If customers were to describe their ideal customer service, they may present it as:

• having a fast response time
• being available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
• using the channels of communication they are most comfortable with

As a business owner, you understand customer expectations are essential for creating and delivering excellent customer service. They are looking for companies which offer them high-quality and complex services. This means they can communicate with you all the time and through different ways such as email, phone, chatting applications or text Support. Let’s focus a little on the last one.

What is text support?

Text support refers to offering support for your products and services via text messaging. Basically, customers write you their questions and you simply respond by sending a text. It is an easy process for you and your customers.

Besides Communication with your customers, text support can also be used for:

• Carrying out polls
  Polls are a great technique when you are looking for certain answers and feedback from your customers. You can send them texts asking them to rank one of your products or services. It is a simple and time-efficient technique for you and your customers.
• Sending useful tips and information
  Texting is a great tool for proactive customer service. You can send texts to your customers noticing them about a problem than can appear with a product or a service or useful resources they can use to solve technical issues on their own.

The benefits of text support

It complements your customer support services

Customers want to have a wide variety of options to choose from when they contact your business. Including text messaging support in your customer service fills in multiple gaps. First, you satisfy your customers’ wish of having multiple channels of communication.

Second, offering several communication channels can help you in unpleasant situations. For instance, if you are facing technical issues and one or more of your communication channels aren’t working, your customers can still contact you via SMS.

It helps your business stand out

Customer would text companies with their support questions. The problem is they may not know companies offer them this possibility. Research shows 52% of American consumers would like to text a support representative. They also prefer texting customer support more than the communication method they are currently using.

Having a text support option can help your business stand out. You may offer something customers can hardly find in customer service and it can have a great impact on your business image.

Text support is personal

Texting is a personal way of communicating, mostly associated with friends and family. When you introduce it in customer service, you add color and a personal touch to it. This can solve one of the most common issues in customer service: lack of a personal tone. Customers need to feel they are speaking with a human and not a robot.

Texting also brings you closer to how your customers communicate, making them have a great opinion about your support services.

Text support can increase customer satisfaction

Because you would be using a communication channel your customers prefer, there is a great chance it can increase customer satisfaction. They may be delighted to use your service. This can translate in customer retention and them recommending your business to other potential customers.

How to deliver high-quality text support

Introduce it gradually to your customers

Your customers may be accustomed to texting, but your support team is not. You want to see how often customers use it, what kind of messages they send and how your team manages to deal with their requests via this channel.

You need to introduce it gradually to your customers. Try and make text support available for a specific category of customers. It will help you gather the data you need and determine what your next move will be.

Respond quickly

In order to deliver excellent text support and maintain customer satisfaction, it is essential to respond quickly. Customers usually respond to a text in 90 seconds. Take this number as a model and monitor what results you get.

Pay attention to the length of your texts. In 90 seconds, you do not have much time to write long messages, so keep it short and simple (and useful). You may also want to see what the text character limit is (160 characters, on average).

Pay attention to who is texting you

It is important for you to have your customers’ phone numbers before you make your text support available. When they text you, they don’t introduce themselves, they just send you their questions.

It will help in multiple ways. You can deliver great personalized customer service and also have access to a complete conversation history with your customers. You know what problems they have encountered and have background information for providing a better solution.

Let your imagination free

Texting is not as rigid as other communication channels. You have more freedom in how you communicate, as you can use emoticons, memes or GIFs. Look at how your customers write and take their messages as an example. Be creative and keep it personal.

We are gladly inviting you to share with us your best text support experiences!

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