Boost Customer Experience in Financial Services with SMS

Excellent customer service and communication can be the thing that separates your company from your competitors, yet many leaders don’t know which lever will have the most impact on their customer experience. In our recent study of 5,000 global consumers, we found that speed of response and convenience were top-rated factors contributing to a great customer experience. And yet, 15% of businesses still only offer one method of communication.

One communication channel can easily become clogged with activity, requiring wait times of up more than 80 minutes, which is why it’s critical to offer alterative methods of connecting customers with the services they need – without investing in more call centers.

The case for multichannel customer communication in finance

One in three consumers expect response times between 3-5 hours, and even more would prefer to self-manage their finances via a secure, automated system without speaking to a human. This is where SMS messages shine.

Here are just a few of the benefits you’ll see when implementing text messages with your existing customer comms strategy:

Speed of delivery

When it comes to their money, your customers want to be in the know. Whether it’s for payment reminders, FAQs, or planned system downtime, it’s faster and easier to keep your customers up-to-date with a quick text message directly to their phone.

Convenience factor

SMS messaging allows financial services customers to manage their accounts even on the go without the need for frustrating queues (virtual or otherwise). Because text message communication allows for time lapses, your customers can pick up where they left off without worrying about losing chat history.

By leveraging a multichannel approach, your customers can choose their preferred communications channel. Take this a step further by integrating your back office systems (CRM and ERP) with your communications platform, so your customer service teams can tailor their conversations with the context of account history.

Easily accessible

91% of the world owns a mobile phone, which means this is the easiest way to access all of your customers on a channel they already use daily. When you take a multichannel approach, it allows your customers to show you how they prefer to communicate and which channel suits them the most – boosting overall customer experience.

Customer-centric

We know that, when it comes to finance, the majority of people don’t want to speak with someone. By offering multiple ways for your customers to reach out for support and receive important alerts and updates, you’re meeting their needs with the least amount of friction possible.

Boost internal productivity

Utilizing chatbots, automated decision engines, or other automated response systems allow your customer to receive support no matter the time or place. By automating some of the more simple and time-consuming task, such as FAQs, you’ll free up your staff for more complex support issues or proactive outreach to vulnerable customers.

Top methods to leverage mobile messaging in financial services:

• Multifactor authentication
• Account balance alerts
• Planned system downtime notifications
• Feedback and survey requests
• Rich messages – send links to branded landing pages within your SMS messages or include images, interactive buttons, and videos within via MMS
• Security alerts
• Two- way conversations
• Opening hours or holiday updates

Transforming customer communication

Financial service providers have many industry challenges to overcome, from protecting customers from increasing fraud attempts to improving customer support resource, but technology such as SMS messaging can help turn these challenges into key differentiators among their peers.

Want to learn more about how SMS messaging can help you close the customer service gap? Reach out to a member of our team today!