A Nifty Guide on Mastering the CRM-SMS Mix

When Urban Planners and Architects design a city, they must understand the relationships between different elements like the buildings, roads, parks, population structure, and people’s activities to create a functional and efficient city layout. The same principles apply when it comes to communicating with your customers. Understanding the relationships between different pieces of information is crucial for designing impactful and rewarding outcomes.  

In this series, we'll explore how CINNOX, a platform that uses the architectural principles of relationships in data to help you elevate your business, even make forecast on what to expect by studying the relationships in data.  

While the rest of your competitors break their heads over understanding the generative AI and how it can be used in the omnichannel communication mix, we have a hardcore, proven hack for you to score a homerun with your customers and make the most of the captured data.  

Now, you might be wondering what is the big deal about capturing and logging minute customer data or every interaction with customers? If your sales exec can close a deal using his or her superior product knowledge and personal charm and wit, that is good enough for you. Or, if your customer care representative is able to resolve an enquiry to your customer’s satisfaction then you need not worry about anything else, right?

Wrong - you could not be further from the truth.  

Think long term. Every single interaction happening between your staff and your customers is like a gold-dust that’s difficult to come by. Centralising captured data from customer not only helps in linking customer data with their identity on your CRM to provide a 360-degree view of your customer across all touchpoints, it also helps in creating hyper-personalised and relevant experiences, which can make all the difference when it comes to differentiating your business from your competitors.  

A CRM without comprehensive customer data is akin to a library without books. The primary role of a CRM is to centralise customer identities, interactions, communication preferences, purchases, feedback, and more. When empowered with exhaustive data, your CRM system becomes more than just a management tool - it morphs into a predictive, proactive, and personalised instrument of customer experience.

‍Bridging Customer Identities and Data to Supercharge your CRM

Do you want to be able to pinpoint exactly what your customers want, even before they express it. A dream, right? But this isn't some far-fetched fantasy. When we treat customer data not as mere numbers but as extension or descriptors of identity, we delve deeper into the psyche of the customer. Every touchpoint, interaction, preference, and expectation captures a piece of their identity. By understanding who the customer truly is - beyond their buying habits - across channels, needs, and their interrelations, your business can optimise support and outcomes, and tailor experiences that resonate with them on a deeply personal level.  

Today, we are with a plethora of channels to connect with our customers. But with these channels comes the challenge of fragmented customer identities. A customer may prefer voice support on one day and web chat the next. Their preferences shift, and their interactions span across various platforms. By holistically viewing and understanding these identities and behaviours across channels, businesses can create an interconnected web of touchpoints. When a business can anticipate needs and preferences, it can route the customer to the best equipped agent to assist them. This not only fosters efficiency but establishes deep, lifelong bonds based on tailored experiences.

‍How CINNOX Conducts a Symphony of Customer Interactions

‍CRM systems have always been the backbone of customer relationship strategies. However, to truly unlock its potential, it needs the right catalyst. While CRM systems serve as the data repositories, CINNOX is the powerful solution that breathes life into this data.

‍1. Holistic Data Consolidation

Where traditional platforms might offer patchy integrations, CINNOX seamlessly absorbs data from every conceivable touchpoint, be it web chats, voice calls, emails, SMS, video calls, conferences, or phone systems, and centralises the pool of data and interactions under one roof. This ensures that businesses don't just see interactions—they witness journeys.

‍2. Real-time Identity Mapping

Every interaction a customer has with a business adds a new layer to their identity. CINNOX doesn’t merely record these interactions; it dynamically aids your agents in updating customer identities in real-time. So, when a customer expresses a new preference on a chat, it's instantly reflected, allowing the next agent they might interact with to have that knowledge at their fingertips.

‍3. Intelligent Agent Pairing

Using its intelligent routing principles, CINNOX has the unique capability of matching first-time customers to best-suited agents based on their multiple data points, which include but are not limited to their location, preferred language, channels, purchase history, nature of enquiry, time zone, etc. Similarly, if it’s a returning customer, CINNOX is capable of pairing the customer with an expert or an agent who interacted with them previously, to be able to maintain a consistently positive experience. Think of it as a matchmaking algorithm, ensuring that customers are always greeted by someone who understands their history, preferences, and quirks.

‍4. Proactive Interaction Recommendations

CINNOX empowers businesses to be proactive when it comes to communicating with their customers. Based on the rich, multi-dimensional data housed on our platform, CINNOX can help you effectively manage risk and prevent fraudulent practices.

Let’s understand this using an example of a data breach in a retail bank, and how CINNOX can help manage the crisis situation.

In the event of a significant data breach at a retail bank, your support team will be able to swiftly identify the affected accounts and prioritise these customers for immediate outreach via SMS or Email using CINNOX.

A dedicated service group with specialised agents who have comprehensive information about the situation and are prepped to handle the situation can be setup within CINNOX, and as the inevitable enquiries flood in, they can be routed to this service group.

The Power of CRM and SMS: A Dynamic Duo for Customer Engagement

When you are equipped with a comprehensive understanding of your customers' expectations and behaviours, you can easily identify the most effective promotional campaigns for appropriate customer segments in your CRM. This allows you to connect their experiences seamlessly with your team of professional service agents. And amidst the cacophony of social media buzz and email pings, there's an old friend that's making ripples before the tidal wave and can prove to be your most effective promotional channel - SMS.  

With a staggering 6.92 billion smartphone users globally in 2023, the reach of SMS is vast. It's the steadfast lighthouse in the stormy sea of fleeting app trends, where 25% of mobile apps are abandoned after a single use. SMS stands its ground, boasting a 98% open rate with 90% of messages read within 3 minutes, a true reflection of higher trust that customers place on brands using this channel.

Post pandemic slowdown, SMS is not just surviving, it's thriving. It's the reliable sidekick in every stage of the customer journey, from the first 'welcome’ to the ongoing 'we're here for you'.  

But what makes SMS such a potent tool for engagement when you have so many rich-media channels to communicate with customers?

• SMS Templates

You can’t even imagine the amount of time you’d save for your team by creating and saving SMS templates. CINNOX's SMS templates save you from composing your campaign messages from scratch and help to streamline your SMS campaigns, ensuring consistency and quality while saving precious time. The result? Higher engagement rates and happier customers.

• Bulk Messages

With CINNOX, you can send out regular alerts and notifications, promotional discounts, events, and tips to a specific segment of contacts, all with a single click. But what truly makes CINNOX stand out from other players in the market is the flexibility it offers to add individualised interaction web links for cross-channel chat or call with dedicated experts or service groups. In doing so, you've got a recipe for customer engagement success.

• Personalised SMS

The secret sauce in the SMS engagement recipe is personalisation. Sending personalised SMS directly from your web browser without having to switch tabs or apps may have sounded fancy earlier. With CINNOX Chrome Extension, we’ve got you covered. You can directly compose and send SMS to your customers from any webpage. It's like having a one-on-one conversation with each customer, without breaking the flow of your work.

• Scheduling and Tracking

When you can schedule your social media posts, videos, and blog posts, then why not SMS? Scheduling your SMS with just a few clicks shouldn’t be so complicated. We understand it. By scheduling your SMS campaign messages, you can ensure that the messages reach your customers at the right time, every time. And with CINNOX's clear visualisation of sent and incoming SMSs, you also have complete visibility of past conversations, avoiding confusion and ensuring a seamless customer experience.  

• Real-time Customer Service

Text messaging can be a great way to provide real-time customer service. By enabling customers to send texts with their enquiries or requests, businesses can provide fast, convenient support that meets customers' expectations for speedy service. This could include anything from answering product or service-related questions to providing troubleshooting assistance.

• Conducting Surveys and Collecting Feedbacks

Text messaging can be a great way to collect feedback from customers and gain deeper insights into how they feel about various aspects of your products, services or even your brand’s perception. By sending out quick surveys or feedback requests through SMS, businesses can gather valuable feedback and use the data to make improvements to their products or services, and even formulate marketing and communication strategies.  

• Appointment Reminders

Sending appointment reminders via SMS can help reduce no-shows and ensure that customers are prepared and ready for their appointments. This can be especially useful in industries such as healthcare or beauty, where missed appointments can be costly and inconvenient for both the customer and the business.  

Use Cases for SMS and CRM Integration

• Abandoned Cart Recovery

By integrating SMS with your CRM system, you can set up automated SMS messages to be sent to customers who have abandoned items in their shopping carts. These messages can include discount codes or other incentives to encourage customers to complete their purchases.  

• Up-sell and Cross-sell Campaigns

SMS messaging can be a great way to promote up-sell and cross-sell opportunities to your customers. By integrating SMS with your CRM system, you can identify customers who may be interested in add-on products or services and send them targeted SMS messages with relevant offers.  

• Customer Loyalty Programs

Text messaging can also be a great way to promote your customer loyalty programs. By integrating SMS with your CRM system, you can send personalised messages to customers based on their purchase history or other engagement metrics, encouraging them to join your loyalty program and providing them with incentives to remain engaged.  

• Event Reminders

If your business holds events or appointments, SMS messaging can be a great way to remind customers of these events and encourage them to attend. By integrating SMS with your CRM system, you can schedule automated SMS messages to be sent to customers in advance of these events, ensuring that they are aware of the details and are prepared to attend.

The Versatility of SMS

• Event Invitations and Updates

SMS messaging can be a great way to keep customers updated about upcoming events or to invite them to special events. By sending out event invitations and updates via SMS, businesses can ensure that customers are aware of the latest news and happenings, leading to stronger engagement and attendance rates.  

When it comes to enhancing customer engagement, SMS and CRM are two sides of the same coin. While SMS enables you to connect with your customers directly and instantly, CRM helps you manage these interactions effectively, providing a holistic view of your customer journey.  

When used together, they form a powerful combination that can significantly enhance your customer engagement strategy.  

• Stay Connected at Every Stage

Just like any good mystery novel, the customer journey is not linear or in a straight line; it's a winding path with multiple touchpoints, just like the multiple twists and turns in story arcs that make up a captivating experience. With the integration of SMS channel with your CRM, you can engage with your customers at every stage of this journey. Whether it's a welcome message for a new sign-up, a promotional offer for a potential lead, or a follow-up message for a loyal customer, you can send SMS right from your CRM, ensuring timely and relevant communication.

• Streamline Data and Customer Management

Data is the lifeblood of customer engagement. But managing this data can be a daunting task. That's where CRM comes in. By integrating SMS channel with your CRM system on CINNOX, you can effectively put a unified data and customer management process in place. This means all your customer data, including SMS interactions, delivery reports, open rates, responses etc, are stored and organised in one place, making it easier for you to manage and leverage this data for personalised engagement and to enhance campaign performance.

• Optimise Decisions with Data Visualisation

One of the key benefits of using CINNOX as a unified platform to integrate SMS channel with your existing CRM system is access to centralised data ecosystem it provides when all systems are functioning in sync with one another. CINNOX can help you analyse your SMS engagement data, identify trends and patterns, and make informed decisions to optimise your engagement strategy.

• Boost Operational Efficiency and Business Outcomes

Finally, integrating SMS channel with your CRM system on CINNOX can significantly boost your operational efficiency. You have the flexibility of setting standard and dynamic SMS campaigns to cater to your business objectives, schedule messages to be sent later, track responses from your SMS campaigns, and update customer profiles along the way, making the sales process more fluid.