The last two years of the pandemic have radically changed our social habits and, above all, our relationship with digital – in general – and with everything that is “online”.
Thanks to prolonged lockdown periods and social distancing, the ways in which we inform ourselves, read, book, buy have changed. In fact, the statistics show:
- A 21% increase in online product purchases and 26% in services in 2021
- A growth in contactless payments with a + 29% and those made by Smartphones that record a jump of 80%
- A connection of over 6 hours a day per person to the internet, of which almost two hours on social media (98% of us do it from mobile devices)
Data that speak clearly with respect to a trend that began in 2020 and which sees an increasing use of online services and transactions, with the consequent and growing need for users and brands to have effective channels to support these activities whose object is the sensitive data of people.
One of the most efficient tools to support companies in this sense, are certainly transactional SMS. But what is meant by this term?
Transactional SMS: Definition
Transactional SMS are a particular type of SMS that allows all those micro communications of an informative type to support the services of a company, in many areas. They differ from SMS Marketing precisely because of their function, which does not aim to send commercial notifications or aimed at acquiring customers. Common examples of transactional SMS include:
- Order confirmations
- Booking confirmations
- Updates on delivery times
- Appointment reminders
- Notices for collection of reports
Their ability to fit into specific moments of the relationship between brand and user makes them a great tool to improve customer experience and customer loyalty.
The Transactional SMS, in fact, are often characterized by a priority of sending compared to normal SMS, which allows them to reach users a few seconds after a transaction has taken place or confirms a booking process, always delicate phases of the purchase process that often affect users’ preferences to rely on one or another brand.
Why use transactional SMS
Do you have an e-commerce? Do you have a centralized reservation system? Do you deliver your products? If you answered yes to even one of these questions then Transactional SMS are for you.
The advantages of using this tool are several:
Improve customer experience
Customer experience is the overall experience of customers who relate to a company (or brand). This process includes several stages, including: communication, purchase, customer care, customer support.
Today, people are increasingly accustomed to shopping experiences and the use of increasingly tailor-made and personalized services, and a high degree of attention to consumer needs is expected. It is no longer enough to “sell”. It is necessary to accompany the customer in every step of their customer journey, even more so considering that more and more often this path takes place on digital media and therefore cannot be accompanied by the physical presence of an employee or a sales operator.
Loyalty
A consumer who trusts a business for how it provides payment, booking, and delivery services is a customer who is most likely to make new purchases in the future. A good transactional SMS system allows you to improve brand authority and this translates into sales, ROI and increased lifetime value of each customer.
More efficient services
SMS, even transactional ones, allow you to get a series of reports and statistics that can tell you a lot about the progress of your business and the strengths / weaknesses of your business activities. Thanks to their ability to reach recipients even without an internet connection (and therefore at any place or time), to be read within 3 minutes of delivery and the very high reading rates (about 97%) SMS are able to reach users at the right time and improve the quality of services.
Improve customer journey
Often, even today, we think of SMS as a disused and obsolete channel, due to the fact that it is associated with a text message with a finite number of characters. In fact, SMS can be enriched with redirect links to service pages through which users can continue a digital transaction or modify a reservation. Again, for medical centers or laboratories, a link could direct the user to the report collection pages. Again, in the case of booking centers for events or trips, a link can be useful to take people to the page of uploading identity documents or green pass.
Wondering if you should include transactional SMS in your communication strategy?
Simple.
Contact us at 045 8841199 or send us an email to support@rdcom.com to speak directly with one of our experts and find out how to get all the advantages of the SMS world.
