Want to use SMS notifications to seamlessly connect with your audiences? Here are 5 SMS workflows you need to build into your communication strategy.
If your organization wants its short message service (SMS) notifications to hit the mark with your target audience, you need to optimize your communication strategy with SMS workflows.
SMS workflows provide roadmaps and automation to streamline interactions with your audience. They allow you to consistently deliver timely, accurate, and relevant notifications to the right people every time. As such, SMS workflows can deliver immense value to communication teams, particularly if your organization makes them a part of day-to-day operations.
To maximize that here are five SMS workflows that will benefit any organization’s communications strategy:
1. Mass communication
When you want to send an immediate notification to a large audience quickly, emails or other communication methods are often too slow, too time-consuming, or just too easy to ignore. This is where SMS offers a terrific mass communication platform that allows you to engage with hundreds or thousands of audience members without delay.
Setting up SMS workflows for mass communication can be beneficial for organizations across a variety of industries. For instance, a college or university can use SMS workflows to automatically alert students, faculty, and staff about snowstorms or other inclement weather that may cause delays or cancellations. Similarly, a hospital can set up a workflow to send SMS notifications to the available workforce any time it needs extra staff to accommodate a high volume of patients.
2. Appointment and service reminders
Appointment and service reminders keep your audience on-schedule for upcoming appointments and service requests, and they provide an opportunity to quickly and easily make last-minute changes.
SMS notifications for appointments or service reminders can help organizations across a wide range of industries, too. For example, a doctor’s office can set up workflows to automatically alert patients about upcoming appointments. Or an auto body shop can leverage SMS workflows to remind past customers that their vehicle may be ready for an oil change or other regular maintenance.
The bottom line: Appointment and service reminders make it simple for your organization to show it cares about its audience and is willing to do what it takes to provide exceptional support.
3. Promos and donation requests
If your organization relies on emails to share promo codes or request donations, you may be missing out on opportunities to engage with that audience through a more personal, engaging channel: SMS.
Email open rates are far lower than SMS open rates, due in part to the fact that consumers receive nearly twice as many text messages as emails. Additionally, the average response time for SMS notifications is 90 seconds, while the average response time for emails is 90 minutes — a clear sign that consumers react more urgently to SMS notifications than emails.
Workflows allow you to use SMS and email automation in tandem to reach out to donors and members with a fully automated, multi-channel influence campaign.
4. Demos and consultations
SMS is a great way to invite consumers to view your products/services and set up consultations — without having to make a phone call or fill out an online contact form.
If you have a video demo available of new services or processes, you can use an SMS workflow to share that video with those audiences immediately. And workflows can be set up to share them again automatically based on triggers, such as new member onboarding.
By using SMS workflows for demos or consultations, your organization is better equipped than ever before to showcase what it does and encourage its audience to reach out and learn more.
5. Payment and billing reminders
Many organizations find that members and customers forget to pay their bills on time — and collecting these debts often takes significant effort from your team. One way to improve collections operations is to set up SMS billing workflows that alert consumers any time a new invoice is issued, a payment is submitted, or a bill becomes past due.
SMS notifications serve as friendly reminders that are less intrusive and less labor-intensive than having your staff make collections calls. Yet they still allow your organization to make members aware of their payment status through a channel that is seen and acted on more urgently than email.
How you use SMS workflows can dictate your success with SMS notifications. But, if you leverage a comprehensive SMS messaging platform, your organization will be well-equipped to incorporate SMS workflows into its communication strategy and improve its interactions with its target audience now and in the future.
At Mobilize Comms, we offer custom SMS messaging solutions, and our team can help you create SMS workflows that work for you. Our SMS plans come with advanced features, and each one is backed by SMS experts who can help you get the most value out of your investment. To learn more about how we help you integrate SMS workflows into your communication strategy, please contact us today.
