How SMS Messaging can help Businesses through COVID-19

During these uncertain times, businesses are having to change the way they work in order to adapt and, in some cases, survive. Reliable and instant communication plays a huge role, if not the most significant role!

Every business will be affected in different ways. If you are an IT company or Marketing agency, it is likely that you will be able to continue the business, with your staff working from home. Whereas restaurants and hospitality businesses may have to adapt and offer a delivery service. Or even temporarily close until the world returns to normality. Whatever the circumstances, a business will meet new challenges and the key thing to remember is communication with both your staff and customers.

This is where SMS comes in handy, with almost everyone in the UK owning a mobile phone with access to a signal and statistics showing it has a 98% open rate, it becomes the perfect communication tool to use across your business.

At FireText we are here to help! I have put together some handy ideas for how you can use SMS within your business to help maintain the normal routines as much as possible as well as being able to prepare for potential changes:

Bulk SMS Campaigns

During COVID-19 Business Continuity plans are key. These need to be tried and tested so in cases of emergency you are able to have a plan in place, which is suited to your business and ensures everyone will remain safe and be informed. Bulk SMS is perfect for this, you are able to send out a text message to hundreds, thousands or even millions of people in a cost and time-effective manner.

Text messages are perfect for updates, with high open rates you can be sure people will be receiving and reading your messages so key things won’t be missed. You can also view delivery reports on sent campaigns, to ensure all contacts are receiving the messages. You are able to easily upload contacts and segment them into different groups as well as having template messages saved on the system. This means when it is required it is all ready to go, making it perfect for business continuity.

SMS Keywords

Although marketing campaigns may have come to a stop for many businesses, SMS Keywords are the perfect tool to make sure your business is prepared when the world returns back to normality. Keywords are an awesome lead generation tool. When someone texts a keyword to our shortcode 82228, they will be automatically added to your database of contacts. You can even decide to add an auto-reply if you want to. This could be a simple thank you to them for joining your mailing list or it could be a link to direct them to more information, such as a website.

If you are a restaurant or club that had to close recently due to COVID-19 you can advertise a keyword on your social platforms people can text, in order to be informed on updates during the closure and also when you will be back open as normal. Or it could be a keyword which provides an auto-reply including a link back to their adapted delivery options. This means you will be building up a database of contacts so you can come back stronger than ever.

Two Way SMS

As a business, providing outbound messages including updates and information to staff and customers is important. However, it’s also handy for people to be able to get in touch with you, about questions and concerns they may have.

By sending SMS messages from a reply number, users can reply directly back to your SMS messages. Alternatively, you could advertise the number across your website, or social channels and they could initiate the conversation. When all of this is over and things start to return to normal, customer service is something people will remember and therefore more likely to return as a customer.

Our friendly team of SMS experts are on hand to help with any questions or queries, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch today to get up and running with SMS!