Improve your customer relationships by allowing them to reply to your messages with two-way SMS.

Do you currently use SMS for your business? If so, you know it is the most effective way to communicate with your customers, boasting a 98% open rate compared to just 20% for email.

We also know that SMS has a 45% response rate, and that recipients tend to reply within 90 seconds. This means that nearly half of the people who receive your SMS push notifications are interested in continuing the conversation with your brand.

Customers want to chat with you.

And that is an advantage you cannot afford to ignore.

What is two-way SMS?

Two-way SMS allows you not only to send messages to your customers but also to receive their replies. It’s as simple as that.

It has been proven that customers are interested in continuing the conversation with your brand. How can you take advantage of this?

By enabling fluid communication that improves your customer relationships. A better customer relationship translates into loyal customers, ensuring they choose your brand over your competitors and recommend your products or services to their family and friends.

And that, word-of-mouth, is the best marketing channel you could ask for.

Now, let’s look at specific practices you can implement to positively influence your customer relationships:

• You can initiate a conversation with your customers wherever they are and they will be able to reply. There is a 99% chance they will read the message you send (check out our SMS statistics here) and be able to reply immediately with a simple click on their mobile phone.
• Your customers will be able to start the conversation themselves. Send a welcome SMS as soon as they subscribe to your services and take the opportunity to ask them to add you to their contacts.
  This way, whenever they need you, they won't have to type your number into Google, search for your website, or fill out a cumbersome contact form.
• Smarter conversations. What your customers love about chatting with you is that they don't have to go out of their way to find what they need. So, it's highly likely that everything they're asking for is just very simple information.
  
  You can expect this type of basic initial approach. Furthermore, you can set up automated SMS workflows that will save you time and keep your customers happy. (You can also consider conversations via AI platforms)

Fluid communication improves your customer relationships.

Concrete example: One-way SMS vs. two-way SMS

You might be wondering if it's worth the extra effort to optimize your campaigns SMS to receive responses from your customers. How do you know if these efforts will have an impact on your relationship with your customers?

Let's analyze five simple scenarios with and without SMS two-way from your customer's perspective. Then, let the conclusions speak for themselves.

#1 Appointments

? You send an SMS to your customer to set up an appointment.

? You send an SMS to your customer to remind them of the appointment, with the option to confirm or reschedule.

The customer replies to you in seconds.

#2 Sales

? You send an SMS to your customers with a link to redirect them to your website to make the purchase with the offer.

The customer has a question about the offer, but contacting you would require more time and effort. They give up.

You send an SMS containing an offer and your customer replies with a question about it.

Your customer service team answers the request in seconds, and the customer then completes their purchase.

#3 Feedback

You send an SMS to your customers with a link to a quick survey. They are redirected to another screen to fill it out.

You send an SMS to your customers to gather their feedback, and they reply with a number to indicate their rating. You respond with a SMS of thanks.

#4 Customer service

The customer has to go online to your website to start a chat with a representative or fill out a contact form.

If the solution requires multiple exchanges, they will likely have to follow up across different channels.

The customer sends you an SMS from their contact list. And you reply to them in the same way.

#5 Shipping SMS

You send an SMS to your customer letting them know that an item they just purchased on your e-commerce site is out of stock.

You include a link to your website so they can weigh their options.

You send a text message to your customer to let them know an item they purchased from your e-commerce site is out of stock, and you offer several options in your text message :
reply 1 to change the color, 2 to keep a credit on your account, 3 for a refund, or 4 to chat with a representative.

The customer replies in the same chat, and you respond with a text message of thanks.

Can you see the difference? If you were a customer, which would you prefer?

If you can provide solutions without requiring much effort from your customers, they will be more likely to choose your brand over your competitors.

Every action that saves them time and effort is a huge asset for your business.

How to enable SMS replies and confirmations on Octopush ?

Are you ready to try two-way SMS? You have two options for implementing it with Octopush.

• within the platform You can enable the reply option and choose where you want to receive your customers' responses (in your reply history, at your email address, or on a specific page of your website).
• with the API and plugins: you can integrate Octopush into the software you already use to send and receive SMS. For example, you can implement two-way SMS with Zapier, which will allow you to send and receive messages to and from almost any application you can think of.

Don't have a phone number to receive messages from your customers? Rent a virtual phone number and start receiving your customers' replies immediately.

Contact us to get yours.

Note: for now, two-way SMS is only available for Premium SMS and requires validation fromOctopush. If you would like to enable it in your account, please contact us.