Streamline your business to success with SMS notifications

Why use SMS notifications?

SMS is a popular and reliable messaging channel that boasts a wide reach, with 5.1 billion mobile service users around the world and 111.8 million mobile subscriptions in the UK. In fact, every mobile phone has a native SMS app built in, therefore your audience only needs a mobile subscription to receive SMS messages from your business.

That's not all, SMS has open rates as high as 98%, which means that messages not only reach the phones of your audience, but those messages will actually be read. This is further proven by the fact that 85% of surveyed people in 2023 admitted to prefer receiving text messages over email or phone calls. The global reach and impressive engagement statistics make SMS the perfect channel for timely communication.

Reduce no-shows with SMS confirmations and reminders

Retailers and delivery partners, healthcare and the service industry all suffer from no-shows, failed deliveries, cancelled appointments and closed doors. So much so that retailers lose £1.2bn a year for missed deliveries. In 2020 the average cost per failed delivery in the UK was £11.6. Plus, the NHS reports that missed appointments cost £216 million per year on top of the disruption for staff and fellow patients.

So how can your business combat these no-shows and prevent revenue loss? There is one key solution to help reduce these disruptions in business - timely communication via SMS. Send out order and appointment confirmations, delivery status updates, appointment reminders and delay alerts via SMS to keep your customers involved and informed.

SMS confirmations

Do you want to make sure that your customers stay informed about their orders or appointments? Start by sending out confirmations. Not all appointments are the same. Not all orders are the same. Not all people are the same. So, make sure that your communication is relevant, effective, personalised and customised.

Address the recipient by name and refer to their individual orders or appointments in the confirmation text. Include additional information such as the place of the appointment, the time of the delivery, who they'll be meeting and what they can expect. For example, it is not uncommon for certain customers to reschedule deliveries. How can you preempt this? Send a link with a rescheduling flow in your SMS order confirmation message to automate the process. Or, if it is an appointment for a healthcare procedure, put your customer at ease by adding contact information or additional information and FAQs. Segmenting your audience will help target bottlenecks in the appointment or delivery flow, effectively reducing no-shows.

Hi Peter,

Thank you for your order 1254. Your parcel is out for delivery and will arrive on your doorstep at 14:00, 9th June. Want to pick a different delivery date or time? Please follow this link: [reschedule delivery].

Thank you.

SMS reminders

It's crucial to send out SMS reminders at the right time. If you send it too close to the appointment or delivery date, the customer may not have enough time to make it or make changes. Meanwhile, sending it too far in advance may result in the customer forgetting about it. Choose times based on when the appointment or delivery is scheduled and when these notifications can be seen and acted upon.

Hi Iris,

Your dental appointment is tomorrow.

Date: 10th March
Location: Dentist Office
Doctor: John
Time: 09:00

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. Wish to reschedule? Please follow this link: [reschedule appointment].

Thank you.

Read all about Procedure A in our [FAQs].

You can also send multiple SMS reminders to continue to remind customers about upcoming appointments or deliveries. You can, for example, send a first reminder a week before delivery and a follow-up reminder the day before the delivery. Sending follow-up notifications will also help reduce missed deliveries.

Hello Peter,

Your order 1254 will be delivered next week on Wednesday. Want to pick a new delivery date or time? Please follow this link: [reschedule delivery].

Kind regards.

Recover abandoned carts with SMS reminders

Cart abandonment rates have been climbing steadily over the past few years. In 2023 around 70% of online shopping carts were abandoned. Why? According to a survey in 2023, the main reason for abandoning a shopping cart is the cost of delivery. The product becoming more expensive is reason enough for most people to search elsewhere for a better deal. Payment options are another big factor, 27% of surveyed people abandon an online cart if their preferred payment method is not available. Does that mean that the revenue of these abandoned carts is lost? Not necessarily.

Sending abandoned cart reminders will help engage customers who are still on the fence about the purchase. Perhaps they haven't found what they were looking for elsewhere or maybe they forgot about the product altogether. Sending a reminder via SMS with a link to the purchase page will make it easy and convenient for them to buy your products. A further option is to add an extra incentive and send out abandoned cart reminders when you have active discounts.

Hi Leo,

It looks like you forgot the blue sneakers in your online shopping cart. They are currently 10% off. Don't miss out on this deal!

[Go to your cart]

Use SMS for late payments

Payments are a sensitive subject, especially when they're late. SMS offers a direct and immediate way of engaging positively with customers for overdue payments and collection while respecting time and privacy. This allows businesses to remain proactive with concise communication and a clear call-to-action (CTA) to resolve outstanding payments.

Hello Leanna,

We would like to remind you of Invoice #123, which is due for payment on 4th September.

You can view and pay the invoice directly through this link: [pay now]

Should you have any questions or concerns about the invoice, please feel free to reply to this message. We're here to help.

Thank you.

SMS notifications with CM.com

The use cases and added benefits of SMS notifications are almost endless. Do you want to start sending SMS reminders? Our SMS Gateway makes it easy to send bulk text messages across the globe and can be used in many different ways. Connect your website or application to our API and benefit from 60+ direct carrier connections to deliver your SMS appointment notifications. Read more about our SMS solution below or start a messaging trial to experience the benefits.