Texting has quickly become one of the most popular and efficient pieces of insurance tech. Almost 90% of consumers say they’d like to be able to text businesses. It improves communication by making it easier to get in touch and get a response from customers and prospects, streamlining outreach with automation and integration into agency systems. Studies show that 98% of text messages are read, compared to 20-30% of emails and phone calls.

Texting is one of the tools all your team members can use, from producers to CSRs, as it speeds up communications and helps your agency move.

How to Leverage Texting

More than 80% of consumers say they prefer texting with an insurance company for many reasons. Agencies can use texting for:

• Sending appointment reminders
• Announcing events and updated
• Sending weather or other emergency alerts
• Confirming payment and claims processing
• Offerings special discounts
• Submitting claim information
• Asking for reviews and feedback

One element to remember with announcements, review solicitation, and discount texts is to manage how often you send messages. While all of these notifications are helpful to your customers, you shouldn’t be texting daily and never more than once a day. Just as people don’t like spam email or phone calls, they also don’t like spam texts.

Other Important Texting Tips

Along with managing how often you send texts, there are a few other important areas to consider as part of your texting strategies.

1. Have users opt-in to receive texts. You’re legally required to either ask customers to sign up or give their permission to be on your texting list. In our experience, it’s best to provide customers with the option and let them sign up on their own. Make it easy for them to do so, offering sign-up at the end of emails, in your customer portal, and at the top of policy statements, among other areas.

• Include opt-out options and your agency’s name in every message. Again, providing opt-out in each message is a legal requirement in many states. Signing your texts is helpful as many customers won’t have your number saved and could be confused by the message without the context of who sent it.

• Use the same number for all your texts. Whether you decide to use your agency’s local phone number or a five- or six-digit SMS-only number, stay with the same one, so your messages stay together in your customer’s phones. If your agency serves outside one locality, it’s best to use an SMS-only number to avoid additional charges for texting outside of your area code.

• Send a confirmation for any text you receive from a customer. These messages can come directly from a live agent or be templated messages. Examples include, “If you need help, contact us at…” or “Thank you for your message! We will respond within 24 hours. Need immediate help? Call us at…”

• Make all your texts relevant and error-free. No one wants to receive a typo in a text from a business. Pre-determined templates can help reduce errors. Your customers also only want texts that bring value. Texting just “Happy National Coffee Day!” can just be annoying. However, if you add that there is a 50% discount at a local coffee shop for all your customers, the text becomes meaningful and relevant. Save the cute pet photos and holiday wishes for your social media posts.

•  Know when to take it off text. Texting is very convenient and efficient, but only to a point. If you sense a customer is frustrated, or their question is complex, it’s best to move to a phone call or in-person meeting. Don’t stay on text longer than you need.

Get Started with Texting Today

If you’re looking to add texting to your agency communications offerings, look for a system that integrates with your current tools. The last thing you need is one more new tool to learn and synch with your systems. That’s why we integrated texting right into our Partner Platform agency management system, syncing it with built-in CRM and marketing automation tools as well.

Find out more about our integrated texting and other marketing and communication tools: get in touch at [email protected] or 800.747.7005, Option 6 today.