SMS for Sales: Win More Business with Autoresponders

Here’s how autoresponders can increase your sales conversions by always giving customers a timely text response, even when you’re not in the office.

1. How They Work

Autoresponder automatically sends a reply to all inbound messages.

That kind of 24/7 customer service is why text messaging increases sales conversions anywhere from 30% to 100%. Consumers don’t unlearn convenience and will usually go with the business that gets back to them first.

Autoresponder acts as your out-of-office text message to hook potential customers and prevent them from moving onto a competitor. If someone texts you while you’re unavailable, the autoresponder sends an instant reply to let them know their message has been received and help is coming.

Autoresponders typically have a cooldown period of 20 minutes, so customers don’t receive the same message twice if they text your number again.

2. When to Use Them

You can have multiple autoresponders for different uses.

We recommend using them when your team isn’t able to manually respond to messages quickly, such as after business hours, on weekends, and during staff meetings.

Autoresponders can be set to one of two states to meet these needs:

a) Scheduled — Runs on any schedule, turning itself on and off based on the time slots you’ve set up. This is great for regular intervals, like if your team leaves the office every day at 5 pm.

b) Manual — Will send 24/7 if the response is active. This is great for specific events, like staff meetings where you just need to step away for an hour, or when the person who normally monitors texts is out sick.

While Scheduled autoresponders are best suited to be left on, you’ll want to turn your Manual autoresponders off when they’re not needed.

3. How to Create Them

Leave a message for customers that is comforting and proactive.

The most important part of an autoresponder’s message is to let customers know you’ll respond as soon as you can. That said, you can also include a prompt or link that encourage customers to take first steps on their own to:

Schedule an appointment
Apply for a quote
Send a picture of the area or object they need serviced

Just remember to have a team member respond when they can. The whole point of an autoresponder is to not substitute getting help from an actual person, but to let customers know that it’s on the way.

Want to dive deeper? Check out our guide, 7 Steps to Closing More Sales with Business Text Messaging.