Also known as SMS notifications, transactional SMS are messages we send to our prospects to keep them informed. With these texts, we do not sell or promote anything; we simply keep the person updated on important events that matter to them.

Many companies such as BlaBlaCar, Indeed, and BNP Paribas are 3 of the 7 real-world examples of companies using SMS, and they trigger transactional SMS to inform their customers about their transactions, schedule changes, or job searches.

You might be wondering why they don't use email: it's free, accessible to everyone, and more modern. But the fact is, with important communications like these, you need to be 99% sure that your message will be delivered and read almost immediately.

On average, emails have an open rate of 20%, which is incredibly low compared to SMS, which has a rate of 98%. And what about deliverability? We know from our own metrics at Octopush that our clients receive their messages 99% of the time, whereas emails can easily be ignored or deleted without even being opened.

We say that SMS is the best way to keep your audience informed because they are read, on average, within the first 3 minutes of receipt. So next time, instead of sending a poor email (which might as well go straight to spam), consider sending them an SMS to ensure they actually read it.

To help you, here are some common scenarios where you can trigger a "push" notification to keep your audience updated on what matters most to them.

6 ways to use transactional SMS and keep your customers informed

Technical issues

If your store or service is experiencing technical difficulties or service interruptions that might affect your customers, you can inform them via a quick SMS. Whether you are closing or opening your store at different hours than usual, suffering from a stock shortage, or experiencing a delay from a supplier, you can send a notification to your customers to keep them updated on the situation.

Shipping

From the moment you make a purchase, the only thing you think about is holding it in your hands. Let your customers know where their package is and when they can expect it to arrive at their door. Include crucial information such as the number of packages, items, arrival date and time, and whether they need to be present or if someone else can receive it. Be as detailed as possible; good communication could just as easily prevent issues like delays and wrong addresses that will frustrate your customers.

Securing your accounts

This is typically done by banks and financial entities, but also by software companies that store your sensitive personal data, such as Facebook or Google. What they do is send an SMS with a special code to your phone number and store it as your paired device. This way, when they detect unusual activity, they can send you a message to inform you that someone may have tampered with your account.

Important information

Some companies focus exclusively on disseminating information to their users, such as distributing relevant news or weather updates. You can also trigger information when your customers perform certain activities. For example, the Argentine Consulate in Madrid sends SMS to its citizens to let them know their address in case of any problems after their arrival in Spain (see our post 7 businesses using SMS.

Appointment cancellations

We’ve discussed how to send automated SMS appointment reminders to increase attendance rates. But what happens when you can’t make it to the meeting yourself? If you leave your participants hanging, you risk losing them for good. Set up your workflow to trigger a transactional SMS to notify them when you can’t make it to an appointment. They will feel more valued and connected to your business.

Account activity

We tend to think of SMS as a way to communicate with our customers, but what about using it to stay vigilant ourselves? You can easily set up a workflow with your e-commerce platform or CRM to trigger an SMS whenever a specific event occurs, such as a customer requesting a refund or an alert when you are running low on stock. In our article How to automate SMS for your e-commerce business, you will find a step-by-step guide on how to set up transactional SMS to track your account activity.