Are you using SMS effectively?

As the world moves towards an ever-increasing reliance on electronic communication methods, SMS is quickly becoming the next must-have tool in your arsenal for keeping in touch with your customers. With your customers likely receiving hundreds of emails a day, it’s very easy for rental reminders and other important communication from your business to get lost.

Over 91% of adults keep their phones within arm’s reach. (Source: Morgan Stanley)

To make matters worse, many customers now elect for electronic-only communication, so subsequent reminders regarding an overdue payment may also get lost and there is no longer a fall-back solution such as a printed letter.

Keep your business front-of-mind

By backing-up an important business communication by SMS, it ensures your business remains front-of-mind for your customers. SMS is also a forced engagement tool, meaning that your customer doesn’t necessarily know who it’s from until they open it. It forces the customer to read what you send them, so it’s a fantastic tool for getting important information out to your customers.

Make an impact from multiple angles

SMS is a great way to compliment customer communications, by coming in at multiple angles. For example, you could configure your self storage management software to send an SMS about an upcoming rental invoice, and then send the invoice by email the next day (or the reverse; use the SMS to follow-up the invoice from the previous day).

According to a MobileSQUARED survey, over 90% of people read a text message within the first three minutes of receiving it.

The same idea can apply to customers that are in arrears. They may have missed an invoice email, but they’re bound to see (and read) the SMS. How many people do you know that look at their phone as soon as they hear an incoming text message?

Less roadblocks

When comparing electronic communication methods, SMS has far fewer roadblocks than email. There are no email spam filters or email blacklists to content with, no virus issues & no mail server delays – and the recipient can’t block the message as spam. They’re simple and they work… plus, as I’ve said earlier, they’re a great forced engagement tool.

When used in moderation, SMS is a fantastic companion tool to email communication and can be used to draw attention to important email communications that may have been missed.