It means people can confirm, cancel or ask a question in a few seconds, without picking up the phone.
What is two-way SMS?
Two-way SMS simply means you can send text messages and receive replies to them. Your customer gets a message, replies in the usual way, and that reply comes back to your business instead of disappearing.
The key ingredient is the number you send from. Many businesses send texts using a branded sender ID, which shows your business name at the top of the message instead of a phone number. That looks professional, but as our guide to SMS marketing rules in Australia explains, a branded sender ID that isn’t a valid mobile number can’t receive replies. If you want people to respond, you’ll need to send from a number that can receive them.
How do replies get back to you?
With Prodocom SMS, there are two ways to set up two-way messaging. The right one depends on how important it is that every reply finds its way back to you.
Option 1: Rent your own number. You get a dedicated virtual number for your business. When someone replies to your text, their message arrives in your inbox as an email, and you can answer straight from your email, with your response reaching them as an SMS. Because everything comes from the same number, the whole conversation stays together in one text thread on their phone. You can also choose to have replies delivered straight into your own systems, by FTP, SFTP, Route IP or HTTP Post, and set up automatic responses so people know their message has arrived.
Option 2: Send from a shared number. If you don’t rent a number, your messages go out from one of our 40 shared numbers. When someone replies, we work out which business the reply is meant for and send it on, which works well most of the time. It isn’t guaranteed, though. If another business has used the same number to message the same person, a reply can’t always be matched with certainty. And because your messages may come from any of the 40 numbers, a customer might see your texts spread across more than one conversation on their phone.
If replies are central to what you’re sending, such as confirmations or regular check-ins, renting your own number is the most reliable choice. A shared number can work well when you’re only expecting the occasional reply.
What do businesses use it for?
Anywhere a quick answer from a customer saves a phone call, two-way SMS tends to earn its place. The most common uses include:
- Confirmations. Letting people confirm, cancel or reschedule with a reply is one of the simplest ways to cut down on missed bookings, as we cover in our guide to SMS appointment reminders.
- Check-ins. Regular messages that ask people to confirm they’re okay, or that something has been done, with replies collected in one place.
- Quick questions and feedback. A short question by text gives people a quick, easy way to share their thoughts without filling out a form.
- Competitions. Combined with Prodocom’s Campaign Board, an inbound SMS number can be used to run SMS competitions where people enter by text.
What does it look like in practice?
One of the best real-world examples comes from NSW Health. In October 2013, during an avian influenza outbreak on a poultry farm in Young, the local public health unit needed to check in every day with people who had been exposed.
To make those daily check-ins easier, the unit used a web-based SMS service provided by Prodocom to send daily text messages, with replies passed back to the team. According to the evaluation published in the journal Communicable Diseases Intelligence, the average daily response rate was 66% over nine days, and 98% of the people receiving the messages confirmed they’d received them and that the texts reminded them to take their medication. Anyone who hadn’t replied by 4pm received a phone call instead.
That’s two-way SMS doing exactly what it does best. Most people could be checked on with a single reply, which meant phone calls could be focused on the people who hadn’t responded.
How do you make two-way SMS work well?
A few small decisions make a big difference to how well replies work for you and your customers.
Tell people they can reply. If you’d like a response, say so clearly and keep it simple, such as asking people to reply with a single word. There are more tips on wording in our guide to writing SMS that gets a response.
Decide who’s watching for replies. Before you send, agree where replies will go and who will look after them, especially if the message could prompt questions. A reply that goes unanswered can be more frustrating than no option to reply at all.
Acknowledge replies automatically. An automatic response lets people know their message has arrived, which is reassuring when a person can’t respond straight away.
Have a plan for people who don’t reply. As the NSW Health example shows, two-way SMS works best alongside a clear next step, whether that’s a phone call, a reminder or a note on the customer’s record.
The takeaway
Two-way SMS is a small change with a lot of upside. When customers can reply, a text stops being something they read and forget, and becomes the quickest way for them to confirm, cancel or let you know they need help. All it takes is a reply-capable number, a clear invitation to respond and a plan for where those replies go.
If you’d like to set up two-way messaging, or you’re not sure whether your current number can receive replies, get in touch and we’ll help you get it sorted.