22.06.2022 |
Appointments that are not kept without being cancelled in advance are extremely annoying for service providers and result in lost revenues. Despite binding appointments, a large number of appointments are not being kept. There are many reasons for this – often the appointment is simply forgotten.
Especially this scenario – the forgotten appointment – can be effectively prevented: By sending appointment reminder via SMS.
We provide answers to the most frequently asked questions about SMS as a notification service: What special advantages do Reminder SMS offer? How can a company send automatic SMS notifications? What features do SMS providers offer? And how is the SMS notification service accepted by the customer?
Customers value SMS reminders
Before integrating a new service touchpoint, companies should ask themselves how it will be received by their customers: Do my customers even WANT to be notified of upcoming appointments via SMS? The answer is clearly yes. According to surveys, end consumers appreciate notifications via SMS. Especially when it comes to information that is needed at short notice – such as notifications about a bill that is due or reminders about upcoming appointments. SMS messages have the advantage that they are immediately visible to the recipient as soon as he picks up his smartphone. SMS notifications have a customer-friendly effect and thus strengthen customer loyalty.
50 % less missed appointments thanks to SMS Reminder
Reminder SMS are not only well received by customers: For businesses, they can effectively reduce missed appointments – also known as no-shows – and the related loss of revenue. If the recipient is also given a reply channel via SMS, missed appointments can be reduced even further: With a short note in a Reminder SMS, even those customers can cancel appointments who may not have been able to reach anyone by phone or who are hesitant to cancel in person. An example of an appointment notification including a cancellation option could be as follows:
“Your appointment is scheduled for tomorrow at 11 a.m. at our office. If you are unable to attend the appointment, please send back CANCELLATION.”
This gives companies the chance to reschedule appointments that have become free at short notice and to eliminate lost revenue. At the same time, other customers benefit from this and the company’s image is improved.
THE BENEFITS AT A GLANCE
8 unbeatable reasons for SMS notifications
- prevention of no-shows
- less loss of revenue
- possibility to reassign appointments
- fast transmission of information
- high SMS opening rate (>90%)
- stronger customer loyalty
- customer friendly service
- improvement of the company image
How the SMS notification service works
To enable the automated sending of appointment reminders, provider offer special interfaces (APIs) that can directly access customer databases and calendars and send SMS out of the system. With the help of these SMS gateways, company CRM systems can be linked to the SMS service in no time at all.
A user portal can be used to enter the message content and the desired time of dispatch – e.g. 24 hours before the upcoming appointment. The SMS provider now takes over the conversion of the text content into SMS format and establishes a connection to the mobile network. The appointment reminder is sent directly to the recipient’s cell phone number.
Send SMS appointment reminders with TENIOS
You want to integrate SMS services into your customer communication and send Reminder SMS and more fully automated? If so, we have the right solution for you.
What’s special about TENIOS: What’s special about TENIOS: As a cloud communications provider, TENIOS offers a comprehensive product portfolio for customer dialogue and customer service on all channels – from telephony to SMS and messaging. This makes it particularly easy to add and manage additional contact channels. Thanks to the open API structure, services can be connected to existing customer systems and databases within a very short time. In case of SMS services, this is done via the TENIOS SMS API. The interface can be activated in just 3 steps and enables the secure sending and receiving of short messages. After activation, the SMS channel is available for reminders, notifications, surveys or marketing campaigns.
Billing is based on the pay-as-you-go model – this means the user only pays for what he actually uses. The charge per SMS within Germany is €0.07.
See price overview
Send notifications and reminders via SMS to your customers with the TENIOS SMS API. Make an appointment today for a free web session. We will be happy to advise you.
