Ping! Why Transactional SMS Is the New Superstar of Your Guest Communication Strategy
Let’s Talk About Texts…
They say to meet your guest where they are, and let’s be real, most of them are on their phones. So, when you’re thinking about the best way to communicate with your guests, why not text them directly?
With high read and conversion rates, SMS is a reliable way to quickly and easily deliver important messages to your guests. SMS can be a valuable addition to your existing transactional campaigns, creating new opportunities to connect with your guests and enhance your customer service.
In this blog, we’ll break down:
- What even is Transactional SMS?
- Why your guests will love it.
- Tips to keep your texts snappy.
- How For-Sight makes SMS campaigns effortless!
What even is Transactional SMS?
SMS, also known as Short Message Service, is how we send text messages. All you need is a mobile phone number! For-Sight is thrilled to now have SMS as an added channel for transactional campaigns.
Transactional campaigns are for anything related to a transaction your guest has made, whether they’re staying at your property or have made a spa booking, tee time, or dining reservation. Some examples of transactional messages include:
- Booking confirmation
- Pre-arrival reminder
- Welcome message
- Guest check-ins
- Checkout reminder
- Feedback request
Why Your Guests Will Love It
When sending important messages by email, you can’t guarantee that your guest will see it right away. They might be travelling, without internet access, or have their email notifications turned off. On the other hand, SMS notifications show up right on their phone alongside other important notifications.
SMS is a friendly and convenient way to connect with your guests at key moments, directly to their phone. And the data shows that guests like to hear from you via text! According to Forbes, 64% of consumers believe that businesses should use SMS.
Most importantly, guests act on these messages! SMS is shown to have a higher-than-average conversion rate of 33%. We attribute this to having clear, actionable messages, which we’ll show you how to do later in this article.
With these high open and action rates, SMS is a no-brainer for hoteliers looking for a quick, reliable and convenient way to connect with their guests as part of transactional campaigns!
What about marketing and promotional campaigns?
In order to send promotional messages, you need explicit consent from your guests to market to them via SMS. Additional regulations, such as opt-out requirements, send time limits, sender identity, and more, will apply and vary based on the region you’re operating in.
You can look forward to the addition of SMS for marketing campaigns next month, but we recommend that you start here. Once you’ve mastered transactional SMS, you’ll be set up to send the perfect marketing message.
Make sure you’re subscribed to our newsletter, so you don’t miss new opportunities for you to connect with your guests!
Tips to Keep Your Texts Snappy
SMS messages are limited to 160 characters per text, so you need to make sure you’re making the most out of what you want to say. Can you send more than one text in a communication? Yes, but SMS credits are charged per text.
Stay conscious of that character limit, and you won’t send more messages than necessary!
Read on to see our tips for keeping your texts snappy.
Start with a clear goal for your message.
Are you looking to provide information, a welcome message, or have a specific call to action?
For-Sight Campaigns help you focus your message by creating a goal for each campaign. Here are some goals you can set in For-Sight, along with examples of what the message could look like.
Enhance Engagement
We’re looking forward to your stay at Mountain View Resort today. Your reservation number is FS2468. Check-in is available from 4 pm onwards.
Collect Guest Feedback
We hope you enjoyed your stay at Mountain View Resort. Please leave us a review. Bit.ly//
Use active voice. Keep the language simple.
Now that you’ve got your goal figured out, you need to figure out the right way to communicate your message to your guests. Here are some things to consider when crafting an SMS message.
- How do I keep it direct?
- Can I say it in fewer words?
- How would I say it to a guest?
Let’s look at the example below of a welcome message designed to delight guests and encourage feedback.
Hello Sally! We hope you are enjoying your visit at Mountain View Resort. Should you require anything during your stay at Mountain View Resort, you can access our WhatsApp concierge here: bit.ly..
By implementing these tips, we can cut the above text in half!
Hi Sally! Need anything during your stay? Access our WhatsApp concierge here: bit.ly..
Be mindful of personalisation tokens.
Personalisation is a great way to connect with your guests, but be mindful of your character count! If you’re looking to include personalised names, we recommend sticking with first names only. Make sure to test your message with longer placeholder text to gauge how long your message will be. (ex. Alexander is a better placeholder than Sue.)
Can’t fit everything in a message? Include a link.
Do you have a lot of important details you want to communicate to your guests, but don’t have the space to say everything? Add a link! We advise using a link shortener like Bitly to keep the characters to a minimum.
How For-Sight Makes It Effortless
While you may be curious about SMS, we’re sure you have other questions.
- How do you get a phone number?
- Can this be timed along with other campaigns?
- What about contacts without a phone number?
- How do you make sure SMS messages are delivered?
For-Sight makes adding SMS to your communications strategy effortless with easy campaign integration, segmentation capabilities, and phone number validation.
Curious how SMS could work for your hotel’s transactional campaigns? Book a meeting with our team, and we can dive into the possibilities together.
Easy Campaign Activation
SMS can be easily activated in your existing transactional campaign workflows, or you can create your own in five easy steps!
- Select “Create a Campaign”
- At the action step, select SMS
- Select the sending identity
- Select the SMS campaign name to send
- Complete the campaign setup as normal.
See how For-Sight makes creating transactional SMS campaigns simple in the video below!
Segmentation
At For-Sight, we know the value of segmentation and the importance of sending the right communication to the right people. Here are a few ways you can use For-Sight’s segmentation capabilities for SMS messages.
- Exclude international visitors so you’re only sending SMS to guests with a local phone number.
- If a guest doesn’t have a mobile phone number, you can send an alternate message by email to ensure that everyone receives a communication.
- Send different messages to first-time vs returning guests.
Want to learn more about segmentation? Click here to learn more about some guest segments hoteliers can take advantage of!
Phone Number Validation
For-Sight’s system reviews each phone number ahead of sending a campaign to ensure that you’re only sending messages to valid phone numbers. Validating phone numbers reduces the likelihood of wasting SMS credits and makes sure that your message is deliverable.
With this system in place, we can easily route messages to the right person, no matter where they are.
Ready to Ping?
Now you know the basics of what SMS is, why your guests will love it, how to craft great texts, and the ways For-Sight makes it easy for you to start using SMS in your transactional campaigns. Interested in learning more about SMS functionality within campaigns? Let’s chat!
Already a For-Sight customer? Reach out to your Customer Success Champion to learn more about SMS and how it can help your hotel’s transactional campaigns.
New to For-Sight? Book a fifteen-minute call with our team to learn more about our CRM and Marketing Platform. SMS is just one of the exciting tools we have to offer you!
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