salesforce sms app

As a business, you constantly seek the most effective and efficient ways to reach your customers and establish long-term connections with them. This task is made easier when you engage leads and customers through the channels in which they are most engaged, and SMS comes up trumps as the stand-out leader.  With a 98% open rate, SMS messaging is a great option to engage customers on a communication channel that they are already familiar with and use on a regular basis. Your Salesforce CRM stores all your customer data that your business has acquired and harmonized over time, which you can utilize to build dynamic and tailored text messaging engagements with your customers. To accomplish this, however, your organization first needs to set up a Salesforce SMS integration. Salesforce CRM is already widely embraced by users around the world to transform the way they work and propel their company to new heights. Salesforce is a global leader in innovation and for many years has demonstrated to be a game changer for businesses across all verticals, whether it's sales, marketing, customer service, commerce, or any other function. When it comes to customer engagement, businesses around the world have already transformed the way they interact with customers by leveraging the power of Salesforce messaging. Salesforce SMS has made it a lot easier to personalize interactions with leads and customers, resulting in higher customer satisfaction and stronger customer relationships. Having said that, businesses new to Salesforce may struggle to get started with texting from Salesforce effectively. We're here to assist you with the fundamentals of sending SMS from Salesforce and suggest the best Salesforce SMS messaging platform. In this blog post, we shall talk about the following topics. How can businesses send SMS from Salesforce? GirikSMS: A 100% Salesforce texting platform How Can You Automate sending SMS from Salesforce? While setting up Salesforce messaging, business users can leverage out-of-the-box SMS capabilities that can transform customer engagement, replacing traditional texting methods. This allows businesses to be creative in their communication strategy. How can businesses send SMS from Salesforce? SMS from Salesforce can be used to support multiple business functions – sales, marketing, customer support, sales, operations, and more. While you cannot send texts from Salesforce in its barebone state, there are several other ways to go about it. Before we get started, let's look at some of the most commonly used applications of Salesforce SMS messaging used by businesses across industries. Here’s how Salesforce SMS messaging can be used by businesses: One-on-one SMS Messaging: Create personalized connections by sending targeted messages directly to specific contacts directly from Salesforce. Bulk SMS Messaging: Send messages to specific contact groups or your entire contact list to notify them of important updates, announcements, new offerings, and much more. Automated SMS Messaging: Leverage native Salesforce automation tools like journeys, triggers, and flows, to automatically guide customers via bespoke message sequences. These messaging techniques have the power to transform your sales, marketing, and customer support functions. Furthermore, you can make your regular communications more appealing by including visual components such as images and videos. This allows you to interact with your audience more quickly and efficiently by adopting the most relevant texting strategy for your use cases. As was previously discussed, there are several ways to use SMS messaging from Salesforce. These fall into 3 major categories. Salesforce Solutions Salesforce offers two additional text-enabled solutions. Mobile Studio in Marketing Cloud  Salesforce Digital Engagement in Service Cloud. Mobile Studio is designed specifically for Salesforce SMS marketing, which you can simply integrate with your current marketing channels, while Digital Engagement places a higher priority on customer support interactions. Salesforce Digital Engagement: For just $75 per user each month, businesses can harness the value of CRM-powered digital engagement. This feature-rich tool facilitates seamless chat conversations, personalized one-on-one interactions, and automated SMS. There is a monthly limit on the number of chat conversations that you can initiate, but you can enjoy limitless messaging within each discussion (as long as it is within 24 hours). Mobile Studio: With Mobile Studio, you can access features like SMS, MMS, chat, and push notifications. Using customized templates, you can quickly draft messages, and using Salesforce Journey Builder, you can easily integrate SMS into your multichannel customer journeys. A Marketing Cloud license is a prerequisite to use this tool in Salesforce. These solutions do come with additional expenses, and it is fair to say, their feature sets are not very extensive. Furthermore, setting everything up can be a little challenging. Either you have to go through the entire authorization process or ask for a new number, which may take several weeks to be approved. Custom Solution Building   You can also go for a custom-built solution to send SMS from Salesforce. This, however, comes at a price and involves an investment of time and money. You will have to start from scratch using a Salesforce or third-party API which involves development, integration, and implementation expenses. Any kind of capability can be built with custom development and the downside is that the more complicated your business needs, the more time and costs will be incurred to implement it. Salesforce Native App This is the smartest and arguably the most effective way to get started with SMS from Salesforce. Go to AppExchange and find a Salesforce texting app that best fits your use cases and explore a variety of native Salesforce apps. An advanced native Salesforce SMS app should provide the following: Pre-integrated with multiple channels Ready-to-use features Simple, fast, and codeless setup No development, integration, and maintenance costs What's even more intriguing is that you can count on round-the-clock support to help you whenever you need it so you can get the most out of the solution. GirikSMS: 100% Salesforce native SMS Solution GirikSMS is a powerful solution to start engaging with your contacts via SMS directly from Salesforce. GirikSMS comes pre-integrated with WhatsApp, the world's most popular messaging platform, allowing businesses to start interacting with their contacts on their most preferred messaging channel. Moreover, it comes with a plethora of features to help businesses transform their communication strategy by fostering creativity via text interactions. GirikSMS has all the features businesses need to start building stronger relationships with their customers. Here's a sneak peek at some of the innovative features of GirikSMS. Zero Code Chatbots and Surveys No knowledge of coding? Nothing to worry. With GirikSMS, you can easily build surveys and chatbots using its intuitive drag-and-drop interface. This feature makes things easier and lets you interact more personally and interactively with your contacts. You can easily build and deploy rule-based chatbots and surveys with its zero code UI, whether you want to deliver fast customer service or gather feedback. Compliance GirikSMS was developed with compliance as the highest priority, making sure that each communication complies with industry best practices and guidelines. With flexible opt-ins and opt-outs, recipients can easily manage their preferred methods of establishing contact. To maintain your messaging strategy compliant with legal requirements, GirikSMS also allows you to create custom fields to accommodate evolving texting guidelines and regulations. AI-Powered One-On-One Text Conversations With the AI-powered chat capability of GirikSMS, manual responses are now a thing of the past. By monitoring ongoing interactions, the platform creates auto-suggested responses in real time, resulting in faster and more efficient communication. By giving fast and relevant responses, this intelligent automation improves customer service by raising overall customer satisfaction and engagement levels. No-Code Text Automation With GirikSMS's no-code text automation features and standard Salesforce automation integration, you can streamline your workflows. This capability automates follow-ups, schedules communications, and triggers responses based on predetermined criteria, among other repetitive activities, saving you time and effort. With the power of automation at your disposal, you can maximize productivity by concentrating on providing outstanding customer experiences. How Can You Automate Outbound SMS with GirikSMS? It depends on your texting tool's capabilities whether you are automating Salesforce messages using a sophisticated process or a straightforward one. Depending on your use cases, GirikSMS offers both Salesforce standard automation as well as no code support. For basic use cases, you can automate SMS messages from Salesforce using an intuitive click-and-drag interface without any coding knowledge. You can rely on regular automation features in Salesforce such as flows, for complex automation use cases. You can also specify the conditions under which you wish to trigger an automated text message. In addition, you may set up a zero-code multi-channel drip campaign by automating a sequence of text messages. GirikSMS's text automation capabilities allow you to save a significant amount of time and effort. Harness the true power of text messaging with a 100% Salesforce native messaging solution. Texting is already an effective way to communicate with prospects and customers and with the right tools, you can maximize the efficacy of your messaging. With GirikSMS, you can transform the way you interact with customers. Whether it is sales, marketing, or customer service, you can gain a competitive advantage in your industry by adopting a reliable and trusted 100% native Salesforce messaging solution.  GirikSMS offers a comprehensive array of texting features that can be easily tailored to specific use cases. We are always here to assist you in reaching your goals.

There has been an increase in competition in the admissions process. In an era when so many students are applying to different institutions, you need to find a way to stand out and harness your relationships with prospective students. One way to do this is to use SMS, which is popular among today's students. SMS app for higher education may help schools increase enrollment, expedite the admissions process, and enhance communication when combined with the potent features of Salesforce Education Cloud. By integrating text messaging with powerful platforms like Salesforce Education Cloud, institutions can supercharge their admissions efforts. This platform offers a seamless way to streamline communication, improve the overall student experience, and build meaningful interactions. In this blog, we’ll explore six practical tips on how to leverage text messaging with Salesforce Education Cloud to attract and engage prospective students more effectively. 1. Create a Clear Communication Plan Reaching the target audience of prospective students requires a strategic communication approach. One of the best uses of text messaging is to communicate rapidly and effectively with schools. Many students tend to use SMS simply because it is less formal and more direct than email. You can also set up automated text messaging through the Salesforce Education Cloud for regular questions, such as data about your programs, scholarship information, or even campus tour registration. This saves time for your team while you send immediate and timely responses to interested students. To keep students informed and involved, don't forget to provide reminders about deadlines, significant dates, or activities like open homes with the help of SMS app for higher education. From their first meeting, prospective students may develop strong ties using this technique. 2. Personalize Every Interaction Nowadays students want personalized communication and do not pay much attention to a generic approach. By viewing each student's profile 360 degrees, Salesforce Education Cloud allows you to personalize messages based on their specific interests and needs. Let’s suppose, a student has expressed interest in a particular program. In that case, you can send personal messages about that particular program-of-interest-for example, information on faculty or events happening soon. That way, the students feel that you are listening to their individual preferences and interests. Personalized messages show students that your institution values their unique journey, which can make a big difference when they’re deciding where to apply. 3. Use Data for Targeted Messaging Data always turns out to be a best friend in terms of reaching the right students at the right time, and Salesforce Education Cloud makes this possible. It lets one see what students have been doing and most notably, which students have not completed their application or shown interest in certain programs. Use Salesforce texting app to send timely text messages to students requiring that extra push or a reminder to complete their application. For instance, if you observe that several students started an application but haven't completed one, you can text them reminding them of the deadline and offering assistance in case they need that little bit more to push them over. By focusing on data-driven outreach, you increase the chances of turning interested prospects into applicants. 4. Promote Events and Follow Up via Text Campus tours, webinars, and virtual open houses are key touchpoints during the admissions journey. Text messaging can be a great tool to promote these events and increase participation. Send out event invitations via text, and include links for easy registration. To ensure that students don't miss the event, you may also send reminders in the days before. Thank them for coming, and provide an invitation to proceed to the next stage of the admissions process, which might be setting up an interview or submitting an application, in a follow-up text message after the event. Event-based texting is an excellent way to keep students engaged and moving forward in their decision-making process. 5. Streamline the Application Process with Updates For students, the admissions process may be nerve-racking. You may inform them at every turn along the application process by sending them text messages. You may programmatically notify students using Salesforce Education Cloud when their application has been received, is being considered, and a decision has been made. Your team will receive fewer questions as a result of keeping pupils informed. To assist students in staying on task, you may also remind them of any missing paperwork or approaching deadlines. Simplifying the application process with regular updates builds trust and reassures students that their application is being taken seriously. 6. Build Community and Foster Engagement It is not just about getting students to apply but building a community and letting them feel a part of the family. Using Salesforce Education Cloud, mark the potential students who require more peer interaction and send them text messages inviting them to connect with other students or attend social events with existing students. You can also text invite students to follow your school through social media or join the student forums. Making such connections this early makes a safer and more engage-friendly status for your school with the prospective students. This acts as an increase factor for them finally joining your school. Another way to foster a feeling of community is to encourage potential students to text existing students or graduates. Students can be inspired to apply by creating a supportive environment through the sharing of testimonials, success stories, and group chat invitations. Conclusion Integrating text messaging with Salesforce Education Cloud offers an incredible opportunity for educational institutions to enhance their admissions process. Schools can create a smooth, efficient communication strategy that reaches students where they are most active. A school can improve its admissions efforts by personalizing the student experience, leveraging data to target outreach, promoting campus events, simplifying the application process, and building a sense of community. This approach not only engages students but also streamlines administrative tasks, making the entire process more efficient. To take it a step further, consider incorporating GirikSMS into your communication strategy. GirikSMS offers powerful features that enhance your text messaging capabilities, helping you reach and engage prospective students more effectively. Whether you want to send reminders, share updates, or provide personalized support, SMS app for higher education can simplify these tasks and ensure timely communication. By using GirikSMS alongside Salesforce Education Cloud, your institution will stand out in today’s competitive educational landscape. Together, we can help you attract and connect with the next generation of students, making your admissions process not only more effective but also more personal and engaging. Get in touch with us today!

Engaging with customers on the channel of their preference is key to establishing a connection with them. An intriguing statistic is that 35% of customers prefer receiving marketing communications via mobile platforms. If anything, it serves as a gentle reminder to businesses to think about utilizing SMS for business-related communications. Many businesses currently engage in this, particularly on high-volume shopping occasions like Black Friday. However, there are plenty of additional ways to use SMS to interact with your customers all year long besides the typical peak seasons. Let's look at a few strategies for using SMS to improve business communication throughout the year. What is SMS in business communication? The term 'SMS for business communication' refers to how businesses utilize text messaging to communicate with customers, convey critical information, promote products and services, and improve their overall communication. SMS-based business communication utilizes a software program rather than a specific person to communicate with people via text. This method, referred to as application-to-person (A2P) SMS, method opens up a world of possibilities. Consider a hotel as an example. To boost guest satisfaction, hotels could quickly text them to confirm their reservation. Alternatively, a doctor could notify a patient via SMS with pertinent information following a visit. Even though these communications are only being received by one individual, they are not from multiple people. Bulk SMS messages are also relevant. A retailer might send out a bulk SMS message to subscribers promoting a new product or providing a time-limited coupon. It's also important to remember that companies can communicate with customers via more than just text messages. They may also send audio files, graphics, photos, videos, and other types of multimedia via Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) messaging. Benefits of SMS for business communication As we've already indicated, a significant portion of your target market will prefer SMS correspondence. Here are four more advantages of employing SMS business messaging in addition to simply keeping your customers happy: Messages are read almost instantly SMS has an impressively high open rate and, even better, messages get read by most people fairly quickly. You can send business SMS with confidence knowing that a significant portion of your subscribers will not only see your message but will see it within a few minutes of receiving it. Because SMS can reach your target demographic much faster than social media or email, it works incredibly well for time-sensitive campaigns such as flash sales. SMS has a wide reach To put it simply, text messaging is available to everyone who owns a mobile phone. Consider this: SMS messaging can be used to communicate with over 7.2 billion people worldwide. SMS has an unparalleled reach! SMS messaging doesn’t require an internet connection SMS is compatible with any mobile device that has a mobile network connection. That's because SMS messaging doesn't require an internet data plan, it works on mobile network technology. While the proliferation of smartphones shows no signs of stopping, SMS allows users to receive messages on any kind of mobile phone, so you can reach a far wider audience with it than you could with internet-based approaches. Messages can be automated When it comes to managing repetitive tasks, automation is invaluable, and customers can also see its value. Consider this: regular SMS communications, such as delivery notifications, order confirmations, and password verifications, can be automated. Employees can rest easy knowing they don't have to perform these mundane customer service tasks manually once solutions like these are up and running. As an added bonus, you can use SMS templates to further streamline your communications. Ways to use SMS for business communications Here are seven ways to get started if you're ready to start reaching out to more prospects and customers via text messaging, which is how people like to be contacted by your business. Marketing campaigns SMS has an inherent limitation of 160 characters. There are two primary ways to use SMS for marketing. Individual texts with a clear call to action. A series of SMS messages that, typically over a few days or weeks, provide targeted offers or information to a particular segment of subscribers. Whatever method you choose, the most important thing is to make it easy and convenient to respond. Usually, this means providing a web link. That page can be a special campaign page that lets you monitor the response rate with ease. It might also be an already-existing page, such as a category or product page. Effective SMS marketing strategies cover the following: Promote flash sales Launch new products Revive older products that have been improved upon or updated. Run time-limited promotions Offer loyalty members exclusive deals; target certain subscriber categories with offers Encourage the sharing of relevant content by including links to resources on related subjects. Verification The process of verifying a user's identity or actions by text message delivery of a one-time password (OTP) or code to their mobile device is known as SMS verification. After that, the recipient logs into a website or application or authorizes a transaction using that code. This technique, which is often referred to as two-factor authentication (TFA), helps companies in preventing account manipulation by scammers and cybercriminals. Customer engagement Improved customer connections through personalized business messaging results in greater engagement and improved response rates. Your interactions can be more personalized when you have more information on your audience. Sending personalized texts on their birthday or offering them exclusive deals based on their previous purchases is possible with SMS. For instance, perhaps you would like to provide a unique discount to residents of a specific city. This demonstrates that you are aware of their needs and value their business. The messages can be made much more personalized when you integrate your CRM with your messaging app like what you can do with the GirikSMS Salesforce sms app, which can take personalization up a few notches.  This personalization strategy also works very well for marketing. You may grab customers' attention and keep them interested in your offerings by sending out highly effective messages, such as birthday offers that expire soon. Opt-in campaigns Through opt-in campaigns, businesses regardless of size can use SMS for lead nurturing or generation. By allowing potential customers to interact with your business on their terms and requesting their consent to receive SMS notifications, you can be sure that they are interested in what you have to offer. After that, you can nurture them with a consistent flow of new, valuable, informational, and helpful content, which will produce higher-quality leads. 2-way messaging Research indicates that 9 out of 10 consumers want to be able to ask questions in response to texts received from businesses. Having said that, many businesses rarely use two-way interaction capabilities. You can now instantly and individually serve each of your customers thanks to two-way messaging. This enables customers to get their questions answered quickly. And you're communicating with this person directly instead of having to call them personally. Transactional notifications One of the best applications of business SMS messaging is transactional notifications; they are quick and easy to use. Notifications via transactional SMS may include the following: Notifications of delivery and shipping updates Confirmations of purchases Confirmations of opt-in Verification of passwords Reminders for appointments Notifications for receipt of payments Notifications of modifications to account information or transaction data, such as an upgrade on a hotel room Get started with SMS for business communication As you can see, there are tons of methods for using SMS for business communication that will connect and engage more of your customers in ways that suit your specific needs as well as theirs. It's a genuine benefit that can make your business stand out from the competition. Selecting a text message service provider is the first step to launching SMS business messaging. With so many options available, it's critical to consider eight essential factors to ensure you're making the best choice: Ease of integration. To facilitate seamless integration with your other apps and systems, you should have access to a wide range of APIs. Security and compliance. In addition to having cyberattack defense and response strategies and backup systems, your provider should also be accountable for keeping you secure and in compliance with local regulations. Delivery performance. It's critical to locate an SMS provider with a track record of excellence and an engine that is tuned for minimal latency and high delivery rates.    Power to scale. Look for a supplier who can adapt and grow with you. Two-way messaging. When you want it, your messaging platform should deliver it for you. Sender ID availability. You want to be able to use this feature since it helps the recipient identify you and increases your credibility as a sender and brand. Reporting and analytics. For consistent and effective SMS marketing, real-time, comprehensive, and easily accessible KPIs are a must. Global expertise and customer support. Look for a provider with worldwide connectivity. Although SMS business messaging works well, you'll be most successful if you combine it with a more holistic omnichannel strategy for customer engagement. Have questions about conversational messaging for business? Contact us today for a free 30-day trial of GirikSMS, the 100% native Salesforce Texting App for business.

Businesses across industries are leveraging emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and machine learning to power sales, marketing, customer service, HR, and operations. In fact, banking is one of the top industries to embrace Chatbots in recent years to streamline operations and enhance the customer experience. Banking chatbots are AI-powered virtual assistants that can understand customer requests, resolve their queries, and execute transactions. Chatbots are software programs that have in-built machine learning algorithms and can process natural language prompts to automate the relationship between a customer and a bank. GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbot developed by Girikon Inc, a Salesforce Development Partner, help banking institutions streamline operations, scale customer service, reduce costs, and improve customer satisfaction. In this article, we will explain what GirikSMS can do for banks and their customers and how bot-driven automation can benefit banking institutions in several ways. Chatbots are cost-efficient. Bots allow you to scale operations quickly without the associated costs of additional manpower. The era of mobile banking. Customers today prefer digital first and the need for on-demand mobile banking is increasing across all age groups. GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbots are available 24/7 and can be easily integrated into mobile banking apps to offer immediate resolution of customer queries. Customers prefer text. Most smartphone users are well versed with popular messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Slack, and SMS, using these channels for daily interaction with friends, family, and even businesses. Text conversations over these apps are now the preferred choice for most users. GirikSMS ChatGpt Empowered Salesforce Chatbot uses the power of conversational AI to interact with customers over these popular messaging apps and channels ushering in a new era of digital services. Here’s a look at some of the use cases where GirikSMS APP can help banking institutions automate their day-to-day operations to enhance the customer experience. 1. Onboarding new customers New customers can rely on GirikSMSChatbot for onboarding activities such as: Uploading all required documents and validating them. Sending agreements for review and sending reminders to complete the documentation. Setting up a new account and providing a guided tour of available products and services Downloading and exploring the banking app on users’ mobile phones. GirikSMS ChatGPT Empowered Chatbot can also be used to collect feedback from new customers about the onboarding process for detailed analysis and ongoing improvement. 2. Provide 24/7 customer service GirikSMS Chatbot can be extremely useful in customer service operations. They can resolve routine customer queries quickly and enable banks to scale 24/7 support to customers. They can answer commonly asked questions and provide accurate answers to customer queries quickly without any wait times. Not just that, customers can also modify account information such as an address, all within the chat conversation. 3. Transactions GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbots can help customers perform banking transactions such as fund transfers or opening a deposit account. GirikSMS is native to Salesforce. So, if a user types the name of a beneficiary to do a fund transfer, the bot can look up the receiver’s account in the CRM and execute the transaction. Some of the other transactions that GirikSMS Salesforce SMS App can help customers with are: Report a missing/damaged card. Report an unauthorized transaction. Change account passwords. Modify account limits or apply for higher limits. Apply for account upgrades like more privileges. Apply for a loan. 4. Providing financial advice GirikSMS  Chatbot can be virtual financial assistants. Based on the customers’ income and spending habits they can recommend saving plans, tax tips, and recommend best-fit banking products. 5. Cross-selling Banks offer a range of products and services such as insurance, loans, mortgages, wealth management, etc. GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbots leverage CRM data and analyze past customer interactions across multiple channels to make intelligent recommendations about new products that may be relevant to them. 6. Preventing fraud GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbots record all interactions with users in the CRM and can use natural language understanding capabilities to detect suspicious behavior to alert agents to take prompt and appropriate action. Data from chatbot conversations can be used to identify patterns and train the chatbot. 7. Onboarding new recruits GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbots can be used to assist new employees by: Answering their queries about the company’s policies. Providing access via interactive menus to onboarding material such as documents, presentations, charts, photos, or videos. Setting up IT accounts and assisting them with system walkthroughs and privileges. GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbots can also train employees on several aspects of customer communication and engagement. 8. Assisting in internal operations GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbots can also act as virtual assistants for banking personnel by providing them with quick answers when dealing with customers. They can answer questions related to Policies and regulations. Products and services offered. Intelligent forecasts on customers based on their account status. GirikSMS Chatbots for Salesforce can also help streamline internal operations by sharing documents across team members and facilitating reporting and evaluation processes. 9. Omnichannel availability Customers today prefer digital first. And they engage with brands on multiple channels such as websites, mobile apps, social media, and messenger apps. GirikSMS Chatbot for Salesforce can be easily integrated across all popular channels ensuring that you are available to them 24/7 regardless of where they are. While the above use cases can be a game-changer for banks, it is also important to follow certain best practices to make the most of this disruptive technology offering. Here is our list of 5 best practices for implementing Chatbots. 1. Understand the limitations and challenges of Chatbots Work with your Salesforce partner to have a thorough assessment of the capabilities and limitations of AI Chatbots to set the right expectations. 2. Protect user data Banking institutions must secure and protect the data and information gathered by Chatbots.  Giving confidence to customers that their data is secure with you builds trust and loyalty. 3. Secure transactions Chatbots, especially customer support ones open up opportunities for hackers and fraudsters. You must ensure that all transactions and interactions over bot conversations are encrypted and secure. 4. Create specialized chatbots Banking offers many use cases for deploying Chatbots such as lead generation, sales, and customer service. Start with a simple use case and deploy chatbots in phases. 5. Test extensively An erroneous chatbot can lead to frustrated customers. Test and train your chatbot extensively before going live. As Salesforce expands its boundaries to integrate the disruptive technology of conversational AI and adds more functionality into its platform, you need the support of a Gold Salesforce Consulting Partner like Girikon to unlock its true power. Connect with one of our experts today to learn more about how you can harness the power of GirikSMS Chatbots for Salesforce.

All businesses without exception, strive to achieve high levels of customer loyalty. And it’s not a surprising fact. Industry data reveals that the cost of retaining existing customers is a mere 20% of acquiring new ones. Businesses recognize that even a 5% improvement in customer retention rates has a significant impact on the top line. With so many options available to customers, going the extra mile to earn their loyalty is a no-brainer in today's fiercely competitive business ecosystem. SMS marketing is perhaps the most underrated yet key driver of customer loyalty. Many businesses today are leveraging SMS marketing to retain customers. The popularity of SMS marketing is increasing at breakneck speed. It provides that elusive silver lining to improve customer engagement and build trust and loyalty. What is Customer Loyalty? The word loyalty is typically associated with an allegiance or bond between two entities. In the business context, customer loyalty characterizes a consistent emotional bond between the business and the customer. Customer loyalty indicates the willingness of customers to engage with the business for its products or services. Achieving customer loyalty can be complex and relies on the synergy of several factors: Emotional connection Quality and consistency of brand engagement Exceptional customer service Customer satisfaction levels Product or service customization Personalized interaction Customer loyalty is a direct result of consistent efforts undertaken by a brand and is usually measured across multiple market metrics such as customer lifetime value, repeat purchases, customer satisfaction score, upsell rates, engagement levels, and more. Loyal customers hold the key to a business's longevity and growth. Industry data indicates that loyal customers are willing to spend 65% more on a brand’s products and services compared to new customers. As the saying goes – 20% of your customers contribute to 80% of your sales. So, the message to marketers is loud and clear: drive customer loyalty to increase profitability. The Role of SMS in Improving Customer Loyalty and Enhancing Retention SMS marketing is a discreet way of engaging customers and establishes an invisible yet strong connect between them and your brand. Industry reports indicate that bulk SMS messaging has a read rate of 98%, as compared to email marketing which hovers around 20% at best. In fact, what’s even more interesting is that SMS messages have a read rate of 97% within the first 15 minutes of receipt, and that's primarily because people check their phones at least a hundred times a day. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that there is solid ground to consider bulk SMS messaging as a powerful driver of customer loyalty. How To Build Customer Loyalty with Bulk SMS Messaging The question still remains how bulk SMS messaging drives customer loyalty? With the right bulk SMS marketing strategy with personalized and relevant messaging content, you can facilitate faster response times.  We recommend these 5 simple steps to improve customer loyalty via bulk SMS messaging. Understand your target audience. Segment your subscribers based on age, gender, demographics, interests, and preferences to set up the foundation to send consistent, relevant, and concise content. Align goals. Establish a clear vision of your SMS marketing goals such as conversion rates, app, website, or social media page traffic, feedback scores, and more. Create strategy-based content. SMS messages have a limitation of 160 characters.  So, every word is worth its weight in gold. Keep your messaging concise and precise. Avoid spamming. Don’t overwhelm your customers with unnecessary or repeat messages. And depending on the time zone you operate in for your SMS messaging, ensure your messages are delivered at a time when customers are most likely to see it. Analyze and improve. Marketing is all about indicators, so make sure you are always on top of key metrics like open rate, click-throughs, conversions, sign-ups, unsubscribes, and ROI. Innovate: Last but not least, bulk SMS marketing allows you to experiment and improve your SMS marketing strategy and adjust it as you go. So be sure to collect feedback from your customers at regular intervals. This not only helps you to improve but also tells your customers you value how they feel about you. Strategies to Increase Customer Retention with SMS While we have talked about some key aspects of improving customer loyalty via bulk SMS messaging, it is equally important to understand some tried and tested implementation strategies that drive customer loyalty: New Customer and Post-Purchase Offers. Offering deals and discounts to new customers is an effective strategy for acquiring them. And once they are on board, new deals and offers based on their initial purchase can be a powerful incentive for them to return to your brand. When offering deals, make sure they are time-bound and send them reminder texts with clickable links to your e-store to nudge them to make a purchase. New Product Announcement. Concise, attention-grabbing SMS texts have proven to be very effective. And if your products or services are hyper-personalized for a particular customer segment, SMS marketing could be very effective in igniting interest. GirikSMS comes with seamless integration with Salesforce, which means you can leverage your CRM data for deep insights into customer behavior and target your SMS marketing perfectly with precise and relevant messaging. Trigger Messaging. This is a very effective way to capture your audience’s attention. Automated SMS messages can be triggered for a range of scenarios such as abandoned cart reminders, the latest personalized discounts, and offers, new product launches or back-in-stock items. Conclusion There is no doubt that SMS texting is a powerful tool for driving customer loyalty and retention. With a market-leading automated SMS platform in place and a sound use-case-based marketing strategy, brands can unlock the power of SMS marketing to improve customer loyalty enhance retention, and pave the way for the long-term success of their business. Try GirikSMS for Improved Customer Loyalty and Retention With GirikSMS, you can implement automated, intelligent marketing strategies at scale with personalized engagement across every interaction. With GirikSMS’s automation capabilities and its intelligent Chatbots, you can be up and running in no time. With GirikSMS you can: Send tailored product alerts Cross-sell and upsell Send reminders Send order updates Resolve customer issues Engage in 2-way conversational messaging Collect customer feedback Start your Free 3 Month Trial today. Still have questions? Connect with one of our SMS experts.

According to Salesforce research, close to 90% of customers say that a business's overall experience is as important as its products or services. In today’s competitive landscape where companies are juggling between staffing shortages and overwhelmed resources, they need to be able to do more with less.  Customer expectations are at an all-time high, and given the plethora of options available to them, anything less than an exceptional experience will lead to customer churn. Automation and self-service technologies have given many businesses across industries a significant improvement in productivity, cost savings, and customer satisfaction. In 2021, Salesforce reported that customers using its Cloud products and self-service tools such as AI chatbots witnessed a 30% increase in customer satisfaction along with a 27% improvement in agent productivity. To meet this ever-growing demand, Salesforce launched Virtual Assistant – an Einstein-powered chatbot solution built specifically for financial services businesses to automate routine customer requests faster across popular digital channels like SMS or messaging platforms. This enables agents to focus on complex cases while chatbots can promptly resolve routine service requests, such as updating credit card information, renewing subscriptions, making payments, modifying subscription plans, and more. Virtual Assistant offers multilingual support, allowing businesses to use a single chatbot across multiple geographic regions regardless of their native language. And in the future, Einstein-powered Virtual Assistants will automatically create support articles based on customer conversations. Salesforce Chatbots for financial services come with pre-built bot templates, leading to faster setup and deployment. They can streamline support and assist agents with routine questions such as “How do I calculate my tax?” or “How do I upgrade my insurance plan?” With Virtual Assistant, financial services companies can re-direct thousands of customer calls to the Salesforce Chatbot leading to significant cost savings. Salesforce Chatbots can handle thousands of concurrent conversations for queries such as loan application status, product information, insurance premium renewal, claim filing, technical support, and more, freeing up dozens of front-line agents. Salesforce Chatbots improve the customer experience by enabling seamless self-service for simple tasks, thereby significantly reducing wait times to speak with an agent. The rewards of embracing self-service technology can be substantial, and businesses need to leverage technology to scale quickly and deliver efficient customer service. Features of Salesforce ChatBots Salesforce Chatbots powered by Einstein are equipped with advanced features to solve customer issues by replying to their questions and understanding their behavior to evolve continuously. Here are some stand-out features of Salesforce Chatbots that you should be aware of before you hire a Salesforce Development Partner for its implementation. Natural Language Processing (NLP) Salesforce Chatbots use NLP to understand customer intent and provide relevant answers. This makes bot interactions more natural for customers. Multi-Channel Support Salesforce Chatbots can be deployed on multiple channels such as mobile apps, websites, online stores, social media pages, and on popular messaging platforms like WhatsApp and SMS. This allows customers the convenience and flexibility to interact with businesses on their preferred channels whenever they want. Personalization Salesforce Chatbots can personalize responses based on customer data, their preferences, past purchases, and browsing behavior, making every interaction more relevant and meaningful. Contextual Conversations Salesforce Chatbots can understand and maintain context across multiple conversations regardless of the channel, thereby providing more accurate and relevant responses to customer queries. Integration with Salesforce Salesforce Chatbots are built on the world’s leading CRM platform, allowing for seamless integration with other Salesforce cloud products. With Salesforce Chatbots, managing customer data has never been easier. Analytics and Insights With Salesforce Chatbots, businesses can get valuable insights into customer behavior. By analyzing customer interactions, Salesforce Chatbots can help businesses identify areas for improvement to enhance the customer experience. Continuous Learning Salesforce Chatbots leverage machine learning algorithms to learn continuously from every interaction and better their responses over time, improving the accuracy and relevance of responses as they gain more experience. Here are some generic features of Salesforce Chatbots. Re-direct bot conversations to human agents for complex customer queries. Understand the intent of customer queries. Rapid response times. Understand customer input and recognize errors. Available 24/7. Lead generation – collect customer data and qualify leads for sales teams. Scale customer service with personalized automation and connected customer data According to Salesforce, new features in Financial Services Cloud such as proactive service and call deflection will enable financial services firms to reduce operating expenses while delivering exceptional customer service experiences: In 2021, Salesforce customers reported a 27% increase in case resolution with self-service automation and AI-powered Chatbots (Virtual Assistant). Salesforce Chatbots automate routine request resolution across popular messaging channels such as SMS and WhatsApp, so agents can spend more time on cases that necessitate human intervention. With Customer Service Coordination, agents can collaborate in Slack to fast-track case resolution. With automated workflows and custom Chatbots, Customer Service Coordination gathers customer data and generates alerts in a central Slack channel allowing teams to respond to critical incidents faster like fraud incidents, executing time-sensitive trades, and claims processing. With the Customer Data Platform, financial services marketing teams can unify customer data from multiple sources with a point-and-click interface. This enables marketing teams to engage with customers across multiple channels such as web, email, mobile, and social media in a far more personalized way.  With Salesforce Chatbots, enhanced Insights, and Data Actions, one-on-one advisor interactions and transactions can be triggered in real time. A unified console with actionable insights and workflows for faster service New features in Salesforce Financial Services Cloud include AI-powered dashboards and Chatbots to deliver key insights: With Intelligent Agent Desktop, agents can get access to deeper customer insights from right within the console page. With Customer Identity Verification, agents can reduce the risk of fraud, and with Customer Record Alerts, Chatbots can serve up issues that customers may not be aware of when they initiate a conversation. With Analytics for Financial Services, financial services businesses can interpret customer data with insights for faster and better decision-making, eventually delivering more revenue, and strengthening customer engagement. Girikon has been a Salesforce Consulting Partner for over a decade providing unique and scalable solutions for the financial services industry. We have the necessary expertise in-house to deliver tailored experiences to every customer through self-service, automation, and AI to improve efficiency across your business. Contact us today to learn more about how Salesforce Chatbots can transform your financial services business.

Chatbots are making their way into almost every industry known to man. With businesses recognizing the value of automating repetitive tasks, it is only a matter of time before we witness a large-scale adoption of Chatbots across industries and businesses. One of the interesting things about Chatbots is that they can be programmed to accomplish different tasks for different industries. GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbot, developed by Girikon, a Salesforce Implementation Partner for over a decade, helps businesses across industries automate tasks, streamline operations, scale quickly, and reduce overall costs while improving efficiency. GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbots are powered by AI and machine learning and leverage Salesforce CRM data to deliver personalized best-in-class customer experiences at scale. While it is impossible to detail each and every scenario where GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbots can come in handy, this blog gives an overview of how you can leverage GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbots for your business success. And our chatbots are self-learning, which means they get better with every interaction. Here are some use cases for GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbots. CONSUMER GOODS AND RETAIL Customers spend a lot of time navigating through menus and category pages to find the one product they want to buy. And if this discovery process is too long or something else grabs their attention, many of them abandon their carts. GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbots can help compress this product discovery journey for customers. GirikSMS Chatbots give customers easy access to product information and give smart product recommendations based on their past purchases. Not only that, GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbots can also generate discount coupons and offers on the fly for customers who have abandoned their carts, to nudge them to complete the purchase. GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbots are a great tool for sales and marketing teams.  Chatbots assist sales and marketing reps by leveraging CRM data and providing real-time reports and alerts. GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbots can help teams with personalized customer information and serve up highly accurate, timely, and relevant data to help them move leads faster through the sales funnel. FINANCIAL SERVICES You have likely interacted with a chatbot while dealing with your bank for routine queries or operations such as fund transfers, balance inquiries, approvals, and more. The financial services industry is one of the early adopters of Chatbots. GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbots can be used by financial services businesses to improve customer satisfaction and engagement. For instance, banks can use GirikSMS Chatbots to interact with customers for routine queries such as account balance, bank statements, fund transfers, starting an investment plan, investment advice, and much more. Insurance companies can use GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbots for offering automated services such as premium renewal, plan upgrades, claims processing, educating customers on technical terms, sending alerts and reminders, and more. And this is on the customer interface. Financial services businesses can also use GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbots to perform several routine and repetitive internal operational tasks such as contract review and analysis, sorting, segmenting and qualifying applications, employee engagement, IT ticket management, and more. HEALTHCARE GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbots can be very useful for healthcare businesses.  They can perform routine tasks for receptionists and nursing staff such as checking supplies inventory, posting requests for supplies and medicines, managing appointments and home visits, assisting doctors with patient reports, track post-op recovery, managing appointment calendars, and much more. MANUFACTURING The manufacturing sector has always struggled with communication gaps in day-to-day operations. Manufacturing companies have to deal with a dynamic supply chain of wholesalers and distributors and need them to be in sync with their assembly line. GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbots can help manufacturing companies connect all constituents and facilitate seamless interaction. Vendor management, shift management, and product-related assistance are some of the areas where GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbots can be useful in the manufacturing industry. HOSPITALITY GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbots can used to provide better guest experiences, acting as a virtual concierge and assistant for hospitality businesses. GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbots are available 24/7 to provide best-in-class service that improves customer loyalty and satisfaction. AVIATION GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbots bots can be used by the aviation industry to book, re-schedule, or cancel tickets, plan travel, send reminders, notifications, and announcements, assist with web check-ins, provide flight options based on customer preferences, and assist with other travel arrangements. EDUCATION GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbots work seamlessly with Education Cloud to deliver exceptional experiences to students, faculty, and staff. For students, GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbots can automate many tasks within the recruitment and admissions process, providing assistance to students, conducting surveys and polls, engaging with parents and building trust and confidence, managing advisor appointments, updating students on campus happenings, assisting in course enrolment, submission of assignments and more. For faculty, GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbots can assist with scheduling special classes, setting up virtual advisory sessions, managing assignments, tracking student progress, and much more. OIL AND GAS GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbots can be used by oil and gas companies to improve productivity and reduce worker risk. They can provide real-time customer support by providing information about the company's products.           UTILITIES GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbots are powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and leverage CRM data to interact with customers via chat. They can help utility customers with assisted meter readings, and payment issues, provide real-time customer service, and escalate urgent and complex issues to relevant personnel. Customers can easily report outages by sending a word like “outage” to a pre-defined number and receive regular updates about case resolution. GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbots can track and monitor KPIs to ensure customer service excellence. REAL ESTATE GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbots can engage in a conversation with home buyers the moment they click on an ad on land on the company's web page. They can help home buyers with more details about available properties, provide guided virtual walk-throughs, schedule site visits, check for mortgage options, analyze market trends, and collect feedback and preferences. GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbots can be deployed on all popular channels such as mobile apps, social media, websites, or messengers such as SMS and WhatsApp, ensuring 24/7 availability to customers. While sales, marketing, and customer service are some of the common areas that Chatbots are being used today, GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbots can be used in any scenario regardless of the industry, not just for the use cases listed above.  If you are a business owner or represent senior management, it is important for you to identify a use case that can deliver great ROI. Have more questions on how GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbots can transform your day-to-day operations and take you on the path to success? Get in touch with our expert today to know more about the use of GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbots in your industry.