Customer service in the mobile-first market

A few years ago, mobile-first became an industry-standard term. As website traffic began to shift towards a mobile majority, companies began to realise that their website, online shops and social media content needed to be optimised for mobile, first and foremost. Since then, mobiles have become further ingrained in people’s day-to-day lives, functioning as phones, computers, TVs and wallets. Nowadays, mobile isn’t just another element to consider, it’s become central to the customer service journey.

Messaging for mobile-first consumer marketing

It starts from the very first contact. Mobile messaging (where people have given permission for you to contact them) can be hugely beneficial for businesses looking to increase online orders and brand awareness. 59% of people say a promotional SMS led them to visit a store online or in-person (source: MessageMedia) and, in the US, 50% of consumers confess to having made a direct purchase after being sent a branded text or discount code (source: mobivity).

The immediacy of mobile messaging means that businesses no longer have to hope customers remember to take that trip to their store or are willing to go out of their way to make a purchase. Nothing is more than a few clicks away on a device that’s almost always to hand. Perhaps it’s not surprising that consumers redeem SMS-delivered coupons 10 times more than their paper counterparts! (source: EZ texting)

Do you want to make mobile messaging work effectively for your business? The MessageCloud “Send” product lets you send and receive SMS quickly and reliably.

Inbound marketing and customer service

Using mobile messaging to send texts, offers and reminders to customers is one thing, but the growth of mobile means that two-way conversations aren’t just a pleasantry…they may well be the future, and businesses looking to embrace this inbound marketing method can reap the rewards.

The perceived value of a product often increases if it’s supported by an engaging customer journey. 66% of consumers say they would pay more for something if it was supported by a mobile messaging channel (source: Slick Text) and more than half of consumers prefer contracting customer support via text (source: Rebrandly).

If you want a unique mobile number to receive inbound text messages to your business, the MessageCloud “Numbers” product lets you utilise long and shortcodes as well as unique numbers.

Processing quick and easy mobile payments

Once your hard work is done and you’ve obtained your new customers, the next step is to retain them. This is where direct carrier billing mobile payments can help. The more ways there are to pay, the more people will pay. With direct carrier billing spend sitting at $37 billion this year and a project 172% growth projected over the next five years (Juniper Research), it’s definitely a payment method worth considering. The great benefit of DCB is that users can make purchases without having to enter their credit card details.

DCB becomes especially important for businesses that operate an OTT content or subscription service. Content paid for via mobile carrier billing will generate more than $14billion in revenue over the next five years and 22% of all digital content spend is expected to be through carrier billing by 2025 (source: Juniper Research).

The MessageCloud “Pay” product makes DCB easy and lets you charge customers directly through their mobile phone bills.

About MessageCloud

MessageCloud is a multi-award winning mobile messaging provider. Its cloud-based SMS and messaging products enable companies to set up and manage one-way and two-way communications effortlessly. Plus, it offers products to analyse phone numbers, verify users and accept payments by mobile.

With its range of products, ‘Send’, ‘Numbers’, ‘Verify’, ‘Analyse’ and ‘Pay’, MessageCloud delivers tools that maximise mobile marketing; from virtual numbers to payment systems for carrier billing. And with more than a decade of delivering messages for diverse markets around the globe, it is a service on which you can rely.