“Please hold, your call is important to us” This is not a message that customers like to hear when they want to enquire basic details about their bank’s services. In 2018, there are a number of solutions to this. And these banking solutions have the potential to solve multiple problems.
Traditional banking vs. newer alternatives
Over the years, traditional banking has evolved and various forms of banking have emerged like online banking and mobile banking. While customers appreciate the benefits that each form has to offer, these relatively newer forms have some distinct benefits that traditional banking cannot rival with. Text banking particularly has a lot to offer.
Improving Customer experience
One of the broad fields that text banking has a significant impact on is customer experience. Calling a customer service center or sifting through a website just to find information regarding a service is rather cumbersome. SMS can help ease the trouble by providing a channel for customers to send in their queries and be answered in a timely manner.
Another useful task that can be completed via SMS instead of email or other online platforms is customer feedback surveys. Text messages are known to have a significantly higher read and response rate compared to its online alternatives. Read rates show that only 12% of Facebook posts and 20% of emails are read, while SMS stands at a whopping 98%. Also factor in the average time to open an SMS stands at 3 minutes and the same for email is 384 minutes. Hence surveys sent on this platform are more likely to be responded to as it’s far easier for customers to do so.
Better security for financial transactions
As we live in the era of online transactions, customers have become vulnerable to new threats. The traditional banking system posed more direct and physical threats in terms of how frauds and forgery were carried out, the internet exposes customers to the same threats but they can be carried out in ways that can go undetected until it’s too late. This is where SMS saves the day.
Two factor authentication adds another layer of security to transactions online. And this is usually carried out by sending a one-time password(OTP) via text message which customers will be required to enter as they make a transaction.
Other than this, several banks use SMS to notify their customers about deposits and withdrawals made on their bank accounts. Most banks also send their customers text messages whenever they swipe their credit card and make a payment. All these measures ensure that fraudulent activity would be discovered as soon as it happens so that damage control mechanisms can be activated at the earliest.
Internal communication via SMS
So far we have discussed how SMS benefits customers, it also has numerous benefits for businesses themselves. One of the key benefits is that it is a great platform to coordinate activities for your business and send out essential time sensitive messages. SMS is undoubtedly the best way to communicate emergency alerts and important announcements. Aside from this, time sheets and HR management can also be coordinated via text message.
Low cost and high return on investment
The biggest advantage of integrating SMS in a business’s communication strategy is the low cost and high return on investment it offers. Financial institutions have thousands if not more, customers to cater to, SMS is the most economical and effective way to communicate to such a large customer base. And while customers sometimes tend to shy away from subscribing to SMS alerts from businesses, they rarely do this with banks given the importance of receiving information regarding their financial transactions.
Carrying out marketing or information campaigns on this platform can bring in a huge return on investment. You can even streamline your SMS strategy further by opening up subscription channels for your customers to learn more about specific services. For example, prompting your customers to text “HOME LOANS” to a short code is a simple way of getting them to add themselves onto a subscription list to receive SMS updates regarding your bank’s home loan policies. This can be easily expanded for several services.
Text banking cannot replace online banking or traditional banking. But it undoubtedly has plenty to offer in terms of both security and convenience that makes the difference to customers as they decide which institution to open an account with.
