Ditch the Chatbots and Use Business Texting Instead

Speak to a representative. 

Speak to a representative. 

Speak to a representative. 

Everyone has been in a scenario where they’re trying to get quick answers from a company and are faced with an automated chatbot that can only effectively answer a few questions. 

At the end of the day, your customers want to speak to an expert who can understand and answer their initial and any follow-up questions —they don’t want to speak to an impersonal AI reciting FAQs and requiring them to carefully craft questions and follow a series of steps perfectly in order to get a desired result.

In fact, statistics show that 75% of chatbot interactions fail to satisfy customer requests, and that 46% of people would rather receive live support, even if a chatbot might be able to respond quicker. And while many businesses will choose to utilize chatbots anyway because they’re perceived as less costly than human support, the stakes of failed chatbot conversations are high. 

How high? 65% of people say they’re likely to abandon a business transaction due to a negative chatbot experience, according to Solvvy. Customers get frustrated when chatbots fail to solve their problems and ditch their purchases as a result.

What about initiating a live chat with a person instead? While 41% of customers choose live chat over chatbots and phone conversations, it has its downfalls. Live chat requires dedicated staff to monitor the chat. Not to mention, it’s not mobile-friendly, and 50.4% of users expect responses within a minute—if they don’t receive one, they typically  leave the website.

So, what’s the best alternative to chatbots and live chat? The answer is business texting. In fact, 9 out of 10 consumers say they want businesses to communicate with them via text message. 

Here are the three features of business texting that can enhance your customer experience, improve retention, and boost sales.

3 Features of Business Texting That Will Transform Your Business

1. Text Initiation Website Widget 

When using a Text Initiation Website Widget, you give your website visitors a simple, trusted communication path that significantly enhances their experience. To do this, you simply add a prompt customers can respond to with their contact info and a message in order to request a text message back. It eliminates the need for continuous staffing, is mobile friendly, and gives you more time to respond. Not to mention, your visitor contact information and opt-in preferences are automatically stored for future interactions.

Utilizing a tool like this increases customer satisfaction, retention, and revenue—yet requires less effort on your end. All the benefits of live chat without the hassle.

2. Voice Initiated Messaging

Voice Initiated Messaging (VIM) allows callers to immediately start a text conversation with your business instead of having to wait in a queue or leave a voicemail. Here’s an example:

You are the fifth caller in line with an estimated wait time of 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Rather than continue to wait in line, press 5 to immediately start a text conversation with us.

Or:

Welcome to ABC Company. If you would rather text than talk to us on the phone, press 1. Otherwise, press 2 for sales, 3 for support.

If the caller is calling from a text enabled number, a message is immediately sent asking for their permission to text instead. That permission is then automatically recorded for future reference. This feature gives callers an option beyond talking on the phone or waiting on hold, eliminates voicemail reluctance, and eliminates the time spent listening to voicemails and making return calls. Most importantly though, it increases customer satisfaction because customers are able to communicate the way they prefer to communicate—which we know for the overwhelming majority is by text.

3. Text Permission Management

If you’re going to utilize texting, you’ll need to adhere to the rules and regulations that govern business texting so you can safely leverage texting to support your business goals. In essence, this means that your customers must give you permission to have text conversions with them—and permissions can be a challenge to track.

Not to worry—Text Permission Management makes it easy to manage and track all texting permissions in one place. This will eliminate any worries of maintaining compliance with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) for instance. Text Permission Management automatically collects consent based on responses to Voice Initiated Messaging, the Website Widget, keyword opt-ins, third-party CRMs, and more.

Get Started with Business Texting

HostMyText brought to you by HostMy is a hosted communications services company built on customer care. HostMyText helps businesses unlock the power of texting to increase engagement with customers. The service is for businesses, organizations, and groups of all sizes. It is easy to manage and fully-supported by the HostMy team located right here in the U.S.

HostMyText integrates seamlessly with existing business phone systems, enabling companies to handle text conversations with fewer staff, using their existing phone numbers.

To learn more about how HostMyText can help you better engage with your customers, visit our GET STARTED page and meet with a member of our team.