25 Jun SMS Reminder Ideas
There was a time when small businesses delivered appointment and other reminder messages by phone call, which was incredibly labour-intensive, or email, which was unreliable. Fortunately, companies have found a better way of communicating with their clients and employees: sending texts.
Automated texts are time-efficient and increase the likelihood that the recipients will actually read the messages you send. Read on to learn more about what SMS reminders are and how they can benefit your small business. We’ve even included some SMS reminder ideas and templates to get you started.
What Is an SMS Reminder?
An SMS reminder is exactly what it sounds like: an SMS message that a business sends to remind staff or clients about something. Such messages are often appointment reminders, but a business can use them in a variety of situations, as we’ll detail below.
Before we move on to SMS reminder ideas and benefits, it’s worth noting that automated SMS services can improve every aspect of your conversational marketing strategy, so don’t feel like you have to limit your texts to reminders.
How Can SMS Reminders Benefit Your Business?
If you haven’t used SMS reminders before, you might be wondering whether it’s worth adding automated text services to your business. However, after reading the benefits that SMS reminders can provide to your business, you’ll wonder why you waited so long.
Reach Customers Right Away
Instead of waiting for someone to check their email, you can send reminder SMS messages directly to customers’ phones where they’re most likely to see them. This is invaluable for time-sensitive reminders such as day-of-appointment messages.
Increase Chances of Being Seen
Your odds of a customer opening your text are 98% instead of the measly 20% open rates that emails provide. The last thing you want to do is spend your time drafting an email campaign that no one will see when you can use an online SMS platform with better results instead.
Reduce Cancelled Appointments
A small business that sends appointment reminders via SMS will save the time and money associated with missed appointments. SMS reminders reduce no-shows and rescheduled appointments, giving you the ability to schedule your staff according to the day’s schedule.
Encourage Engagement
In today’s digital world, people expect personalised service from the companies they do business with. Automated SMS messaging allows you to engage directly with your clients in a way they can respond to.
Provide an Easy Reference
SMS reminder texts provide your clients with an easy way to reference the information you sent them, such as an appointment date and time.
Integrate with Current Systems
Using an SMS platform like TouchSMS allows you to seamlessly integrate your SMS automation with a variety of other applications.
SMS Reminder Ideas by Industry
There’s no end to the number of ways you can use SMS reminders for your business. From creating customer engagement to facilitating staff rostering, automated SMS reminders can help virtually every aspect of your business run more smoothly.
Take a look at these SMS reminder ideas to get an idea of how best to utilise friendly reminder texts for your small business.
Accounting
- Appointment reminders
- Overdue account reminders
- Reminders about what to bring for an appointment
Example template: “Please remember to bring [DOCUMENTS] to your appointment tomorrow. We look forward to seeing you at 2 pm.”
Construction
- Staff rostering (shift reminders)
- Supply delivery reminders
- Site change reminders
Example template: “Please remember that we are due on site tomorrow at 6 am. Call or text the site leader ASAP if you’re running late.”
E-commerce
- Abandoned cart reminders
- Sale reminders
Example template: “We noticed you left something in your cart. Log in to your account to complete your purchase and take advantage of the summer sale before time runs out!”
Healthcare
- Existing appointment reminders
- Reminders to schedule an appointment
Example template: “Hi [CLIENT NAME]. It’s time for your annual check-up. Please call [PHONE NUMBER] to schedule an appointment.”
Hospitality
- Reservation reminders
- Staff rostering (shift reminders)
- Staff meeting reminders
Example template: “This is a reminder for your stay with us from [DATE] to [DATE]. Please reply ‘1’ to confirm or ‘2’ if you’d like to cancel or reschedule your reservation.”
Marketing
- Marketing content deadline reminders to staff
- Staff meeting reminders
- Client meeting reminders
- Client overdue invoice reminders
Example template: “Hi team, this is a friendly reminder that we’ve moved Friday’s staff meeting to the main conference room. Looking forward to seeing everyone there!”
Property Development
- Internal reminders to team members
- Reminders of launches or openings
Example template: “It is our pleasure to remind you of the official opening of [PROJECT NAME] this Thursday. Please text ‘1’ to confirm your attendance.”
Reservations
- Client SMS reminders
- Remind staff of appointments
Example template: “Hi [STAFF MEMBER], This is a friendly reminder that you have a client booked tomorrow at 9 am for an acupuncture session.”
Retail
- Staff rostering (shift change reminders)
- Layaway reminders
- Reminders of stock arrivals
Example template: “Hi [CUSTOMER NAME]. This message is to remind you that the items you have on hold will be put back on the floor by the end of tomorrow if you haven’t purchased them by that time. Call us at [BUSINESS NUMBER] to pay by credit card over the phone.”
Transport & Logistics
- Staff rostering
- Pickup time reminders to warehouse staff
- Road closures, detours, and other reminders to drivers
- Delivery time reminders to clients
Example template: “This is a friendly reminder that your shipment is due to arrive between noon and 5 pm tomorrow. Please ensure that someone will be available to receive the order. Please reply to confirm or reschedule.”
Start Using SMS Reminders for Your Business
As you can see in the text message templates above, employee and customer reminders can save small businesses time and money by ensuring that your staff rostering runs smoothly and customers keep their scheduled appointments.
Hopefully, some of the SMS reminder ideas in this article have given you inspiration about how you can use text reminders in your own business. Contact us to learn more about how TouchSMS can help you integrate automated SMS messaging into your current marketing plan.