Introduction
Have you been experiencing increased customer appointment cancellation or lower turnout or turnout when least expecting? If you are, then you have a problem. As a business owner you would want to attend to your customers at both of your suitable times. So when the timing mismatches either your customers feel neglected or your time gets wasted.
This is why if you use an sms reminder to alert your customers beforehand about their upcoming appointment then it will save you and them a great deal of hassle. You could say that there are other ways to communicate like an email, whatsapp, etc. Sure there are but they all need an active internet connection. There are several areas in the US where the internet connection is patchy despite there being cell coverage. So using an SMS appointment meeting scheduler will help you reach out to more customers.
Here Are Best Practices You Can Follow For Using Automated Meeting Reminders:
Timing Is Everything
When delivering an SMS you should remember that timing is a very crucial aspect. You see SMS are not very disturbing but if you send it at a time when the customer is busy then the entire time and resources spent creating that SMS will go to waste.
Here are some tips to follow:
- It is best to send a reminder 24 hours before the appointment starts.
- Send a reminder in the morning or in the evening. This way the customer will either read the SMS in the morning before going to work or in the evening after returning from work.
- Do not under any circumstances send an SMS to your client during the afternoon unless it is an emergency. Since this is the time that they are most busiest in the entire day.
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Personalisation
Remember the key is to make the customer feel important. So you have to make your clients feel valued by adding a touch of gratitude. For example- suppose you run a dental clinic. So you can send out SMS reminders like ‘hey there your teeth need some attention, care to check it out…’Little personal messages like these add value to otherwise boring texts and hence increases the chance of the customer responding to the text.
While sending a SMS text you should understand the importance of psychology, especially the art of persuading people to pay attention to your text. A little bit of human personal touch can sometimes do the necessary trick for the upliftment of the conversion rate.
Make A Solid Plan
Whenever you are making any appointment reminder text slots, you should always plan way ahead and prepare appropriate responses. For example- the reactions to a customer’s appointments like what to reply to their texts with or what appropriate response to give them whenever they are enquiring. This way the conversation will be more engaging and free flow rather than becoming monotonous. This is highly important because customers will not be sold on text reminders alone, they need to feel a connection too. They need to be told why they need to honor a particular appointment or things like that.
Make Every Space Count
Unlike web messages, SMS have a very short character count (160) and hence can only be used to say things which are important. Do not engage in unnecessary greetings if your content is long enough already. Remember to maintain the relevancy and significance of all the data and at the same time make sure that the copy is simple and straightforward.
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Automation
Appointment rescheduling apps and software can help them reschedule, cancel or inquire about their upcoming appointments with relative ease. You can highlight this aspect in the reminder SMS that you will be sending. This might just help them remember the appointment and also increase their chances of showing up. Also if the customer is replying ‘NO’ to your automated chatbot then simply do not close the conversation by saying ok. Instead you should draft an appropriate response like ‘No problem, is there any other date we could set up the appointment? Kindly let us know’
Conclusion
It is messages like these that help your business stand out amongst the crowd. You see customers expect a certain degree of sophistication when they are handled. So you as a consumer centric business should always practice using courteous language in every one of your texts.