A Definite Guide to Transactional SMS Service

How many times a day do you open your mailbox to check for email updates? Hardly, 3 to 4 times a day? In comparison to email, the open rate for SMS is 98%. These powerful, tiny messages are the direct way to connect with your customers, with unrivaled open rates and lightning-fast delivery. This blog delivers everything you need to start with transactional SMS and keep your customers informed and engaged.

What is Transactional SMS?

A transactional SMS is a direct and automatic notification sent to the customer. The essential purpose of this notification is to keep your customers informed and updated about your business, services, and latest offerings for a better customer experience. People often confuse transactional SMS with push notifications or other promotional messages, but both are different. Unlike promotional stuff, transaction SMS provides customers with necessary and sometimes susceptible information.

Have you ever noticed a message on your smartphone notifying you about your recent login to a mobile banking application or when you made an online transaction? That' a transactional message from your bank to keep you updated about your activities.

Such transactional SMS safeguards your customers' sensitive concerns and makes them feel valued and secure with your brand. They serve as digital concierges, delivering critical updates and quick alerts to clients.

What Can Transactional SMS Service Do for Your Business?

Whether managing a small online business from home or running a full-fledged e-commerce business, transactional SMS service can do wonders for your business. It works no less than a miracle for nearly all types of companies. Here are some ways you can benefit from a transactional SMS provider.

• Increase Brand Loyalty: customers are more attracted to a brand when valued and cared for. Sending transaction SMS to your customers to update them on important details like recent purchases, order placement, and online payments will improve customer satisfaction and reduce support inquiries. This service adds trust and professionalism to your business interactions by delivering official confirmations.
• Enhance Customer Service: what does getting instant order confirmations, a seamless password reset with a PIN code at the perfect time, and appointment updates feel like? Your customers love these instant updates, and transactional bulk SMS service makes this a reality. By providing your customers with this fast communication channel, you can significantly enhance their experience.
• Incomparable Open Rates: No communication channel can beat the open rates of transactional SMS. With a staggering open rate of 98%, these messages ensure that the customer sees your update. In comparison to emails that get lost in mailboxes, transactional SMS is instantly seen by the customers.
• Instant Delivery & Global Reach: Instant delivery service of transactional SMS makes them ideal for businesses with a widespread international clientele. This service transcends global boundaries, delivering critical updates to customers irrespective of location. You can send messages to customers anywhere in the world.
• Keeping your Clients Secure: Privacy and security are the primary concerns of customers while interacting with any brand. Providing critical updates to your clients, especially on their sensitive information (account activity, payment confirmation, password reset), keeps them secure and safe. Further, you can send one-time passwords or fraud alerts to strengthen security.
• Measurable Results Tracking: Can monitor the progress of your campaigns. With transaction SMS, key analytics about a campaign's success, like open times and delivery rates, can be evaluated. Businesses can gain essential insights from these metrics and improve their future messages to achieve better results and a wider reach.

The outreach of transaction SMS extends beyond retailer brands. Healthcare providers, the banking sector, airlines, travel agencies, beauty centers, and many other businesses can do seamless business operations and provide commendable customer experiences by incorporating transactional SMS service into their business models.

Classic Transactional SMS Service and Use Cases

As we have seen the immense benefits that a transactional bulk SMS service can add to your business, let' dive deeper into how it can streamline your business operations. With its applications across multiple industries and customer touchpoints, this service has created a new world of comfort and peace for customers and businesses alike. Let' explore real-life use cases to understand how a classic transactional SMS service works!

Case 1 :Retail Sector

With the ever-increasing hype of e-commerce, it has become necessary for retail brands to keep in touch with their customers. Brands usually employ transactional SMS to improve post-purchase experience with timely updates. Following are some of the examples of notifications that retail brands send to their customers:

Your order # xxxx has been placed successfully and confirmed by us. Your delivery should arrive within 3 to 5 working days. Thank you for choosing us! Your order # xxxx is now out for delivery via XYZ courier service. Please follow the link below to track: [tracking link]. We regret to inform you that an item [code: xxx] in your shopping cart is out of stock. We'll' let you know when it' restocked. Would you like to check our other articles in the summer collection? [website link] Happy shopping!

Case 2 :Healthcare Sector

Although most businesses in this sector have yet to utilize SMS service, it can do much in this domain. Sending transactional messages about necessary appointments and other details can improve patients' experience.

Here are some messages a healthcare institute often sends to its patients.

Greeting! Your appointment with Dr. Smith at Monday 3 pm has been booked against appointment # xxx. Please ensure your presence in the clinic at the given time. We regret to inform you that your appointment scheduled for Monday has been canceled because of a public holiday. To get a new appointment, reply 'Refund' or 'Reschedule.' Respected customer, your reports [diary number] are ready for collection. During working hours, you can collect them from our laboratory between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Hello! Your prescription refill is ready for pickup. Don' forget to bring your original paid invoice with you.

Case 3 :Travel & Hospitality Sector

Transactional SMS service has multiple applications in the travel and hospitality industry. Businesses can keep their customers updated on bookings, ticket confirmations, canceled flights, pending payments, and other minor details. Given below are some of the transactional SMS sent by such businesses:

You have just booked an air ticket with XYZ Airline from [departure location] to [destination]. Please follow the link [www.ticket.com] to see ticket details and payment details. The booking will be automatically canceled if not paid for within 24 hours. Dear Customer! We are sorry for the inconvenience caused by your flight cancellation. You can either request complete refund or rebook a new flight by logging in to our website. Happy travels!

Professional Transactional SMS Service Expert-EngageLab

We understand that it' quite hard to do all the marketing stuff yourself while handling your day-to-day business activities. But don' worry that have brought you the market giant and expert in SMS service providers. If you want to keep your customers updated about minor details of their activity with your business, you can rely on the shoulders of the giant, EngageLab.  Here's why EngageLab should be your top choice among so many options available on the internet.

Getting Started in a Few Steps

EngageLab is an ideal partner for your business needs as it has a user-friendly interface. You can simply visit EngageLab' product pageto check out their transactional SMS service and sign up for a free trial.

Sign Up for Free Account :Visit EngageLab and create a new account by providing relevant information. It will require your active email address, phone number, and new password for your EngageLab account. If you're a previous user, you can log in with your email address and password.

Activate Transactional SMS Service: Once you sign in to your account, you will see several services provided by EngageLab. Scroll down and choose Transactional SMS service. This will direct you to a new page where you can see analytics and lead you to the transactional SMS dashboard.

Setting up Sender ID: Make some time to set up your sender ID, as the alphanumeric name will appear at the top of your message at the receiver' end. Try to choose a sender ID that represents your brand well. EngageLab will guide you through the process to ensure legitimacy. Try to use the same name as your brand, it will build confidence among people as they know with whom they are interacting.

Creating Transactional SMS Template : You often need to send messages repeatedly, such as order confirmation messages, OTP texts, security codes, delivery updates, payment confirmations, etc. So, it' always a better idea to predesign some message templates to save your time and effort. You can easily create SMS templates, as EngageLab provides pre-filled text fields to customize your message.

API Integration :This step is entirely optional. By integrating API with your website or social media pages, you can automate the process using transactional SMS API. This setting will allow EngageLab to send an automatic message each time a customer orders or reminds the patient a day before an appointment.

Delivering your Transactional SMS Globally

EngageLab expands beyond international boundaries and delivers your messages across more than 200 countries. Reaching a diversified audience isn' a problem anymore. With EngageLab' transactional SMS service, you can easily interact with clients in any country, and that's also done in a few simple steps. Isn' it just wow!

EngageLab stands out from other SMS service providers' strong adherence to and compliance with local and international laws on user data privacy, personal/sensitive information, and cybersecurity. So, your clients and company' data are safe and protected.

Intelligent Delivery Strategies

Are you a new entrepreneur and worried about your limited marketing budget? Don't worry EngeLab has you covered. You can easily tailor your transactional SMS with EngageLab to meet your requirements in terms of delivery rates, messaging speed, and cost-effective solutions. EngageLab allows you to customize your messages per your requirements and preferences.

Combining Transactional SMS Service with Push Notifications

A plus point of using EngageLab is preventing losses from failed push notification messages. EngageLab automatically sends a transactional SMS if your push notification isn't delivered to the end user, ensuring the customer sees the specific information.

Bottom Line

We hope you've gained key insights from this blog post regarding transactional SMS services and how to leverage their full potential. To get more details on how it works and its salient features, visit EngageLab. You can also get a free trial to check out exciting features.

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