The top 15 ways Businesses use SMS
In this article you will find a collection of different use cases for SMS messaging. Each use case notes some possible implementations of this in examples with an accompanying SMS conversation.
Use cases in this article:
- Booking confirmations
- IT notifications
- Delivery tracking
- Event management
- Employee communication
- Customer support
- Food delivery & online ordering
- Emergency alerts
- Appointment reminders
- Alerts & notifications
- Billing & payments
- Rostering
- Feedback and surveys
- Click & collect
- Two-factor authentication (2FA)
See Group Text Use Case Flyers
1. SMS for booking confirmations
Improve every customer experience with SMS booking confirmations and reminders.
- Easier Confirmations - Make your confirmations and reminders more accessible on mobile devices
- Connected to your tools - Automate the sending of confirmations through SMS and boost productivity
- Build loyalty - Remind customers to book for special occasions early so they don’t miss out
How using SMS for booking confirmations can benefit your business
SMS and two way messaging helps you to send and receive booking and reservation confirmations - boosting productivity and enhancing end-to-end service.
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Hospitality Save time with automated confirmations to confirm the restaurant, date, time and party size of their booking with simple responses.
Travel
Whether you run a hotel, motel, bed & breakfast or travel centre, you need a reliable and efficient way to confirm bookings that your visitors can use.
Hair and beauty
Sending a follow-up SMS confirmation for booked appointments helps ensure that your client knows exactly when they’re expected. Healthcare
Appointment reminders reduce no-shows in healthcare. SMS confirmations help ensure your patients know where to be and what they need.
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Reduce no-shows and missed appointments with booking reminders
Missed bookings can hurt your business. Send bulk SMS booking reminders with two-way messaging to manage confirmations, cancellations, rescheduling and answer questions on the one platform with multiTXT.
2. SMS for IT notifications
Keep everyone informed on the status of the critical IT services, issues and updates when you stay in touch with text messaging
- Faster, reliable notifications - Deliver time-critical alerts such as unplanned service outages and updates
- Automated alerts - Connect to your technology stack to automate indecent alerts and notifications
- Boost data security - Deliver one-time passcodes for on demand authentications such as 2FA
How using SMS for IT notifications can benefit your business
Keep your staff and clients informed with fast and convenient messages that improve your everyday communications, quality of service and your responsiveness to unexpected issues.
Information technology and services
Keep your team and clients informed on upcoming software releases and planned maintenance outages, as well as notify critical personnel when unplanned outages occur. Financial services Minimise downtime when an unplanned outage occurs by integrating and automating IT notifications to rapidly mobilise your IT workforce to get you back up and running. Healthcare Protect valuable patient and clinic data through 2FA notifications and fast IT notifications to improve your responsiveness and get systems back online faster. Call centres Reduce downtime to support more customers with fast SMS alerts for service outages and create automated workflows that utilise 2FA for authentication to get faster resolutions for customers |
The benefits of SMS
Two-way messaging can help keep your staff and clients informed on the status of mission critical IT systems, planned software updates and everyday business updates.
3. SMS for delivery tracking
Ensure your supply chain is kept up-to-date and improve customer experience with SMS parcel tracking
- Deliver to expectation - Send SMS notifications and let your customers know when their parcel is due
- Connected tools - Automate the confirmations and updates with integrations to boost productivity
- Reduce lost packages - Ensure parcels are received with SMS for delivery and parcel tracking
How using SMS for delivery tracking can benefit your business
61% of respondents to a recent survey said they would have messed a parcel or delivery if they hadn't received an SMS. Make test messaging part of your brilliant customer experiences.
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eCommerce Enhance your customer’s experience by ensuring every parcel is delivered safely to their hands and reduce post-sales followup. Retail Keep your stock and your customers up to date with what’s available and when new stock or deliveries have arrived. Healthcare Ensure that personal equipment and medication is delivered on time when you can confirm receipt with the patient or clinic. Telecommunications Ensure valuable devices and hardware are sent and received to your customers and avoid misdirection by sending delivery status updates. |
Future of SMS
Take your ability to update and inform customers to new levels. Rich messaging, including map integration and mobile landing pages, can enrich every customer experience.
4. SMS for event management
Create memorable events that run smoothly when you coordinate attendees and staff with text messaging
- Easier ticketing- Send rapidly accessible tickets straight to your customer's mobile device
- Promote events - Capture attention by promoting and reminding your attendees of events
- Event coordination - Manage a team by delivering updates and changes with SMS communications
How using SMS for event management can benefit your business
Use SMS as a promotions strategy, deliver tickets, send reminders and survey attendees. Coordinate your event organisers with lightning-fast text messaging.
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Not for profits Engage your community base to kickstart events and invite attendees. Plus, begin recruiting your event staff and manage their rostering. Government Boost awareness of your public events with SMS campaigns. Easily send and receive invitations, tickets, reminders and RSVPs to manage attendance volumes. Professional Services Make sure your clients are informed and engaged by maximising attendance at your events. Send well-timed event invitations and confirmations directly to mobile devices. Hospitality Streamline event promotion, ticketing and event check-in when you incorporate SMS into your event marketing strategy. Boost attendance and improve experiences for any type of event. |
Consumer attitudes to business SMS
The benefits of bulk SMS and two-way messaging can help you setup, promote and manage successful events through the mobile phones of staff and attendees
5. SMS for employee communication
Empower your employees with the right information when you send them with timely SMS updates.
- Staff updates - Keep staff members informed with time-sensitive alerts and business updates
- Conversational messaging - Manage operations and open communication with two-way messaging
- Streamline staff rostering - Automate shift reminders, open-shift notifications, and schedule confirmations
How using SMS for internal communication can benefit your business
Have your messages read faster with SMS for your company and individual communication. Studies have shown 90% of text messages are read within 90 seconds.
Government |
Shift bidding by SMS delivers healthy results
SMS as an immediate and non-intrusive communication channel for sending and receiving internal communications, is proving itself an effective solution for employee rostering and to rapidly fill last-minute roster vacancies.
6. SMS for customer support
Enhance your end-to-end customer experience with SMS conversational messaging.
- Faster outcomes - SMS messages are opened faster and more often to help resolve issues faster
- Manage multiple chats - Boost productivity with two-way SMS so customers can respond on their time
- Effective workflow management - Handle enquires with text-based workflows that reduce call queues
How using SMS for customer support can benefit your business
Integrate and automate to redirect inbound enquiries and send support ticket updates and communicate better with your customers.
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Contact centres Adopt a multi-channel service model as an efficient and convenient way to handle customer enquiries and create better experiences. Transport and logistics Provide customers with proactive communication about any upcoming deliveries, including authority to leave messages and delivery confirmations. Hospitality and travel Establish a single point of contact so any staff member can quickly answer questions or issues that guests may have with bookings or reservations. Insurance Resolve insurance claims faster and send convenient claim-in-progress updates for better customer service. |
7. SMS for food delivery & online ordering
Create food ordering and delivery solutions that connect you directly with you customers.
- Coordinate food delivery - Keep customers up-to-date on their order's status and delivery
- Mobile first ordering - Skip the queue with SMS ordering system and two-way conversations
- Customisable SMS templates - Use easy, best-practice templates that elevate your customer experience
How using SMS for food delivery tracking and ordering can benefit your business
Give your customers more choice and a direct connection to you for food ordering and delivery service by sending updates to your customer's mobile device.
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Online ordering Let customers text their order and follow up with an order summary, order confirmation and estimated time of arrival. Delivery alerts and tracking Integrate SMS with your delivery tracking software to streamline updates and communication between the restaurant, drivers and customers. Delivery confirmations Ensure your delivery arrives with automatic delivery confirmation that keeps customers informed and happy. Track satisfaction with SMS surveys Collect valuable feedback from customers by following up with a convenient SMS survey or asking for an online review. |
Text messaging is an effective way to cut-through and is prompting every business to rethink how they can use it. Save time and money with easy coordination of online ordering and delivery with SMS.
8. SMS for emergency alerts
Keep your community up-to-date with SMS broadcast for emergency and warning notifications.
- Send time-critical updates - Get urgent messages to your community to improve public safety and awareness
- Integrate and automate - Connecting SMS creates a reliable and effective emergency notification system
- Available in more places - SMS is more reliable for delivering to more mobile devices and networks
How using SMS for emergency communications can benefit your business
Integrate SMS into your emergency alert system and message with certainty through our secure, enterprise gateway that has a 99.99% uptime.
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Government Rely on our enterprise messaging specialists who can help your government department or agency configure a secure, streamlined notification and communication system. Healthcare Integrate SMS to your systems to notify patients and staff about incidents, advise them on emergency procedures and mobilise your workforce to adapt to situations faster. Utilities Use SMS alerts to notify customers, employees and the public when outages occur or mission-critical equipment fails so that they can take precautions and respond as needed. Information technology and services Send time-critical communications to essential employees and customers when service outages, equipment failures or system breaches happen |
9. SMS for appointment reminders
Make sure your clients never miss an appointment by sending automated text message reminders.
- Confirm your customers - Reduce missed appointments by sending and receiving confirmations
- Boost your bookings - Make your unconfirmed appointment booking available and fill empty seats
- Keep your staff busy - Confirmed bookings help plan staffing requirements and improve rostering
How using SMS reminders can benefit your business
Life is increasingly busy, so it's no surprise that 75% of missed appointments are due to forgetfulness - easily remedied with an easy and effective reminder.
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Healthcare clinics Clinics have seen up to 50% reduction in no shows when an appointment reminder message is sent. Ensure out-patient follow-ups are sent and specialist appointments are scheduled months in advance. Hair and beauty salons Keep your salon full by reminding your customers about their upcoming bookings. Save your time by easily rescheduling from your mobile phone if they ask for a change. Gyms and fitness Set a schedule with your clients so they never forget an appointment. Send text messages to remind them to visit the gym and how to book trainers or classes. Professional services Ensure your clients are reminded of important meetings with a reminder service. Send them information they need to plan for or bring, such as certificates and documents |
Reduce no-shows and missed appointments with business messaging
Our research has shown us that including appointment reminders into your booking communications can reduce no-shows by up to 50%. Save time and money with easy to set reminder service.
10. SMS for alerts and notifications
Send text messages that keep people up-to-date and informed when it matters most.
- Effective messaging - Deliver faster and reliably, perfect for time-sensitive messages
- Integrated experiences - Engage with customers and staff with updates, alerts and confirmations
- Available almost everywhere - SMS delivers to more devices, regardless of network or operating system
How using SMS alerts and notifications can benefit your business
Help your staff, customers and community by sending easy and convenient messages that are read, remembered and drive outcomes.
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Healthcare SMS alerts and notifications can be used to remind customers about upcoming appointments and pre-appointment instructions. Alert staff about on-site emergencies and additional staffing requirements. Government Send time-critical updates and notifications to staff, the general public and the media. This can improve public safety during crises, deliver educational campaigns and boost issue awareness. Education Keep your parent and student community informed with SMS notifications for events, course admissions, class allocations. Send exclusive messages for class absences and student engagement. Utilities SMS is a fast and reliable method for quickly notifying customers and the public. Send messages about planned service disruptions and unplanned service outages. |
11. SMS for billing and payments
Get paid on-time when you send SMS reminders for upcoming bills and overdue payments.
- Convenient reminders- Reduce missed payments by up to 66% when you send payment reminders
- Connect your systems- Integrate SMS, CRM and billing systems to improve customer experiences
- Build better experiences - Help customers stay on top of payments with conversational messaging
How using SMS to manage billing and payment can benefit your business
SMS is a highly customisation and effective solution for reducing missed payments amongst your clients. Decreas transactions associated with failed payments and help avoid situations of debt recovery.
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Utilities Remind customers of upcoming and overdue payments, and send customisable alerts about special arrangements like payment plans. Telecommunications Advise customers that their account is will be directly debited and manage disputes. Healthcare Ensure patients are aware of the pre and post cost of their treatment, payment schedules and any out of pocket expenses. Professional Services Remind clients about outstanding bills with SMS payment reminders and get paid faster when everyone is aware of payment terms and due dates. |
12. SMS for rostering
Keep your business running smoothly and your staff up-to-date when you use SMS rostering.
- Streamline rostering- Boost productivity by coordinating staff rostering and availability centrally
- Fill shift faster - Get faster responses to open-shift notifications for unplanned absences
- Send shift reminders - Ensure your staff available with shift reminders and schedule confirmations
How using SMS for rostering can benefit your business
Keep operations running smoothly when you use SMS rostering to send shift notifications and reminders to staff.
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Government Government agencies around the world utilise SMS rostering to reduce administrative costs and manage their dynamic, contingent workforces. Healthcare Leading healthcare providers use SMS rostering to ensure more shifts are filled and reduce costs, like Estia Health who reduced agency fees by 20%. Hospitality Coordinate day-to-day staff rostering sending shift reminders, available shift notifications and confirmation schedules. Hair and beauty Ensuring and reminding staff of their shifts is just as important as making sure clients arrive for their appointments. |
Shift bidding by SMS delivers healthy results
SMS as an immediate and non-intrusive communication channel for sending and receiving internal communications, is proving itself an effective solution for employee rostering and to rapidly fill last-minute roster vacancies.
13. SMS for Feedback and Surveys
Connect with customers, staff and patients through their mobile device to collect feedback fast.
- Faster feedback- Stay on top of issues with a message-based customer feedback system
- Improve responses - Text messages are 5 times more likely to be read and actioned than email
- Connect your tools - Integrate with your CRM to create and send personalised satisfaction surveys
How using SMS surveys can benefit your business
Understand your customers on their terms by receiving and managing feedback through SMS surveys. It's the most effective way to collect timely feedback from customer and rapidly resolve issues.
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Retail and eCommerce Improve your customer satisfaction at point-of-sale, post-transaction and post-delivery with surveys via text message. Create loyal customers that return again and again. Hospitality Integrate text message surveys to understand how your customer’s experience was with your service and food. Improve your service quality and prompt customers to go online and leave a review. Automotive Improve the end-to-end dealer experience and identify customer drop-off points by checking in with customers through the sales and service process by sending surveys to their mobile phone. Government You can only manage it if you can measure it, which is why departments and agencies send SMS surveys as a reliable and effective method to measure their service quality. |
14. SMS for click and collect
- Timely notifications - Send SMS notifications and let your customers know their order is ready for collection
- Keeping contact-free - Share contactless click and collection processes that keep your customers and staff safe
- Reduce lost collections - Ensure your message is received on most mobile phones and networks via our SMS gateway
Keep your customers up-to-date with safe and easy pick-up text messages
Ecommerce has grown 5 years in the past 8 months. With more customers flocking to websites to buy online, a click and collect service is a game-changer for retailers.
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Retail and ecommerce Keep your customers informed on collection rules, opening hours and pickup times. Create better deeper connections and send personalised confirmations that are read and get cut through. Pharmacy and healthcare Integrate SMS into your systems to notify patients and staff about when it’s safe to collect medications. Ensure your staff and customers are protected with clear collection protocols. Restaurants and takeaway Let customers text in their order and follow up with a summary, confirmation and estimated pick-up time. Build one-to-one communications to confirm dietary requirements and changes to orders. |
More and more businesses across the board are on the uptake with Click and Collect offerings. That’s why it’s vital to keep customers notified about tracking, delays, and collection times for their orders.
15. SMS for two-factor authentication
Protect your valuable client, customer and business data with two-factor authentication (2FA)
- More than a password - Reduce your vulnerability to cyber threats by using two level verification
- Cost-effective solution - Additional account security without additional hardware or token licenses
- Delivered anytime, anywhere - Reliable and timely SMS that are received on any mobile device and network
How SMS for authentication and verification can benefit your business
Protect your data with SMS by using one-time passcodes (OTP) for two-factor authentication (2FA). On-demand authentications — anytime, anywhere, turn your mobile phone into a security token.
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Healthcare The healthcare sector is the third-highest industry hit with cyberattacks. Take extra steps to protect your valuable clinic and patient data with SMS two-factor authentication (2FA). Information technology and services As a cost effective solution, this 2FA solution can be deployed across a greater number of users. This translates into increased security while keeping costs and administrative overheads low. Professional services Better protect your clients valuable financial, legal and personal information. Authentication works with a variety of applications including VPN, web portal and Citrix. Government 2FA is ideal for organisations with one-time or infrequent authentication needs. This includes part-time or temporary employees, contractors, suppliers, vendors or customers
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Usernames and passwords just aren’t enough anymore, and many companies have already implemented 2-step verification to protect customers, profits and brand with authentication text messages.