitality industry can reboot customer experience with an omnichannel transformation.

Roadmap to Experiential Transformation

Deliver Proactive Customer Service

Having an online presence is just half the battle. The other half is taking a more proactive, consultative approach for online visitors. Rather than depending on conversion rate optimisation (CRO) techniques, have a smart greeting function to welcome visitors.

While some visitors prefer to browse alone to find the best deals, others will appreciate you asking questions to better understand what they are looking for, and their requirements.

The most pleasant moment is when the visitor is greeted in the native language. When the customer-facing agent speaks the customers’ language, this shows the efforts the business is willing to make to satisfy their needs.

A visitor clicks on the live chat link below the smart greeting, for example. From the enquiry window, your sales agent knows the visitor browsed a cosy resort.

When it comes to the hospitality industry, the customer experience begins right from the moment of discovery and the first interaction. Businesses need to proactively engage with visitors to convert them into paying customers.

Connect Customers with the Right Experiences

Bridge the gap between telecom and digital experiences, by unifying all touchpoints on a single platform.

Businesses can create frictionless and contextual experiences by effortlessly switching between social media channels, emails, SMS, video, and phone to adapt responses.

Post-pandemic customers are looking for live human support on their preferred channel of communication. Go further and provide them with real-time, humanised experiences at every touchpoint backed by customer intent and sentiment data from a unified dashboard.

Some visitors are hesitant to move forward, in this instance for the cosy resort booking because of some safety measures of the theme park.

It takes a split second for them to leave a chat and never return if their needs are not addressed optimally.

The ability to share files within the chat widget ensures that the chain of conversation does not get broken, and empowers the agent to keep the interaction contextual.

To ensure the visitor can make an informed purchase decision, your sales agent even turns the chat into a video call and offers a virtual tour of the resort.

Conversational AI capabilities can turn the live chat into a live video tour to seamlessly assist customers through the booking process. This will expedite the decision-making.

Humanise Customer Relationships in a Digital World

The hospitality industry needs to transform its customer experience to emulate real-world, personalised services.

This can be achieved by using smart capabilities such as sticky routing. Sticky routing empowers businesses to direct returning customers to the same customer support agents who attended to their previous enquiries.

Let’s say the customer who booked the resort returns to your website again after a few weeks. This time, the customer enquiries about the availability of corporate booking packages for the company’s annual event. The customer is then directed to the same agent who attended to the previous enquiries.

Intelligent routing and binding rules act as tunnels to ensure customers receive personalised service and help in establishing efficient workflows.

Adherence and Compliance with Data Security

Keeping data secure, private, and safe from breaches takes precedence when businesses decide to digitalise their traditional processes.

Currently, many businesses are limited by the strict regulations implemented by the governing bodies on outbound telecom communication services, which impedes their ability to effectively use calls and text messaging services.

Customers’ details are a wealth to a business.

They are highly confidential. Empowering the business with a robust cloud-based unified communication solution is highly essential.

To connect customers with businesses securely and offering data retention capabilities following the government regulatory requirements is critical.

Key trends driving the hospitality industry

If you are wondering about the forces that are driving the hospitality industry after coming out of the pandemic, these numbers would make you sit up:

97% of millennials share their travel experience on social media

Approximately 90% of customers are willing to share their behavioural data if it can lead to them being offered an affordable brand experience

80% of customers feel more emotionally connected to a business when customer service solves their problem

Sales in the leisure tourism market are projected to grow at 19.5% CAGR

86% of customers are willing to pay more for a superior customer experience

Customers who are loyal to a business spend 67% more than new customers

Look forward and understand your customers better

To deliver on ambitious aspirations, the hospitality industry needs a deep understanding of its customers. The needs and expectations are constantly shifting.

With the right omnichannel CX solution, businesses can offer secure and personalised experiences to their guests while eliminating loopholes from disjointed touchpoints.

Businesses are paving the path to a brighter future by making efforts to enhance their relationships by proactively engaging with their customers on channels of their choosing.

Leverage the power of a unified CX and EX solution to create a truly connected, intuitive, and immersive experience. To learn more about CINNOX, request for a demo or sign up for a free trial.

Most searched questions

How can you enhance the experience of the client in facilities for the hospitality industry?

What is CX in travel?

Most searched queries

Examples of good customer service in travel and tourism

Future of travel industry after COVID

Hello readers! Hope you liked what you read today. Click the like button at the bottom of this page and share insights with your colleagues and friends!

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