Timely communication with your homeowners is essential for excellent customer service and for ensuring no information falls through the cracks. While emails and phone calls are important communication channels, sometimes phone calls go unanswered, and emails can get lost in an overflowing inbox.
If you have trouble reaching prospects and customers, sending text messages could be a more efficient way to communicate. These 5 best practices will help you get the most out of texting and communicate more effectively with your homeowners.
Texting Best Practice #1: Always Get Permission
Obtaining permission before texting a prospect or customer for business purposes is essential to make sure you comply with the rules and regulations involving communication via text message. When you first start texting customers, make sure you have them opt into the SMS campaign, and make them aware of what types of messages they are agreeing to receive, such as appointment reminders or updates on their jobs progress.
Examples of ways to do this could be by having customers sign a texting agreement during the sales process or by sending an email having them opt-in. It is also important to include an opt-out option on every text, in case your customer no longer wants to receive text messages for your business. By letting customers know what the text messages will be about and allowing your customers to choose whether or not they want to be contacted via text messages, you create a more trusting relationship between you and the customer.
Texting Best Practice #2: Personalize Your Text Messages
Text messages can seem impersonal, especially if they are automated and use generic language. By including details such as the name of your business and the customer’s name, the message will instantly feel more personal. Here are some sample messages that you can use to enhance how you communicate with your homeowners via text messaging.
Another way to help create a more authentic and conversational texting experience is by using two-way texting to communicate with customers. By doing this, you can efficiently reach your homeowners, and they can easily respond to you with any questions or concerns they may have. This can also help you better communicate what is happening on the job by sending the homeowner a photo of the job’s progress.
Texting Best Practice #3: Respond to Text Messages Quickly
It is essential to make sure you don’t wait too long to respond to messages from customers. 98% of text messages get opened immediately, and 74% will respond within an hour. With that in mind, staying aware of how quickly you respond to messages is important and should be top of mind when you reach out to customers.
If you are texting with a prospective customer, responding to messages as quickly as possible is especially important to avoid losing potential business. So if you know you have a text message going out to prospective customers, make sure someone on your team is ready to respond if need be. For less time-sensitive messages, be sure to respond to the message before the end of that day. You can set aside time in your day, like a half-hour in the morning and a half-hour in the afternoon, to check and respond to any messages that come through.
Texting Best Practice #4: Only Text Customers During Work Hours
While sending text messages is convenient, and many people have their phones on them consistently, it is still important to respect their time. A good standard to set is only to send messages at the same times you’d make phone calls — during work hours. Having a set schedule of when your business sends messages will help keep your business accountable and help make sure you aren’t annoying your customers or prospects.
Texting Best Practice #5: Create Clear and Effective Calls-to-Action
You may send your customers many different types of messages, such as appointment confirmations, appointment reminders, change of schedule, thank you’s, or requests for referrals. When reaching out via text with these types of messages, make sure your calls to action are clear so that no matter the message, your customers or prospects know what they are receiving, from who, and what action to take.
Effective CTA’s will be at the end of the message and start with a verb. Some examples include: “Reply Yes to confirm this Appointment” or “If you have the time, we would love to hear any feedback you may have for your service. You can reply to this message or leave a review on [insert website name here].”
Read More: New AccuLynx Feature Simplifies Text Messaging for Roofing Contractors
Start Sending Text Messages with AccuLynx
AccuLynx roofing software provides an easy way to send text messages right from your account so you can easily keep track of all communication between your teams and prospects. Adding text messaging to your AccuLynx account provides another easy way to enhance your customer service and communicate better with homeowners.
There are many ways that text messaging in AccuLynx can help your business keep your customers aware of what is happening and when. With automations, you can set up triggers that will send a customizable, pre-set text message once the trigger is met, such as an appointment scheduled or payment received.
AccuLynx text messaging not only allows you to send messages, but also allows your customers to reply as well. With two-way text messaging, your customers can reach out with questions involving their roof project or appointment, and someone from your team can respond directly back. All correspondence will be saved in the customer’s job file so that you can refer back to old messages if something goes wrong or if you need to verify you communicated something correctly to a homeowner.
Text messaging is an excellent tool for communicating with homeowners. By incorporating texting into your sales process, you can cut down on time making phone calls, ask and answer questions quicker, and keep your homeowners informed about how a job is going.
