Utility Week - authoritative, impartial and essential reading for senior people within utilities, regulators and government
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/632271
24 | 29TH JANUARY - 4TH FEBRUARY 2016 | UTILITY WEEK Customers Market view A s customer services move into the focal point of any sustainable busi- ness plan, it is important to remember the many different channels customers use to communicate through, whether it be on the phone, via email, on the various social media channels or even the rarely men- tioned SMS. We all text each other. My mum likes to text more than I do, and it is important to remember that not everyone in the world has direct access to the internet from a smart- phone, tablet or computer. SMS might not be the biggest player on the field any more, but it is not on the bench just yet. So really it was only a matter of time before customer services let text messaging join the game. It began when the banks started sending text alerts to their customers, letting them know they had just set up a direct debit or reminding them of an appointment. But no one wants to talk to dead air, and what if the customers wanted to say something back to the bank? A total of 71 per cent of emails in the first quarter of 2015 were opened on a mobile device, showing the majority of communications are taking place on mobile phones. So the next stage would appear to be to incorporate an SMS service into the busi- ness' customer services package. However, only 7 per cent of consumers actually use SMS as a customer service method. But just think of the possibilities, if you were the only one in your sector offering a text message channel as part of your customer service. Why would customers use SMS? Text messaging basically fulfils the same need as phone customer service, but rather than waiting for the next available adviser, com- munication takes place through a series of messages between the customer and an adviser. The speed in which a query can be solved improves, because messages are sent and received straight away, hopefully to be responded to shortly aerwards. The clar- ity of instruction improves, because there is written evidence of the correspondence. This also means companies and custom- ers can wave goodbye to poor signal and a noisy background. Lastly, customers are able to communicate with the utility (or other business) while continuing with their every- day tasks, instead of waiting for a call to be connected. We are by no means advocating utilities to abandon all other types of customer ser- vice channels and to put all of their eggs in the SMS basket. However, it is worth look- ing at how SMS matches up to email (see bar chart, below). These statistics are not surprising; we all know we are most likely to send an email around lunchtime, while a text message has already been sent hours beforehand, per- haps during the commute into work before all the tasks that people have planned to do disappear under their daily workload. Email and SMS are used equally in the evening, so from these results we see the need for advis- ers on both email and SMS customer service, with more emphasis on having SMS advisers in the morning and email advisers around lunchtime. These volumes show there is a clear need for SMS in customer service, alongside more well-known and established methods. The majority of mobile users have unlim- ited text packages, so there is the added bonus of no more call waiting charges mys- teriously appearing on their phone bills. But how much could this cost the businesses that adopt and integrate SMS into their cus- tomer service offering? Setting up a brand new customer service method may sound expensive and rather alarming to those in the finance department. But it can be pretty modest, costing less than 2 pence a text, and the benefits of this cost will soon outweigh the negatives. We've seen SMS lead to a reduction in repeat contacts and a 20 per cent fall in overall contacts without causing any horrors in the sales department. So in all, we've learnt that SMS has the power to be as big in the customer service world as email and phone calls, if businesses – including utilities – give it the chance it deserves. SMS truly is a customer service channel for businesses who want to be able to talk to anyone. Elena Lockett, marketing assistant, FM Outsource Sending the right message SMS is rarely used in customer services, but it can provide an efficient and cost-effective channel for consumers to communicate with a business, says Elena Lockett. Email SMS CUSTOMER SERVICE ENQUIRIES: SMS VS EMAIL 25 20 15 10 5 0 9-12am 12-3pm 3-7pm Key points 71 per cent of emails in the first quarter of 2015 were opened on a mobile device. Only 7 per cent of consumers currently use SMS as a customer service method. SMS can reduce the time required to resolve a query and enables customers to continue with their daily activities without waiting for their call to be connected. Providing customer service via SMS can cost a business less than 2p per text message. Source: FM Outsource