Contrary to popular belief, What is SMS messaging? messages are not only used for spam. Their main purpose is to interact with existing customers. Here are some examples where SMS is the fastest and easiest way to communicate.
Verification of users in the store loyalty program
Our client is a pharmacy chain in St. Petersburg, which has its own loyalty program with a cumulative discount system. For the convenience of customers, the program is linked to their phone numbers. When making a purchase, the cashier asks the customer for a phone number and sends an sms services with a confirmation code, and the customer receives a discount or writes off bonus points towards the payment.
Linking a loyalty program to a phone number is more convenient than handing out plastic cards to regular customers or offering to install an application on their phone. You can forget the card at home, and not everyone will install the application. But a loyalty program linked to a phone number only requires a smartphone, which the customer always has with them.
Informing about the order status in the online store
Another client of ours is an online store from Tomsk, selling natural cosmetics. It also has a cumulative discount system, but it uses SMS mailings for other purposes. The store sends hey will be sure to receive their purchases before to customers not before, but after placing orders. The customer receives 4 messages in total.
The first immediately after paying for the order, the second after sending the order for assembly, the third after sending the assembled order to the transport company, and finally, the fourth after the courier leaves to deliver the order. Receiving messages, the buyer sees all the stages that his purchase goes through and does not worry that he has been forgotten.
Confirmation of an appointment or service
Another client of ours is a St. Petersburg network of dental clinics. It uses SMS to confirm an appointment with a doctor, and then to remind about the appointment. The client receives an SMS with the date, time and name of the doctor immediately after the appointment, and the day before the appointment, the clinic reminds about the date and time of the visit again.
This method is convenient because the client of the clinic does not have to remember what day and time he signed up for, and if he still forgot, then the SMS the day before the appointment will remind him about it. SMS is more convenient than phone calls, because due to the large number of spam calls, not everyone answers unfamiliar numbers and especially does not call back.
A few more examples when SMS messaging is irreplaceable
These can be messages about: • discounts on certain products in the store this weekend; • promotions on products that the client previously bought; • a code sent to register on the website or in the service. SMS mailings are also effective for notifications about the need to renew a service with a periodic service fee. These can be Internet providers that use bulk data to notify about running out of funds on the client’s account.