Best Practices for Texting Customers

Texting has become one of the most powerful tools for connecting with customers. A well-crafted text message can enhance customer experience, improve response rates, and drive business. To make the most of texting, you should follow these tips to ensure messages are clear and professional. 

Tips for Texting Customers 

• Do not use Caps Lock. Messages that are entirely in uppercase letters can appear aggressive or unprofessional, and may cause your message to be flagged as spam.
  
  

• Ensure proper grammar. Having good grammar and no spelling mistakes ensures that your message appears professional and easy to read.
  
  

• Use a signature. This helps customers identify who they’re conversing with and adds a personal touch. Click here to learn how to change your signature.
  
  
  Some examples of good signatures:

  • John

  • John S.

  • John @ (Company name)
    

• Emojis can make a message stand out. We recommend using maximum one emoji per message. Any more than that will use a lot of segments and can trigger spam filters with some mobile carriers.
  
  
  
  
• Don’t leave a customer hanging! In a text conversation, customers expect an average of 30 minutes for a response at most. If you are quick with responses, your customers will tend to answer you quicker as well, helping you get faster approvals and avoid phone tag!
  
  
  
  
  
• Make use of saved replies. Having saved replies help you respond to customer inquiries faster and with consistent professionalism. Click here to learn how to manage saved replies. Note that you will need the right permissions to do so.
  
  
  
  
• Be proactive. Make sure to update your customers at least once during their visit. You can use saved replies to save time.
  
  
  
  
• Be mindful of the tone. Texting is not the same as email, so there’s no need to have a structured message. Text your customer as if you were talking to them face-to-face.
  
  
  
  
• A picture is worth a thousand words. Know when to use a picture or video to keep your message concise and avoid long text descriptions.
  
  

• Know when to switch to a phone call. Long explanations or sensitive subjects are often best conducted over a phone call rather than through text. 
  
  

• Avoid industry jargon. Most customers do not understand complex mechanics or technical terms. Using layman’s terms is best to avoid confusion and frustration.
  
  

• If a customer does not receive your messages, ask them to check their spam. It may rarely happen when a customer says they did not receive a text. This is usually because the message was filtered by their device’s spam folder and can be found there.
  
  

• Close unnecessary conversations. Conversations that are kept open cannot be automatically reassigned by the system when needed. This can lead to another user missing a customer message because the conversation was not assigned to them.