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Is a Chatbot or SMS Right for Your Business?
Find out if traditional text marketing or a chat bot for business better fits the needs of your organization.
Find out if traditional text marketing or a chat bot for business better fits the needs of your organization.
It takes a village to create a well-oiled customer service machine. At SimpleTexting we utilize a combination of texting and chatbots to serve our customers’ needs.
There are obvious pros and cons to each platform, but it can be difficult to know when to use what tool.
That’s why we decided to break down each one according to sample use cases, in-app capabilities, and more.
So buckle up for the chat-tool showdown everyone is talking about. But first, let’s meet our competitors.
Business chatbots are software applications that allow you to pre-populate a customer chat window with conversation prompts in an attempt to answer their questions before needing a human to manually intervene.
They’re built to save both customers and customer service team members valuable time by getting ahead of FAQs and general queries.
Some folks prefer to speak to a human directly, no matter their question, so chatbots themselves are a bit divisive.
The more you use them however the smarter they become as they feed off of data from past conversations. So often if you’re able to power through the first couple of months, the results should become more and more positive.
Business texting on the other hand utilizes software to send text messages in bulk or to individuals using the internet. Texting from your personal phone is limited. With business texting software, you can automate texts, schedule them for later, connect to third-party apps, and more.
| Feature | SMS | Business Chatbot |
|---|---|---|
| Native to customer’s phones | ✅ | 🚫 |
| Gets “smarter” with customer input | ✅ | ✅ |
| No character limits | 🚫 | ✅ |
| Always speaking to a “real” person | ✅ | 🚫 |
| Fast, efficient responses | ✅ | ✅ |
SMS is the solution for giving customers a personal touch.
Even though elements of a conversation can be automated or scheduled ahead, they’re always messages coming from a real person, not an algorithm.
There are also some instances where a customer issue is too technical or specific for a chatbot. For example, say a customer wants to find out how to change an element of an expensive bike they ordered from you. In this case, running the query through a bot would result in a jumbled mess of a user experience.
SMS on the other hand would allow a customer to work through the issue one-on-one resulting in a far more positive outcome. This is an example of a situation where a customer service rep’s time is used wisely. Chatbots alternatively are better for one-off questions like “what are your opening hours?”
Thanks to its fast and high open rates, SMS is a great tool for:
If your business experiences a high volume of inbound messages, you may want to consider a chatbot to help you serve your customers. These bots are an excellent first line of defense when it comes to resolving easy queries and fending off spam.
In general, AI chatbots are helpful for:
Used in tandem, SMS and chatbots are an unstoppable combination. SMS’s ability to connect quickly with customers in a way that’s familiar combined with AI chatbot’s speedy information retrieval—talk about a team.
Here are just a few scenarios using these two platforms together could benefit your business:
Already utilizing a chatbot for your business and curious how it works paired with texting? We’re available seven days a week for you to give us a go.
Text or call us at (866) 450-4185 or use the chat at the bottom of your screen (see what we did there 😉).
Alternatively, request a demo or sign up for a 14-day free trial, no credit card required.
Meghan Tocci is a content strategist at SimpleTexting. When she’s not writing about SaaS, she’s trying to teach her puppy Lou how to code. So far, not so good.
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