How Text Messages Provides Agility to a Contact Center

The challenges of 2020 have put the agility of contact centers to the test. And with many of those challenges continuing into 2021, many call centers are still struggling to manage various difficulties.

• Call volumes remain a significant problem, either due to an increase during the pandemic or limited resources due to staff cuts or closures.

• IT departments have seen their world upside down. They continue to face the daunting task of helping remote agents maintain a successful customer experience (CX).

• Contact centers have realized the importance of a unified omnichannel strategy as more customers use digital channels such as social media. However, analysts predict that only 50% of companies will have unified their customer engagement channels by 2022.

• Advances in communication are making these problems manageable. One of them is text messaging, which is becoming a trend in the call center community as organizations see the critical role it plays in delivering a modern, agile and efficient customer experience.

Customers Send Text Messages, Businesses Should Too

Texting is gaining momentum, and for good reason. These have long been the preferred communication method. Historically, companies used texts for promotional purposes only using short codes (e.g. 55555). Today, companies are enabling texting on their local or toll-free phone numbers to facilitate interaction with customers at every step of the customer journey. It is an effective strategy, since 60% of customers want to be able to respond to the text messages they receive from companies.

Texting Is Outpacing Other Communication Channels in Several Ways:

 a) Better Accessibility: Web chat and social media channels are great, but texting is also effective. 95% of the population has a mobile phone, which means they have access to text messages wherever they go. In contrast, web chat is not always accessible via mobile, and not everyone has a social media account (especially older people who also send text messages and may not have a smartphone). That is probably the reason why 59% of people prefer to receive messages directly from a company instead of communicating with them through an application.

b) Better Engagement: For contact centers, text messages connect them with customers. 98% of them are read in the first three minutes, while only 22% of emails are read. According to experts, customers are 4 times more likely to reply to a text message than to an email.

c) Better Customer Experience: Customers expect a faster response from companies. Almost no one can stand being on hold anymore, not even for a minute. If you have a customer waiting for minutes on the phone, they probably won’t be around for long. Texting is a game changer for call queues. Agents can manage multiple simultaneous text messages instead of a single call monopolizing their time. While texting is great for customers, it’s just as great for call centers that want more agility.

Text Messages: Unlocking Call Center Agility

The key to greater contact center agility is having the right resources – time, talent, and staff – available when they are needed most. By incorporating text messages into the call center, the agent’s talent can be harnessed and used where their skills are most needed.

• Forward calls using text on your IVR: Offer customers the option to initiate a text conversation on your IVR (Interactive Voice Response). Something so small can generate excellent results.

• Divert calls to text messages: Means agents don’t have to interact with incoming text messages right away. Creating text IVRs can handle the process of routing text messages to the appropriate agent, similar to how traditional IVRs route incoming calls.

• Send MMS for faster communication: The adage “a picture is worth a thousand words” is especially true for customer service. MMS text messages (multimedia messages) give agents and customers the flexibility to exchange images, GIFs, emojis, PDFs, and Word documents, which can communicate complex ideas faster and easier than trying to explain things verbally.

• Automate text conversations: Sending an automated text reply does two things: it assures the customer that they have the correct number and it also gives them the immediate response they want (even after hours). Automated text messages are not limited to incoming SMS. Automated outbound SMS can save agents the headache of chasing customers, leaving countless voice messages, and waiting for them to respond.

• Use Textbots to conserve resources: Textbots, like chatbots, can automate tasks such as collecting customer information or qualifying a potential customer through a series of text responses. Once the text bot collects the necessary information or qualifies the prospect, it can automatically pass the text message to the appropriate agent.

Unified Customer Engagement With Text Messages

Texting can be a great tool to improve the customer experience, but it is most useful when unified with other channels of customer interaction. The text to enable the same phone numbers that customers use to call the call center is an important first step.

Connecting text messages to the systems that a company depends on to provide customer support, whether it is a CRM or CCaaS (Contact Center as a Service) solution, creates greater simplicity for agents and enables Supervisors view text messages within the context of other interactions for greater insight and process improvements.