Sending customer texts has become one of the most common and most popular forms of modern communication. It can be one of the more effective tools for automotive marketing. Sending and receiving text messages is quick, it’s convenient, and it’s effective because virtually everyone in America has a smartphone on their person at almost all times.
In addition to being very useful for personal communication, texting can also be an effective communication strategy for businesses. Businesses can use text messages to get in touch with their customers and can even answer questions and carry out conversations with customers via text. A recent statistic shows that almost 40% of businesses use texting to at least some extent to communicate with their customers.
Texting can be an excellent way for your business to communicate with your customers. Many modern consumers prefer texting to emailing or making phone calls, so they may be more likely to engage with your business if you provide them with the option to communicate with your business via text. Whether you are just starting out using texting as a form of communication for your business or you want to make sure your current professional texting strategies are as effective as possible, keep reading to learn more about some of the most important dos and don’ts to keep in mind when sending customer texts.
Do: Send Relevant Messages
As annoying as it is to be spammed with excessive or irrelevant messages from businesses through email, it can be even more frustrating for consumers to continually receive text messages from your business that do not seem useful or relevant to them. If you continually bombard your customers with irrelevant text messages, they will be less likely to read and respond to future text messages from your businesses and may even avoid engaging with your business as a whole in the future.
Try to keep your business’s unsolicited text communication to a minimum. Send text messages that are purely promotional-only very occasionally, if at all. Focus on sending more relevant text messages—such as appointment reminders, information about upcoming events, requests for customer feedback, etc.—and responding to any texts you receive from your customers.
Do: Be Responsive
One of the major advantages of using texting as a form of communication between your business and your customers is that texting allows you to engage in real-time conversations with your customers. Don’t just send text messages and put your cell phone down; make sure you keep up your end of the conversation and be responsive to your customers’ texts as well.
Because texting is considered to be a more casual and short-form communication method, most customers expect their texts to be returned more quickly than their emails or phone calls. Therefore, it is very important to respond to your customers’ texts as quickly and as thoroughly as possible to keep them engaged and encourage them to send texts to your business in the future whenever they have any questions or concerns.
When you send texts to customers, make sure you keep your business cell phone turned on and set it to notify you when you receive a new text message. Notifications like these can help alert you and remind you to respond to texts you receive from customers as soon as they arrive in your inbox rather than waiting and potentially losing your customers’ interest.
Don’t: Text Outside of Business Hours
It is important to remember to keep normal business hours in mind when sending customer texts. It is much more acceptable to send an email to a customer at any time of day or night than it is to send the same customer a text whenever you feel like it. This is because most people have their cell phones with them almost all the time and are immediately notified of any text messages that they receive, whereas most people do not have the same types of notifications turned on for their email inbox and can choose when and when not to read their emails.
When it comes to texting your customers, think of texting as more similar to making a phone call than sending an email. Just as you wouldn’t call a customer at 8:00 PM, don’t send texts to your customers outside of normal business hours either. Your customers will appreciate the courtesy and respect your business’s efforts to preserve their personal space and time.
Don’t: Text Without Consent
One thing that many businesses don’t know is that they can’t text their customers without these customers’ explicit consent. In most cases, even if a customer provides your business with their phone number, you are not permitted to text the phone number they provided from your business cell phone without express written consent from the customer.
Most of the rules and guidelines surrounding customer consent to text communication are set by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, so it is a good idea to look more deeply into these rules and become very familiar with them before texting your customers in order to avoid complications and consequences for your business in the future.