While the majority of customers prefer handling their service issues over the phone, not every interaction needs to be a call. It’s all about delivering the right message, to the right customer or employee, at the right time, through the right channel — one of which is SMS. Compared to the average email open rate of 20%, 98% of SMS messages are opened and 95% read within 3 minutes, which makes it a convenient communication channel customers or employees are more likely to engage with. As a highly effective interaction channel, investing in contact center SMS messaging should be part of any organization’s digital transformation plan to optimize service delivery.
SMS engagements for ServiceNow involve integrating a short message service with the ServiceNow platform to enable communications in the form of click-to-text, SMS surveys, or one-way and two-way interactions. Each SMS is routed through ServiceNow’s Advanced Work Assignment (AWA) and pushed to the appropriate agent inbox based on agent availability, skills, and capacity. This process eliminates the need to integrate and manage external flows in other platforms while allowing for better resource allocation and real-time adjustment through a unified agent workspace. Integrated within the ServiceNow workspace, SMS helps complement other AWA routed communication channels, such as embedded voice (CTI) and ServiceNow’s digital channels, to enable a fully omnichannel and single agent workspace.
Research shows that 89% of customers are more likely to make repeat purchases following a positive service experience. Repeat customers means more revenue for your business without the costs associated with retaining new ones. In fact, acquiring new customers can cost up to five times more than keeping the ones you have. The same goes for retaining your existing employees — replacing an employee can cost up to four times the position’s salary. That’s a lot of costs that can easily be avoided by providing satisfactory service and support. An SMS integration with ServiceNow helps deliver the seamless service required to create positive customer or employee experiences. Through automated SMS notifications, templated SMS messages, and the ability to partake in multiple SMS conversations at once, tickets can be resolved faster and more conveniently compared to if every customer or employee waits in a call queue. The decreased number of callers also effectively reduces call wait times and gives agents enough time to provide better quality service to the people who do still call.
Given the many ways in which SMS can be leveraged to drive personalized, fast, and convenient service engagements, here are a few examples for how it drives value:
Click-to-text enables agents to leverage templated SMS responses or create customized messages. This functionality helps create easy, fast, and personalized engagements directly from the ServiceNow workspace. Because of the ServiceNow integration, each message is automatically logged under the corresponding contact record and related tickets, saving time and money. For example, an agent can easily select an available SMS template to quickly share a knowledge article, update on a case, or send an appointment reminder.
Automated SMS helps quickly inform customers and employees with relevant updates, reminders, and information based on historical contact data and real-time triggers. Important information such as service outages, appointment reminders, password reset links, suggested continuous learning or knowledge articles, and updates on newly created/updated/closed tickets, can swiftly be communicated without adding additional calls or tasks for the agent. To truly streamline experiences for agents, customers or employees, automated SMS messaging should be integrated into your ServiceNow workflows to complement voice self-service and live agent interactions.
Per a recent study, 59% of Gen Z and Millennials report finding instant messaging or email to be the superior way of “getting things done”, compared to 49% of Gen X and Baby Boomers who indicate a preference for calls and meetings. The generational difference highlights the importance of offering multi-channel support through phone, SMS, and digital channels (such as ServiceNow’s native email and chat) so that every customer's unique preferences can be met. When a customer or employee doesn’t have the time, the need, or simply doesn’t want to make a phone call, two-way SMS messaging is a simple solution to deliver personalized and efficient service in a non-verbal way. Integrated with ServiceNow’s Advanced Work Assignments (AWA), incoming SMS requests are automatically routed to the most qualified agent based on historical information, agent expertise, and real-time identified needs. Once the right agent is identified, an automated screen-pop appears within the existing ServiceNow workspace (such as the Configurable Workspace or Service Operations Workspace) to provide agents with a unified view of contact records, tickets, and engagement data. Through an omnichannel-activated platform, agents can efficiently partake in the SMS interaction, providing the customer or employee with quick and accurate answers to their questions.
With a 98% open rate and 45% response rate, compared to 20% and 6% for email, sending surveys through SMS messaging is an effective way for any organization to increase response rates for a comprehensive view of performance and results. Leveraging voice and IVR workflows in ServiceNow, the SMS surveys can be automatically triggered based on real-time events, such as a call ending, a ticket being closed, or a ticket updated with new information. This automated process not only creates consistency where each customer or employee receives a survey in a timely manner, but it also eliminates otherwise manual agent work — freeing up time for your team to focus on other tasks at hand.
SMS messaging for ServiceNow is a convenient solution that complements other existing service channels, such as integrated voice or ServiceNow’s digital channels, to provide quick and easy service and support. By eliminating manual agent work and reducing call volumes, SMS messaging helps contact center organizations drive increased agent productivity, improved employee or customer experiences, and reduced operational costs. Curious to learn more about SMS integration and how it can benefit your business? That’s great! Schedule a meeting with an expert today for a personalized consultation, or learn more about SMS messaging here.
