How do SMS and WhatsApp improve customer service?

They offer instant, personalized communication, eliminating hold times and creating a more conversational experience between brands and customers.

Why should companies automate parts of their customer journey?

Automation streamlines service, reduces repetitive workload for agents, and delivers faster, more accurate responses for customers.

What kinds of messages work best through SMS or WhatsApp?

Order confirmations, ETA updates, account security notifications, and quick surveys are highly effective use cases.

How do these channels impact brand loyalty?

Consistent, proactive communication builds trust and reduces friction, increasing repeat purchases and customer retention.

What’s the biggest benefit of cloud-based communication?

CPaaS platforms like Bird unify all messaging channels under one system, giving customers real-time access to help and giving businesses complete visibility over every interaction.

SMS and WhatsApp: Transforming your customer journey with better service

Bird

28 Jan 2020

SMS & WhatsApp

1 min read

SMS and WhatsApp: Transforming your customer journey with better service

Key Takeaways

- Great customer experiences directly impact revenue — buyers with positive experiences spend 140% more than those with poor ones.
- In industries like healthcare, better communication (as seen with DrDoctor and the NHS) not only saves costs but improves outcomes.
- SMS and WhatsApp enable instant, two-way conversations that reduce friction across the customer journey.
- Proactive messages such as order confirmations, delivery updates, account alerts, and product information reduce support volume while improving satisfaction.
- Automating key touchpoints across channels helps businesses deliver real-time, contextual service without overwhelming agents.
- Integrating cloud communications (CPaaS) ensures a unified experience across SMS, chat, and voice — aligning support and marketing into one seamless journey.

Q&A Highlights

How do SMS and WhatsApp improve customer service?
They offer instant, personalized communication, eliminating hold times and creating a more conversational experience between brands and customers.
Why should companies automate parts of their customer journey?
Automation streamlines service, reduces repetitive workload for agents, and delivers faster, more accurate responses for customers.
What kinds of messages work best through SMS or WhatsApp?
Order confirmations, ETA updates, account security notifications, and quick surveys are highly effective use cases.
How do these channels impact brand loyalty?
Consistent, proactive communication builds trust and reduces friction, increasing repeat purchases and customer retention.
What’s the biggest benefit of cloud-based communication?
CPaaS platforms like Bird unify all messaging channels under one system, giving customers real-time access to help and giving businesses complete visibility over every interaction.

Customer experience impacts sales. Buyers with great past experiences spend 140% more compared to those with poor experiences. And in today’s connected world, that experience is directly linked to customer service.

Customer experience impacts sales. Buyers with great past experiences spend 140% more compared to those with poor experiences. In healthcare, great patient experience has even broader implications beyond revenue, as demonstrated by DrDoctor's NHS transformation where improved communication saved millions in costs while significantly reducing appointment no-shows. And in today’s connected world, that experience is directly linked to customer service.

Luckily, there are ways for you to automate touchpoints throughout the customer journey that will streamline a customer’s path-to-purchase. You can enrich your customer service department with SMS and add strategic messaging throughout the journey to reduce the need for support in the first place.

Customer service is a part of the customer journey

Customer service and support have become integral parts of customer journeys and your customers want answers in real-time. 75% of them use a search engine to find answers to service-related questions before calling an agent, and 44% would much rather press a button to initiate an SMS conversation than wait on hold to speak with a customer service agent.

Anything other than real-time customer service puts a strain on your customer: it costs them time and effort. Bad experiences increase the chances of them dropping off forever.

Instead of chasing interactions that are irritating for your customer and expensive for you, you can focus on creating an environment for initiating instant, one-on-one conversations. Since your customer switches channels from SMS to chat to a phone call seamlessly, enabling your contact centers to do the same is a must.

The solution of a streamlined messaging strategy

An important part of creating a better purchasing experience lies in automating a portion of your customer service. So, why not streamline the customer experience before they even have to contact your support teams?

By using both SMS messaging and WhatsApp, you can reduce strain on customer support with strategic messages that guide the customer through the full process.

Curious about use cases that can reduce your high-touch customer support while increasing the value for the customer? Here are some of our favorite ones.

Order and payment confirmation. One of the best ways to reduce the need for support is by sharing real-time order information such as payment and dispatch notifications. Make it a two-way communication channel to give your customers control over their purchases.

Product or service updates. Reach out to your existing customers with relevant product information and updates. This is a great way to increase both their spend and brand loyalty!

ETA and delivery updates. Logging into a delivery provider’s website to find out the location of a package is a pain. You can make everyone’s life easier by automating the notification process.

Account notifications. “I really like when my account expires or gets hacked,” said no one, ever. Instant messages can help prevent fraud, improve onboarding, and keep logins safe.

Collecting feedback and ratings from customers. Customer feedback is tough to gather because customers are asked to invest their time and get nothing in return. With text messaging, sending feedback becomes a 5-second action for the customer.