Transactional communications are solutions aimed at maximizing the efficiency of communications with our customers. These services aim, therefore, to cover the management of communications with our customers in order to maximize the benefits derived from it.
With the advance of digital transformation, the sending of graphic documents such as invoices, policies, expiration notices, among others, has been replaced by sending a PDF via email or SMS. This simplifies the operational process and generates significant savings in time and costs.
There are many types of transactional communications, including transactional e-mails, transactional SMS, transactional voice calls and instant messaging, as follows:
Transactional emails
Transactional emails are fundamental to the credibility of our brand. They are used for order and payment confirmations, password and data changes.
This type of communications sent as a result of an operation performed by the customer. For example: subscribing to a list, buying a product or service, requesting a password reset, etc.
Transactional emails are even more important for customer loyalty than email marketing because timeliness and accuracy help grow the reputation of a brand, website or company.
They not only convey practical information. They also convey ideals of reliability and security. Basically, they are the calling card of all online activities.
There are several types of transactional emails:
- Registration confirmation
- Order confirmation
- Notifications (order tracking, new messages, etc.)
- Login credentials retrieval
- Invoices and receipts
Transactional emails vs. newsletters
The differences between transactional emails and newsletters are clear. The first difference is between functionality and complement: while email marketing campaigns represent an additional tool to develop our business, transactional emails represent one of those essential pillars without which our business would collapse.
Transactional emails represent the main communication tool between a brand and the customer and are sent on the basis of a reason given to a user after an action. Newsletters, on the other hand, are sent to a list of contacts at scheduled times, constituting a perfect communication to awaken the interest of our contacts and to encourage clicks and interactions.
SMS in transactional communications
Transactional SMS are very useful when we want to communicate quickly, immediately and in a personalized way with users, since they are usually read on average within the first 3 minutes of receipt. And they have a read rate of over 98%.
Transactional SMS are useful for many sectors, such as:
- Medical test results and analysis.
- Appointment reminders.
- Confirming restaurant reservations.
- Confirm receipt of orders.
- Sending activation codes or passwords.
- Notifying expiration dates.
The benefits of sending transactional SMS for businesses are many:
- Improves customer trust and experience: Communicating with customers in real time and in an individualized way helps to consolidate a relationship of trust with customers. This conveys an image of professionalism, efficiency and transparency. It is also the most secure messaging service available.
- Fast and effective: The customer receives SMS messages instantly and they are read immediately, since the telephone accompanies us in our daily tasks.
- Reliable: Messages are delivered in just seconds to the user. Unless the user's cell phone is turned off for a long period of time.
- Real-time information: Transactional SMS can be sent automatically and in real time according to the change in customer data.
Transactional voice calls
Thanks to the Voice API we will be able to directly and effectively integrate automatic voice calls for communications such as verification codes, emergency alerts, booking confirmation or appointments.
With transactional voice calls we will be able to increase customer interaction. Through the keypad interaction system, we will provide our customers with the ability to interact with the message. Pass to an operator, repeat activation code, evaluate the service, etc.
Examples of transactional voice calls
- Appointment management calls: We can reduce the cost of time by using interactive voice calls to manage all types of appointments.
- Logistics and urgent notifications: We can ensure that our employees or customers are informed of last minute changes automatically.
- Customer feedback surveys: We can value the opinion of our customers by conducting surveys about our services automatically. In order to analyze all the answers from the statistics panel.
- Payment and invoicing management: We can automate the claim of payments or invoicing incidences in order to obtain benefits automatically.
Transactional instant messaging
Like SMS, we can use instant messaging to send transactional communications to our customers.
At Afilnet, we offer an advanced platform that will allow you to connect easily and efficiently with your customers through instant messaging services.
Through instant messaging we can make the following notifications:
- We can remind appointments.
- Confirmation of reservations in restaurants and hotels.
- Sending and receiving orders.
- Among other notifications.
Afilnet and transactional communication
In Afilnet, you will find all these services for your business. Thanks to our APIs, it will be very easy to automate all these services in your business. If you need help, contact us and we will be happy to help you.