Why business owners need SMS automation

SMS automation is a powerful tool capable of improving business operations across the board. While it may sound challenging to implement, an automated SMS system can actually simplify many day-to-day business tasks.

From elevating security to improving efficiency, automated SMS solves a number of common business challenges.

1. Improve payment efficiency

Late payments can really take a toll on your business - in fact, IntegraPay’s 2017 State of Pay Index revealed that one-third of Australian business owners spend eight or more hours every week chasing and collecting late payments!

If your staff is spending too much time on collections, try implementing an automated text message system to improve payment efficiency. You can create a standard SMS message that is sent upon the activation of a specific trigger. This trigger could be a missed payment date, for example, prompting an SMS like the one below to be sent out:

The same process can also be used to send recurring invoice or bill reminders, payment confirmations, and auto-responses for common payment enquiries. This drastically cuts down on the amount of time your staff will spend chasing payments.

2. Elevate security

Protecting accounts, sensitive information, and devices are some of the biggest concerns in the modern business landscape. The average cost of a data breach is $3.35 million, which is why it’s important to carefully manage who has access to certain systems and information.

One way to mitigate this risk is to harness the power of two-factor authentication (2FA) using SMS. With 2FA, an employee will be sent an SMS with a unique code or one-time password (OTP) when they attempt to log into their account. This verifies the identity of the user and significantly reduces the chance of data being compromised.

Hackers don’t sleep, which is why it’s important to automate as many security measures as you can. 2FA is instantaneous, ensuring your defences are never down.

3. Streamline customer onboarding

A positive onboarding experience for new customers creates a good impression and increases retention.

One way to use automated SMS to improve the customer onboarding experience is to send a welcome message when someone creates an account on your site. In addition to expressing gratitude, you can also include useful information in the message like relevant links or tutorials to help onboard a prospect.

Considering that the top two reasons customers churn are because they don’t relate to your product or obtain any value from it, automatically following up with useful information can make a huge difference to your bottom line.

4. Boost efficiency

For 52% of small business owners, the biggest barrier to success is a lack of productivity and efficiency. If you’re looking to keep your team on track, SMS automation could be the silver bullet. With 70% of working professionals preferring SMS for inter-office communication, it makes sense to implement an automated solution.

Automated SMS can be used to update team members on projects and increase collaboration. You can create segmented lists by team or department, controlling how many people receive a particular automated message. Our Zapier integration can be paired with popular tools like Asana, Jira, and Trello to ensure everyone is kept in the loop.

5. Automate customer segmentation

Your employees likely have to complete some mundane tasks as part of their daily duties. Allow them to focus on the things that matter most by automating these menial tasks.

Let’s take the example of customer segmentation. SMS keywords can be used to automatically sort customers into lists, enabling your team to send highly personalised and relevant messages. This cuts down on the amount of time spent researching and sorting through lead and customer lists, helping your team work smarter, not harder.

Keywords and automated SMS can also help your team keep on top of their remarketing, follow up, upselling, and cross-selling efforts.

From optimising security to improving customer onboarding, automated text messages can help your business stay ahead. Use Burst SMS to start automating business tasks, and try our SMS Templates to craft your own auto-responses.