So, you've got great campaigns rolling out - some are automated and some are triggered. But what about those other communications your customers are receiving that are not from marketing?

You know the communications I mean, the 'thanks for your order', 'we've received your application' or 'your service technician will be with you on Wednesday between 10am and 12noon'. These are services messages that your customers need. They are often pushed out by operational systems (finance or process-based) via any channel within your organisation, and as a result marketing sometimes doesn't get to see them.

What is service messaging?

Sometimes called transactional messaging, it's the ability to contact your customers to provide personalised experiences in the moment that matters most. As outlined above, these are the messages that your customers expect and in fact in cases, they need. These aren't marketing messages and as a rule, customers don't opt-in to receive them, but they have come to expect them. So, they need to be treated as service messages and not marketing messages.

How can marketing stay across service messages?

As a customer we all want a truly cohesive experience. Whether it's a service message or a marketing message it should have the same branding and tone. Customers don't necessarily think about it, but consistency will help reinforce branding, help with customer satisfaction, and of course aid with loyalty. So, how do you corral those service messages and bring them into your marketing stable? You use the same engagement platform to generate them - it's that simple.

What's the value of having service messages sent from your engagement platform?

The beauty of sending service messages from your engagement platform, is that all your messages are kept consistent with your tone and brand by using the same templates and assets already available to you. You can also create new assets as you need. Consistency across your marketing and service messages helps customers recognise the message is from your organisation and helps with building brand trust and loyalty.

By leveraging a transactional or relational database in the platform, rather than the contact database, service messages can be triggered based on customer or internal systems actions, behaviours or even in-actions. This means that you can reach a single customer with numerous services messages over their lifetime - e.g. 'your order has been received', 'your appointment is on 12 November', 'your technician will be with you today between 8am and 10am'. 

Qrious' engagement platform, UbiQuity, offers a Service Messages module, enabling you to have full oversight of all communications, both marketing and non-marketing, that your customer is receiving across all channels. No more guessing who sent that SMS message to your customers or that off-brand email.

What's great about having service messages sent from your engagement platform, is that you can automate requests (either from the customer or your internal systems) which are currently manually fulfilled. This reduces pressures on internal teams and your call centre, helping to reduce internal costs. Service messages can be delivered in real-time, making sure your customer is always kept in the loop and not left wondering what's happening.

When to use service messaging

There are many use cases that lend themselves to setting up service messaging. Here are just a few:

Customer driven:

• Providing your customers with confirmation of receipt of application, payment, or an order
• Password reset for your customer
• Or confirmation of another simple request

Business process driven:

• Confirming a service call time or an appointment time
• Confirming the progress of an application, order or payment/refund
• Confirming send of tickets or important documents for your customer to look out for in the post

If you're already a UbiQuity customer and want more information about the Service Message module and how it could work for your organisation, contact your Qrious Marketing Automation Specialist today. If you're not already using UbiQuity as your engagement platform and want to know more about how it works and what it offers to New Zealand organisations, view the features here or get in touch here.