Standing out can be quite tricky for financial institutions, especially on the marketing front because they all offer near-identical services. So how do you stand out?
It comes down to the little details like sending a text message on a branch being shut down for a national holiday so customers don’t have to drive all the way over there to be welcomed by locked doors. This is just one of the very handy SMSs used in the finance industry.
How Financial Institutions Benefit From Finance SMS
It works almost in the same way as business SMS service – kind of like distant cousins if I may. Here are some of the ways that financial organizations benefit:
Fraudulent Activities are Reduced
There aren’t many industries demanding safety and security as much as finance. Customers need to have 101% trust that their hard-earned, or not, assets are safe with you. So how does SMS implement this?
One great example of this in action is 2FA. Two factor authentication is basically using two metrics to access an asset.
In the banking industry, finance SMS can be sent in the form of expiring one-time PINs to facilitate two factor authentication. All this does is ensure that whoever is trying to access the account is the one allowed to, the code being the last turn of the key before it all unlocks.
Two factor authentication adds a layer of security to protect against fraudulent activity. 2FA could come in when a customer is attempting a risky or large transaction where the system sends them a one-time pin that’s on a clock. On a clock in the sense that the transaction needs to be completed on time or else the PIN becomes obsolete.
It can also be a handy way of verifying a person’s contact for future reference and communication for marketing and notifications.
Keeps Customers In the Loop
The most important part of a business SMS service or any service of this nature is keeping customers in the loop. Financial matters are about as sensitive as disarming a bomb with tourette’s syndrome.
Use text messages to keep them in the loop on all their financial matters and issues. Is there a problem with their loan application? A problem with their mortgage application? Nothing is mundane with money matters so keep in mind that even the tiniest of information can go a long way in calming a customer down.
Monitoring Servers
Services from a business SMS service provider allow financial institutions to do more than just keep customers engaged and in the loop. From a more internal point of view, financial organizations can integrate SMS into their business to monitor their systems and consequently warn technicians in the event of a problem.
You will get instant SMS notifications of server issues and you can then take due action.
Tackling Basic Queries Fast
There perhaps isn’t a faster mobile communication channel than SMS. Messages are received and read faster than you can say ‘bank’. As such, financial organizations leverage business SMS service providers for bidirectional SMS services.
Being 2 way, the communication involves the customer giving feedback. Making use of this, customers can text in to schedule appointments or make basic inquiries, which are answered promptly.
Can Finance SMS Be Integrated With My CRM?
You cannot complete a guide on banking and SMS without at least wondering what the optics are when integrating with CRM. To answer your question, getting a solution that works for you and your customers is relatively easy.
For the less-endowed in matters of marketing, a CRM is basically a way of managing all your organizations relationships with customers and potential customers. What I am trying to say in so many words is that integrating customer relationship management software to business SMS services isn’t that complex.