With a major shift towards the digital environment due to the continued COVID-19 pandemic, businesses now rely more than ever on the advancement of technology for improved business processes, workflows and communication.
However, with digital transformation comes new challenges: ensuring your customers continue to put their trust in your business. Trust is the lifeblood of any organisation; it’s what keeps customers coming back and gives your business the ability to grow.
When it comes to communicating with your organisation, customers are generally happy for you to implement new and updated processes if it makes their life easier. But with 81% of customers saying they need to be able to trust the brands they buy from, it’s important to build trust first. You can do this by providing your audience with a simple and easy way to communicate with your organisation through the channel they use the most: SMS.
If you’re not yet taking advantage of the 98% open rate that SMS has to offer, now’s the time to start. We dive into the importance of building customer trust and the top 5 ways to build trust in your business through SMS.
The Importance of Building Customer Trust
No trust means no customers, it’s as simple as that. Customers aren’t going to purchase from a company they don’t feel confident about. When you build trust in your business, you build a sense of comfort, consistency and security, where customers are happy to make a purchase time and time again.
Adobe’s 2021 Future of Marketing research found that trust in business is rising in importance and will lead to 24% of customers willingly sharing their data, with consent, for businesses to better personalise customer experiences and offers. The market research also found that:
- 71% of customers will buy more from businesses that they trust, while 66% will recommend it to friends, 41% will join a loyalty program and 40% will post a positive review
- When customer trust is broken, 76% say they will immediately stop purchasing or recommending a brand, 71% will unsubscribe and opt-out of all communications and interactions, 44% will request a refund and 28% will post a negative review online. With trust being so vital, maintaining a strong SMS opt-in list is crucial. Read about 7 Sure-fire Ways to Build your SMS Opt-in List to keep your campaigns on track.
By implementing SMS in your business, you gain the ability to build trust in your brand through improved communications. After gaining consent from your customers to send them SMS one of the many SMS marketing laws in Australia - you can send and receive SMS to help to break down the barriers of distrust between your business and your customers by:
- Giving customers control over their communications by updating them regularly via SMS on their preferred aspects of your business. For example, sending offers and promotional materials on dog food if they let you know they have a pet dog.
- Providing customers with a sense of security by using a well-known technology that customers use every day.
- Ensuring customers can easily communicate with your business, with no training or added knowledge required.
Top 3 Ways to Build Trust in Your Business Via SMS
There are many tools available to help build trust in your business, including personalising customer experiences and improving business workflows through automated processes. Although these tools may be effective, SMS provides a simple and cost-effective way for your business to build customer trust, without complicated and time-consuming integrations such as CRM upgrades or automation workflows.
1. Customer support via SMS hotlines
Have you ever tried to contact a business for customer support, only to be left on hold for hours on end? A complicated customer support process is one of the most frustrating experiences a customer can have and can cause them to lose trust in your business. In fact, 86% of customers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience, with customer experience expected to overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator.
Implementing an SMS solution in your business as an SMS support hotline can help to avoid negative feedback. Our 2-way SMS tool gives you the flexibility to add a dedicated virtual SMS number to your account and send and receive unlimited SMS replies from customers for free. Taking the pressure off your phone lines and resolving support queries faster provides your customers with a sense of security when it comes to purchasing from your business, ultimately building trust.
2. Customer feedback through satisfaction surveys
Positive customer feedback is one of the most important ways to build trust in your business. With 93% of customers saying that online reviews influence their purchase decisions, customer feedback is vital to the health of your business and your revenue.
Sending your customers an SMS to complete a customer satisfaction SMS survey is an easy way to receive feedback on your products and/or services and build trust in your business. You can schedule SMS to be sent after a customer has made a purchase, or once they’ve attended their appointment.
3. Account security via 2-factor authentication
If your organisation is the target of a cyber attack, your business’ reputation may be harmed, as well as experiencing a loss of customer trust and confidence. Organisations in regulated industries such as finance, education, healthcare and government need to ensure that their services follow strict security and compliance protocols to protect customers’ privacy and information.
If your business falls into this category, a great way to build trust and add a layer of protection to your customers’ accounts is to set up an SMS solution for 2-factor authentication (2fa). 2fa provides your customers with added security when it comes to accessing their account or logging into your online portal, building customer trust and reducing vulnerability to cyber threats.
Implement Notifyre’s SMS Solution to Start Building Trust in Your Business Today
There’s no reason why you need to spend thousands on enhancing the customer experience to build trust in your business. Implementing SMS is a simple, cost-effective way to improve communications with your customers and provide them with a sense of comfort, consistency and security that they need to make a purchase from your business and turn into repeat buyers. Create your Notifyre account and get started with pay-as-you-go SMS today. Discover more about leveraging online SMS to enhance customer trust and engagement by reading about why your business needs a text messaging service.
