Is Your Organization Taking Advantage of VoIP Texting?

VoIP texting has dramatically revolutionized the business sector by creating new ways for organizations to communicate effectively with customers and colleagues. It enhances overall business communication, especially in this age of digital transformation. This article discusses what business texting is, its evolution over the years, the benefits VoIP texting brings to your organization, and how to implement and utilize it effectively.

Understanding Business Texting

Business texting refers to the use of text messaging services by companies to communicate with customers, employees, and partners. Unlike personal texting, usually between friends and family, business texting is used for professional purposes.

With the rise in mobile device usage, text messaging has become one of the most common ways for businesses to reach their audiences. It provides a fast, convenient, and direct way to send important information and connect with stakeholders.

Definition and Importance of VoIP Texting

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) texting is a method of sending text messages using technology. VoIP allows users to make voice calls and send texts over the internet rather than traditional phone lines. This type of business texting is important for organizations because it enables them to have a separate business phone number and provide text messaging capabilities without needing a separate cell phone plan.

Some key benefits of VoIP texting for businesses include:

Get a dedicated business phone number and texting capability without an extra cell phone plan
Send and receive texts to/from customers using a business number rather than a personal cell
Manage conversations with customers or teams via a web or mobile app
Integrate texting into existing business phone systems and tools
More cost-effective than traditional phone services
Flexible options for solopreneurs to large teams

As texting has become more sophisticated, businesses utilize it beyond simple notifications for more complex use cases. Texting can facilitate two-way conversations, deliver personalized content, collect data, and drive transactions. With the ongoing improvement of texting technology, businesses will continue finding new ways to streamline operations and connect with their audience via text.

Interested in learning more about VoIP solutions beyond business texting? Explore our article on some lesser-known facts about VoIP.

Learn More

Benefits of Business VoIP Texting for Your Organization

Let’s explore some of the many advantages you can expect after implementing business texting:

Increasing Engagement with Customers

VoIP texting makes it easy for customers to reach your business in a convenient and familiar way. Studies show that 90% of texts are read within 3 minutes, making them more likely to spark a real-time conversation versus phone calls or emails.

Quick texting response times and personalized messages can help demonstrate caring for your customers. VoIP texting also gives your business a separate number from employees’ personal cell phones, keeping communications professional.

Cost-Effective Means of Communicating

Compared to phone calls and in-person meetings, texting represents an affordable way to engage your audience. VoIP business texting plans are often much cheaper than extra cell phone lines. You can sometimes manage conversations from any internet-connected device with pay-per-use pricing.

The lightweight interface of texting saves your team time over bulkier email and social media outreach. With VoIP texting, you reduce logistical headaches without breaking the bank.

Streamlining Internal Communication

VoIP business texting can facilitate smoother communication between your team members. Group messaging eliminates messy email threads by allowing real-time collaboration. Employees can easily coordinate meetings, share files, and keep each other updated via text.
Texting also enables quick polling to gather team feedback. Employees can text from their business number with a web or mobile app regardless of location.

Enhancing Marketing and Sales Efforts

VoIP texting integrates nicely with CRM software, allowing you to add texting capabilities to your sales and marketing stack. Sales teams can send text blasts about promotions, schedule demos, and follow up via text.

For marketing, you can send event reminders, share content, and conduct polls and surveys to gain customer insights. Transactional text messages like order confirmations further boost convenience.

Implementing VoIP Texting in Your Organization

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) texting is quickly becoming a popular communication channel for businesses. With a VoIP texting service, you can send and receive text messages using your existing internet connection rather than relying on a traditional cellphone plan.

Best Practices for Business Texting

When implementing a VoIP texting service, follow these best practices to get the most out of it:

Get written consent from customers before texting. Make sure you have express written consent from each contact before sending them messages. This helps avoid spam complaints.
Use a dedicated VoIP phone number. Don’t share the VoIP number you use for texting across multiple platforms. Keep it dedicated or texting only.
Integrate with your CRM. Select a texting service that integrates with your CRM and business systems. This allows you to automatically sync contacts and conversations.
Establish etiquette guidelines. Develop texting etiquette guidelines for team members to follow, such as using proper grammar, responding promptly, and maintaining a friendly tone.
Enable team collaboration. Choose a service that allows multiple team members to collaborate with customers on the same conversational texting threads.
Automate reminders and alerts. Use texting to send automated reminders, alerts, coupons, and other helpful information to customers who opt-in.
Send quick updates. Use VoIP texting for short status updates like shipping confirmations, appointment reminders, links, and other bite-sized communications.
Keep conversations brief. Don’t try to hold long conversations over text. Keep responses short, direct, and actionable.
Test from a customer’s POV. Test the texting experience from your customer’s perspective to optimize the conversational flow.

Selecting a VoIP Texting Provider

With many VoIP providers now supporting texting capabilities, how do you select the right one for your business? Here are key factors to consider:

SMS and MMS support: Make sure the provider supports both SMS (short text-only messages) and MMS (multimedia messages with images, gifs, videos, etc.) text messaging.
Number provisioning: They should provide virtual local numbers to enable you to send texts from a local area code.
Scalability: Select a provider that can easily scale with your VoIP texting needs as your business grows.
Deliverability: They should have high deliverability rates and protect you from issues like greylisting.
Real-time analytics: Opt for a provider with a dashboard that tracks real-time texting metrics like open rates, response times, and more.
Automation: Seek smart automation features like appointment reminders, contact segmentation, and personalized messages at scale.
Two-way messaging: Your customers should be able to respond to your texts to enable conversational dialogues.
CRM integrations: If you use a CRM, ensure the provider has integration capabilities with your specific platform.
Compliance: Select a provider that enables TCPA compliance with opt-in/opt-out preferences and records of consent.
Support options: They should offer solid customer service support via phone, email, chat, knowledge base, and tutorials.
Affordable plans: Compare plans across providers to select one that offers a competitive rate for your desired features.
Positive reviews: Research online reviews and testimonials to choose a reliable provider known for great service.

By following best practices and choosing the right VoIP texting provider, you can add texting capabilities to improve customer engagement across your entire organization.

Partner With Superior Office Solutions for All Your VoIP and Business Texting Needs

Superior Office Solutions, your trusted VoIP partner in the NYC metropolitan area. We offer unbiased, carrier-neutral services. Our team prioritizes your needs over sales pitches, collaborating with top providers like Nextiva, RingCentral, 8×8, SpectrumVoIP, and Vonage. Contact us to schedule your free IT assessment and discover the VoIP texting solution that perfectly fits your operations, goals, and budget.