Ever sent a text message to a company and got a response within minutes or are you thinking of setting the same up for your business? That’s a 2-way SMS service. A two-way SMS service allows your customers to send and receive an SMS from you through a dedicated number via a web messaging platform by using complete solutions or application programming interfaces (APIs).

What is Two-way sms text messaging?

Two-way messaging is done using short codes or virtual long numbers (also known as virtual mobile numbers) to communicate with large numbers of customers effectively. It turns the simplest and most convenient channel for mobile messaging into a channel for customer conversations and greatly expands the functionality of text messaging by giving you a platform for two-way communication with your customers. Instead of treating SMS as an outbound channel, it lets you send SMS messages and receive a reply on the same number at marginal cost to your business.

How can you use Two-Way SMS?

Two-way messaging brings you the tools and methods to make your conversations truly interactive, inviting customers into back-and-forth exchanges using keywords, offer codes, choices of response, and even natural-language conversation. Like a chat window or instant messaging application, it lets you and your customers communicate with simple text messages with what we are all familiar with: SMS.

So let’s dive into how Two-Way messaging can work for your business:

Send Out Special Offers and Vouchers

You can send messages informing your customers and prospects how to take advantage of offers and incentivize them by offering discounts and vouchers. If the customer responds with a YES, they’ll get a custom code that can be used when shopping.

Gathering Timely Customer Feedback

You can gather feedback from your customers in no time at all. To make it even more specific, you can use the scale system to gauge their experience. Responses can be rated by asking customers to text back on a scale of 0-10, where 0 is “poor service” and 10 means “ amazing service”.

Opening Customer Service Tickets

Two-Way SMS can act as a springboard to a deeper interaction with your customer. It’s very effective for dealing with and solving whatever issues your existing customers may face while interfacing with your product or services.

Appointment Setting and Confirmation

Since phones are carried almost everywhere, mobile messaging is a great way to make sure that information reaches your customers at the right time. When they book meetings, it’s important to confirm their appointment instantly and you can go further by giving data like address and even a booking number.

A/B Testing Offers

Two-Way SMS Messaging makes A/B testing very easy and automatable as you can send the same offer (worded differently) to different customer bases and see what version gains the highest conversion.

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Have questions about 2-Way messaging? Talk with our expert!

Advantages of Two-Way SMS

• Immediate delivery: text messages usually get delivered within seconds, which helps your business to deliver time-sensitive messages instantly. Also, SMS open rates and response rates are considerably higher than emails. The faster and more direct the communication, the sooner your customers can make a decision.

• Automation: the 2Way SMS service can save time and resources by setting up automated, dynamic responses based on predefined keywords that identify your customers’ preferences.

• Low cost, high conversion: conversion rates of SMS texts are high because such messages are short, clear, and don’t contain a lot of links or images. SMS campaigns usually have lower setup and running costs when compared to other types of marketing.

• User-friendly APIs: good two-way SMS providers offer accessible APIs through which businesses can send, receive and monitor messages. They can also be integrated easily with any third-party tools or applications.

Two-way messaging is here to stay because it guarantees your customers an interactive and faster way to reach your business and there is no other online communication platform that can help you set it up like BSG.

With our newly redesigned website, we intend to offer 2-Way messaging software and other new features that help organizations meet customers on their channels of choice. 

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Make your first 2-Way communication campaign!