Text Message Reminders
Statistically, over 95% of text messages get opened within the first 3 minutes. When you use SMS for reminders, your customers should never leave your business hanging again.
What are text reminders?
In today’s digital era, where most people use smartphones more than anything else, SMS has become the most advantageous appointment reminder service with clients, customers, and employees.
Text message reminders are used to alert somebody about something happening in the future, whether that be a deal expiring, appointment, upcoming event, or many other things. Furthermore, you can reduce customer no-shows and time spent rescheduling appointments by send appointment reminders via text.
Why use SMS for reminders?
How often have you personally forgotten about an appointment – more than a few? Furthermore, would you have still forgotten if you received an automated reminder texts the day of the event?
If your customers use an iPhone, their phone might automatically suggest that they set a reminder in the Reminder app when they receive a text about an appointment. This is because iPhones use AI technology to pick up specific keywords, and when certain keywords are triggered, the iPhone will recommend an action such as setting a reminder. This increases your odds of your customer remembering the particular occasion, especially if they use Apple’s recommendation and create the reminder.
To get back on topic, here are some more specific reasons why text messages make for an excellent reminder solution.
Accessibility
Estimated figures have placed the number of active mobile phones between 6 and 7 billion, making SMS the only technology adopted by virtually the entire human population. That, in turn, means you can always get in touch with your customers, even if they’re across the whole globe.
Easy-to-use
Text messaging is the easiest and most widespread communication method. All you have to do is select your recipients, craft a message, and send the message.
In addition, SMS has a character restriction of 160 characters; therefore, you must fit your message in a confined amount of space. Because of this simplicity, texting is one of the most straightforward mediums for communication.
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Who can use SMS for reminders?
Reminder text message are helpful for every business. They help you maintain a strong client bond and ensure your business runs seamlessly. In this section discover a few industries that can benefit from text message reminders and learn about a few of the use cases.
Food industry
Sending SMS messages is ideal and perfectly suited for the food industry, including restaurants, bars, supermarkets, butchers, bakeries, and much more.
Discover some of the most used solutions that you can directly apply to your business.
- Promotions, vouchers, and special offers
- Notice of opening hours and operating rules
- Send reservation reminders
- Quickly find covers for shifts
- Delivery service notification delivery
- Send thank you messages to customers
- Ask for feedback
Healthcare industry
You can use SMS messaging to communicate effectively with your patients, staff, partners, and suppliers.
Use SMS reminder service within your healthcare facility for:
- Scheduling an appointment and exam
- Exam result notifications
- Vaccination campaign reminder
- On-call change alerts to your team in advance
- Shift change and employee absences
- Emergency alerts to your team
- Interview reminders
Government organizations
Citizens and shareholders trust government organizations that deliver results quickly. Engagement between government and citizens can now be immediate and personalized thanks to government SMS solutions.
Government agencies from all departments, from justice to education, health to planning, can use government HSE solutions in the following ways:
- Send alerts to emergency service workers
- Reach the employee base en masse
- Fill shift gaps
- Avoid using external staffing agencies
- Simplify communications
- Notify the population about emergency events
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Call centers
Customers can become angry and impatient if they’re stuck on hold for extended periods. With text, you can provide real-time support to your clients so that they don’t have to carve out a portion of their day to make a call – they can text back at their convenience.
Telecommunication Centers can leverage text messaging to boost customer interactions in several ways. See below:
- Improve customer service for convenience and welcome messages
- Send complimentary messages to consumers
- Thank customers for recent purchases or reservations
- Invite customers to give feedback on the product or service delivered
- Communicate with consumers as discreetly as possible
- Alerts sent for account updates
- Provide scheduling information to employees
- Distribute employee lists
- Send alerts for meetings
Pet shops
Improving your pet store’s communication is critical to amplifying customer reach and engagement. Appointment texting service gives you pet shops an effective way to connect with pet owners. In addition, you can provide customers personalized support depending on their pet species, breed, etc.
Here are some ideas you can use to encourage your customers:
- Free shipping notification for online orders
- Send discount coupons and offers of the week
- Send the opening hours of the bath and grooming and store
- Animal Vaccination Reminder
- Veterinary Appointment Reminder
Banking and financial services
SMS banking solutions, such as CCAI, are tailored explicitly for use in the financial and banking sector.
See below how you can use SMS to streamline bank procedures:
- Instantly notify consumers of account transactions
- Use one-time passwords to reduce fraud and theft
- Generate real-time fraud alerts
- Send payment reminders
- Collect on debt
- Reduce defaults on loan payments
- Allow customers to monitor account activity
- Reduce operating costs
- Increase customer satisfaction and retention
- Inform due dates for payments
- Reminder to pay when payment is pending
- Notification when payments are due
- Offer incentives, such as discounts for early payments
- Inform about non-payment and resulting fines
Transportation industry
What makes a good text reminder?
Here are some excellent tips toward constructing a reminder message that converts more times than not.
Create a goal:
First, what do you wish to get out of your reminders? Say that you’re trying to reduce no-shows. On average, how many people aren’t showing up to appointments with the existing reminder solution being used? After you have identified this metric, you can create a clear and precise goal built around data.
Customize your reminders:
Remember to stay personable. Call the customer by their first name if you have it. Ensure that every message makes sense for each customer.
Timing:
Make sure you send your text message at the right time. If you send your SMS reminder too soon, your customer will likely forget. Finding the right time takes continuous testing. Over the course of your campaign, test out a few different times, and identify which intervals get the best results.
Simplicity:
Keep your message straight to the point. If your customer has an appointment, your message might look something like this.
Link to discounts:
While you shouldn’t overdo it with this method, it can help cut down on absences and ensure that your customers show up for your appointments on time. Just putting together some financial savings like a 5-10% discount coupon to make an appointment is a great incentive to help encourage your client to attend that appointment.
A/B Testing:
A/B test your reminders, hitting different pain points to find the message that gets the most engagement. You’d be surprised; changing a few words here or there might entirely alter the outcome of your campaign.
Send a SMS reminder in minutes
You don’t need an API to send text messages; you can use Cloud Contact and skip all developer-geared API requirements. For example, on CCAI, all you need to do is create an account, upload contacts, and send messages – and best of all, it’s free and doesn’t require a credit card.
How to send an SMS reminder
Cloud Contact AI offers a 14-day free trial period so that you can test all of the unique features and see if CCAI is a right fit for you.
1. Sign up on CCAI
Create your free Cloud Contact AI account.
2. Upload Contacts
Select Contacts in the left-hand menu and upload contacts one-by-one or as a group in CSV format.
3. Create a campaign
Click SMS in the menu and craft your perfect text message reminder.
4. Support
Need help getting set up? Shoot us an email; we are happy to assist you!
SMS Reminder Templates
Create SMS reminder templates so that you don’t have to scramble every time you appointment sms . Here are a few examples to get you started:
Appointment reminder
Hey {Name}, this is {Sender Name} from {Company} – don’t forget about your appointment tomorrow at 8:45 AM. We look forward to seeing you!
Payment reminder
You have an upcoming payment due on the 15th of January. To make your payment, use this link: {URL}
Deal expiration reminder
{Name}, our 15% off special ends tomorrow. Make sure you take advantage of this fantastic deal while you can. {URL}
Reservation reminder
{Name}, we look forward to seeing you at 6:30 this evening. Do you and your guests have a preference for beverages, or is water fine?
SMS Reminder FAQs
Sending text message reminders aren’t as hard as you’d think. If you still have some questions, check out the list below and you’ll probably find what you’re looking for.
How much does it cost to send an SMS message?
Text messaging is one of the cheaper methods for customer communication. On Cloud Contact, it costs $2 per phone number per month and in addition, users can generate as many phone numbers as they need.
It costs users $.03 per outgoing and incoming text message. The cost to make a phone call on CCAI is $.02 per minute.
Messages are billed on a pay-as-you-go basis.
How often can I text my audience?
The last thing you want to do is annoy your customers. Some customers might get angry if you overload their inbox with messages; therefore, you should let your people know how often you intend to message them before sending them texts in regards to collections.
According to our experts, and from our own testing, we’ve found that you get the most engagement when you limit your text messages to about 1-2 times per month.
Get Started with Text Reminders
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Choose a Number
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