Texting came into our lives with the advent of cellular phones over two decades ago. It remained a convenient way to communicate between friends, family, and acquaintances for quite a while.
Over a period of time, however, businesses began to uncover the benefits of simpler and faster communication through instant messaging. Mass messaging became the first real deployment of texting by businesses.
Today, texting is the preferred way of communication for businesses due to a variety of customer engagement options, from marketing to customer support.
In addition, with collaborative Telephone numbers in USA work across geographies becoming a reality, messaging has become a tremendous enabling tool for internal communication as well.
Texting in business environments has many benefits. Before diving deeper into how to drive professionalism in this space, let us review these advantages.
Benefits of business texting
Some merits may be seen as common knowledge and are often taken for granted in today’s connected world.
Yet some businesses still do not have a policy around the use of instant messaging in their communication model. It is crucial that businesses implement some guidelines before they adopt texting:
Always available
Texting is not necessarily dependent on an active Internet connection. Hence, it is always available for both the team members as well as customers.
Customer experience
Speed and personal touch are both inherent to texting, and they both convey a sense of professionalism. The sense of personal touch brings a sense of being looked after.
Recipients, including customers, tend to read and respond to messages faster than emails. Speed translates into responsiveness and adds to a better experience for sure.
Privacy
Texts are more likely to be delivered to the recipient only.
And there are a plethora of situations where privacy matters, such as when sending an OTP, or when banks send you an update on your account. Texting becomes the preferred choice of communication in many such instances.
Ease of use
Some forms of communication are not age-friendly. For example, a section of the population may find the use of email rather difficult or effort-intensive
On the other hand, texts are basic. With the advent of voice-to-text and vice versa, this mode of communication has become easier than ever.
Low on costs
Texting is inexpensive. For all the benefits it offers and the costs at which it comes, the value proposition of business texting becomes rather alluring.
While reviewing the benefits, it is also pertinent to note that the form and flavor of messaging in professional environments are very different from personal messages.
This is why it is essential to know and implement the right texting ways. Else, it is easy to flounder on the basic etiquettes that are so important.
Incorrectly drafted messages can be annoying for the recipient and could even be misinterpreted. And all this may actually be happening unintentionally without the sender ever realising the errors in following the basic etiquettes.
Let us look at the proven rules of etiquette, the best practices, and also some common errors that should never creep into a business text.
Rules for professional etiquette
The rules are relatively straightforward and simple. Most of these fall into one of the two buckets – things to do, and things to avoid. The rules and tips compiled below are not in any order of priority; each of them is important.
Be sure that texting is appropriate
Remember that texting is not the go-to mode of communication for everything and every time, especially with customers. It is suitable USA Phone Number List for short updates, time-bound messages, or crisp text-based information. Texting is an absolute no for conversations or discussions, sharing of confidential information or even sharing big news.
Before initiating a business text, it may be a good idea to evaluate whether a phone call or an email would be a better way to communicate the information. After all, each mode of communication has its benefits. While this is a subjective topic, viewing it from a customer’s perspective can help.
Seek permission
Asking for consent from a customer Best Database Provider is considered polite. Permission opens the door for a healthy conversation. Keep in mind that messaging without consent is considered spamming.
Many countries around the world have regulations and frameworks to protect their citizens from unwarranted messages flooding their inboxes. Hence, it is also a legal obligation to seek consent. Such consent can range from a customer sharing his number to receive information to explicit written consent. When in doubt, seek guidance from the manager or advice from your legal counsel.