Techniques and advantages of SMS for Call Centers

 

Some studies have shown that up to 70% of clients prefer to communicate with companies through text messages

Call centers have been using phone calls as their main resource for a very long time. However, this tool is slowly becoming less effective because users don’t really want to pick up calls. Many times, users are not available or cannot pick up the phone. Plus, nobody wants to spend a long time before talking with an agent.

In these situations, luckily, there are other communication channels to take advantage of that can bring about additional benefits. One of them is SMS messages. Some studies have shown that up to 70% of clients prefer to communicate with companies through text messages and call centers are no exception. 

Advantages of SMS in Call centers

Using SMS in call centers brings about different benefits:

• In the first place, a better use of time on the part of the agents. Instead of being many minutes concentrated in just one phone call with a client, SMS messages allow you to establish multiple communications at the same time. In this way, they can take care of five or six different clients at the same time. Careful, they should not take on so many clients that they lose the focus of communications. 
• This is also beneficial for clients, who can keep on going with their daily tasks as they answer SMS instead of being in a long call and with waiting times. 
• In addition, the main advantage of SMS messages (a 98% open rate) which is superior to any other corporate communication channel. 
• It’s possible to have more content inside an SMS (more than only 160 characters) by using a link where you can add more text or media. 
• Another advantage of SMS is that you can set up some automatic tasks. With pre-defined templates, you can add payment reminders or messages with FAQ when they are necessary. And you can establish schedules to send them beforehand.
• Analytics and metrics are some of the most important features of any business and of call centers, too. Each SMS gives you metrics that can be taken into account to know if a campaign, an action or agent has been efficient. These are some of the most important metrics:
  • Delivery confirmations (error messages) 
  • Monitoring of clicks on URLs. Each click can give you a lot of information about the receiver or even if the SMS has become viral.

SMS communication techniques for Call centers

• One of the possible uses or techniques is to send SMS massively to users. The content of the message will explain the offer, campaign or reason of contact in addition to other forms of communication (phone calls, whatsapp business, our own app, etc) and a schedule for attention. In this way, the users get to decide when and how they want to be contacted. It’s important to send messages progressively so as not to overwhelm agents and other human resources in the Call center. 
• One of hte main activities at Call centers is to take care of issues or complaints. Normally, these cases are introduced inside a system with a reference, an identifying number, and other important data. It’s crucial, then, to send the user who complained an SMS with the identifying information of the ticket or case. Plus, you can send them a link where they can check and follow what happens with their complaint. In these cases, it’s also recommended to send a message each time the issue changes its status to keep the client always informed. 
• Similarly, you can use SMS to remind people of a telephone appointment. That is to say, if the client or the company has arranged a schedule for a call, with time and date, it’s important to remind the client so they are available and the call can take place in the best way possible. 
• In those cases where you cannot take care of certain petitions of people who tried to reach the Call center (because all the agents were busy, for example, or the call center was already closed), it’s convenient to send them an SMS with the schedules and alternative contact information (forms, chats, etc). 

SMS: More than just text

Text messages allow you to complement it with additional resources using links. When clicking on them, clients are redirected to a web page (or SMS Landing) or multimedia resources (images, videos, streaming, documents, etc) that can show more information about a topic, frequently asked questions, links to even more data, and more.

When sending SMS effectively, one of the most important things is to have a good database and an efficient segmentation method. In LabsMobile, you can do a very effective segmentation easily. You can import a database or just create one. This tool lets you send messages more quickly and focus on a specific group. The options are many, such as:

• Clients with debt
• By gender
• By age group
• By country of residence, in case the call center works internationally.

Techniques and advantages of SMS for Call Centers

In the hyper connected and quick world we’re living in, phone calls are losing effectiveness. For this reason, call centers can take advantage of other communication channels with clients, which are more efficient and convenient for everyone. For this, text messages are an ideal choice and, with LabsMobile, you’ll have all the features to use them in the best way.