Why Is SMS Automation Important For Your Business?

Given its high response rates, SMS is widely used as a marketing channel. Some of the finance, logistics and technology companies even use SMS to send order confirmation alerts and OTPs for two-factor authentication. However, most of the businesses are yet to realize the full benefits of SMS as a customer engagement and support channel.

SMS automation – i.e., to automatedly send and receive SMS based on business/customer event triggers – helps companies effectively use SMS as a customer engagement channel. SMS automation can help businesses boost customer satisfaction (e.g. surveys post car service, instant SMS responses), customer retention (e.g. renewal alerts for subscriptions), conversion rates (e.g. missed cart offers, personalized offers on birthdays) while lowering support and operational costs (e.g. pre-delivery confirmations).

See how you can integrate Textlocal APIs and automate sending & receiving SMS within minutes.

Benefits of SMS Automation

Improve conversions and sales – Make the most of SMS channel’s superior open rates by sending missed cart offers, personalized birthday and anniversary promotions, annual event reminders (e.g. flowers for Valentines Day) and more via SMS. See how you can optimize conversions with A/B testing and Textlocal URL tracking.

Boost customer retention and renewals – Send timely service expiry reminders, renewal alerts for subscriptions, regular payment and service reminders, annual health checkup notifications directly to your customer’s mobile phones.

Capture data feedback at the right time – Reach the customer at the right time and right channel by sending survey questions via SMS post product purchase or service (e.g. hotel stay, AC repair). See how Textlocal mobile-friendly surveys can easily capture data and feedback.

Delight your customers – Provide instant, on-demand information to your customers by receiving inbound SMS enquiries and setting up automated SMS responses. Go one step further with Textlocal and send multi-media files (e.g. informational brochures, PDF menus, rate cards, location maps) with our SMS attachments.

Lower operational costs – Logistics and ecommerce companies can cut down on operational costs by sending pre-delivery confirmation messages e.g. “Send YES to confirm product delivery at 10am tomorrow. Send NO to reschedule delivery.”

What can be automated?

Welcome messages

As soon as your customers register with you, send personalized bulk SMS welcoming them and include some handy bits of information like website links, intro videos or how-to guides.

Reminders

Automate reminders so your customers never miss an appointments, bookings, renewals, offers & more. This can be the day before, an hour before, or whenever works best.

Updates & Notifications

Send instant purchase and delivery notifications, support ticket updates, failed/successful payment alerts, usage/expiry alerts, and many more.

Feedback & Reviews 

Sending an automated SMS Survey immediately after they made a purchase can really help you get increased response and quality feedback.

Offers/Newsletters/Tips

Send personalized weekly or monthly tips and offers to customers based on their activity and pre-defined triggers. Also send offers on milestones like anniversaries.

Referral Requests

Send automated SMS to your customers asking for referrals on a frequent basis or post-purchase. Keep expanding your customer-base with minimal effort.

Contextual Alerts or Offers

Trigger specific text messages to be sent to your customers based on their favorite topic/product feature, based on their purchase behavior or based on any specific set of actions or activity.

Re-Engagement Campaigns

‘Out of sight, out of mind’ holds true for brands as well. You can send a series of SMS with exclusive offers when customers are inactive (no usage or purchase) for a specified time period.