The Benefits of Adding Messaging Support to Your UC Environment
How Smart SMS Messaging and Smart SMS Notification via IVR add value to your unified communications architecture
It might seem counterintuitive in the days of instant messaging apps, email, and social media, but SMS is still one of the world’s most widely used forms of communication. It’s available just about everywhere, including in areas where the internet may not be readily available, or signal strength is too poor to make and receive phone calls. SMS messages also have an impressive 98% open rate, compared to around 25% for emails. These factors alone make SMS, which stands for short messaging service, a valuable way for brands to keep in touch with customers.
Given the clear benefits of including support for SMS in unified communications architectures, Smart Choice is delighted to announce the launch of two powerful new features:
- Smart SMS Messaging works via our Smartphone platform, allowing you to send and receive text messages via a dedicated softphone app.
- Smart SMS Notification works via interactive voice response (IVR) systems to send alerts when a specified event occurs, such as a weather alerts or even sending website links to online forms, to provide an intelligent service before call center resources are used.
Here is a look at how these new features can help you improve your business operations:
Maximize your availability with Smart SMS
SMS is one of the most popular and ubiquitous forms of two-way communication. It provides an instant point of contact with almost every customer, even if they are not online. This makes it an effective way to stay in touch without burdening your customers with information overload. For example, you can:
- Run sales and promotions by highlighting the latest discounts on items in a customer’s wishlist or by sending personalized discount codes.
- Improve customer service anywhere by automating routine support operations, such as processing order cancellation requests.
- Schedule appointments with your customers and send automated alerts that they are not likely to miss.
- Provide quick and actionable tips to help maximize customer success or answer quick support requests.
- Ask for customer feedback at just the right time, without having to rely on the slowness of email and other platforms.
By taking advantage of the SMS service, you can replace and automate a variety of everyday tasks, like those mentioned above, and reduce the need for multiple interactions between you and your customers. This streamlines your communications to the benefit of both parties.
Keep your customers informed with Smart SMS Notifications via IVR
The next feature we would like to introduce is Smart SMS Notifications via IVR. These are text messages that are automatically sent out when triggered by a specific, pre-defined event. This feature works hand-in-hand with Smart SMS Messaging to automate a wide range of routine operations. Events can be anything you want them to be, such as app updates, customer service notifications, website links, prompts to fill out forms, or more urgent things like natural disaster alerts.
An automated text messaging service offers the quickest and most cost-effective way to offer a truly mobile service 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Since many routine customer support queries and other simple operations can easily be automated and carried out over SMS, there are few better ways to reduce the burden on your customer service teams. For example, you can resolve a large number of calls by triggering an SMS notification containing instructions or links, instead of having to handle each call individually.
Our Smart SMS service also allows users to click or dial designated buttons or numbers to receive automated responses, such as callbacks, SMS messages, and URLs. Together, these features help you communicate faster, facilitate convenience, develop brand loyalty, and take sales to the next level.
SmartChoice is a technology company based out of New York City with a unique portfolio of solutions including UCAAS, collaboration, software and analytics, dedicated contact centers, security, infrastructure, and managed connectivity. Through its unsurpassed white-glove service and 24x7x365 U.S. based support, it has grown to become one of the largest award-winning PBX/SIP providers in North America.
