SMS, more commonly referred to as text messaging, is a major part of modern life.
In fact, it’s such a big part of both our personal and business lives that it’s easy to overlook SMS as a feature. Once upon a time, SMS was magical… the ability to send a text message from a phone was like nothing that had ever been seen before.
These days, though, SMS is so integrated with the phone experience that the only time we really notice it is when there’s something wrong with a SMS app and our messages just aren’t sending.
There’s more to SMS than just texts sent from a smartphone, however. It provides quick communication that can be very useful in both business and our personal lives, and it’s a part of so much more than just our phones. That’s why we want to shine a spotlight on SMS as a feature of our VoIP service, and point out just how useful having text messaging integrated with your VoIP service can be.
SMS as a Feature
With tools through your Phone.com account, you can send and receive SMS messages from any number on your phone system.
This means that every extension in your business phone system has the option of sending text messages without having to pull out a personal phone to do so. That tool puts a lot of power into your employees’ hands, letting them check messages from their computers or fire off a quick text to a favorite client from the work extension that the client recognizes.
Received SMS messages appear in the extension’s inbox, just like any other email. What’s really impressive, though, is that these messages can also be forwarded to your phone where they will display just like any other text message. And SMS messages sent through the Phone.com system can be sent to any U.S. mobile number, just like texts that originated from a mobile device.
Running and Managing Your Business
SMS messaging is increasingly common as a way to communicate within the office or between locations.
Short memos and even longer messages are fired off to the intended recipient, creating a form of communication that’s accessible anywhere so long as the recipient has their phone with them. Given the availability of SMS through the Phone.com phone system, this becomes even more powerful as the recipient no longer even has to have a smartphone on their person so long as they have access to a computer.
Marketing and SMS
Marketing departments are warming up to SMS as a means of connecting to customers as well.
Text interaction is increasingly common between businesses and customers, especially when marketers are able to get customers to opt in to text alerts in exchange for coupons and other deals. SMS has a greater reach than just about any other medium, and it’s estimated that up to 98% of text messages are at least read before being deleted. Up to 45% of SMS messages are responded to as well, due in part to the fact that text messages are less common than other types of contact such as email so consumers are more likely to interact when they would skip a similar message in another format.
Marketers are also realizing that the marketing departments of other companies are just as slow to adopt SMS as a medium as they are. This means that rolling out SMS campaigns now might be more effective since they’re still relatively rare, giving your company a leg up on a largely untapped market. This advantage won’t last forever, though, so your SMS marketing efforts should start increasing as soon as possible.
Make the Most of SMS
Phone.com makes it easy to access SMS features, which in turn makes your entire VoIP network more powerful.
Connecting with customers and other employees is that much easier, and your marketing department has a largely untapped market right at their fingertips. This is one of more than 50 features that we provide with every customer account, too, so there are plenty of other options for powering up your business phone system as well.