New Texting Feature, Who Dis?

When you think about it, text messaging is one of humanity’s better inventions.

Think about it from a business perspective: you can dump a whole ton of information into a tiny little message box and send it off to a recipient (or many recipients, if you’re in a group chat!), and know that they’ve received it in real-time. If they have questions about whatever you sent them, they can fire back at you. And you can have a conversation, in real-time, without saying a word out loud.

Miraculous. Miraculous, we say!

I dunno, Fullbay, you might be mumbling, I’ve heard texting is to blame for a lot of romantic issues.

Okay, yeah, maybe it is. But fortunately this is a heavy-duty repair blog, not a romance blog, although if you read through to the end we will include a nice little limerick for you to read to your beloved (or your dog). But we digress,the fact is that texting has been a boon for businesses.

The Fullbay crew is not blind to its usefulness. We built out a texting alert feature a while ago that allows shops to send automated messages to customers. People liked it, but we’re always on the lookout for the next big improvement, and man, it’s here.

ONCE UPON A TEXT

In the past, you’ve been able to send those automated messages to your customers. They typically include messaging like:

• Your repair is complete. Come get your truck!
• A new invoice is ready!
• Parts have arrived for your service order.
• An estimate needs your authorization.
• The shop dog drove off in your semi…sorry.

Okay, as far as we know, no one’s ever sent a message like the last one.

The original texting feature kept customers in the loop, but it was really just about making announcements. It’s fine and dandy, but what if the customer wanted to know what direction the shop dog went? Or if they have a question about a part, an invoice, or their love life?

Up until recently, they’d have to call or email you to get answers to those questions.

Now, however, they can write back.

And you can answer them.

I can already answer them, you might be saying. I just plug their number into my phone to have a text convo with them. But…what if I plug it in wrong and text the wrong person?

Oh no. Existential dread activated!

Yo, we hear you. And we took care of that.

WELCOME, 2-WAY TEXTING!

You can now text with your customers from right inside the Fullbay app.

Yup.

No tricks. No gimmicks. No need to copy down their phone number to type it in elsewhere. Communicating with your customers has never been this simple—just use the regular old Fullbay texting feature with the knowledge that if they’ve got questions, you can update them from Fullbay.

Yes. They’re texting from inside the app!

We’ll wait while you applaud both the feature and that joke.

So, why should you be stoked about 2-way texting? Honestly, it’s a pretty big improvement for customer experience—and that’s a win for you, since happy customers tend to be repeat customers.

But here’s a few reasons we dig 2-way texting so much:

Customers are likelier to open texts than they are to open emails or answer calls.
We could dig into the psychology behind this and wonder what has become of society when answering a phone call seems like heavy lifting. The point for you is your customers are 98% likely to open that text message. They’re informed of what’s up that much faster!

Customers tend to respond to texts way faster than emails or calls.
The average response to a text message takes only 90 seconds. A minute and a half! That’s opposed to 90 minutes for an email, if they get around to it. Ninety seconds is less time than it takes to make a fresh cup of coffee. You’ll still be scooping out the grounds when a customer responds!

Needless to say, the faster information is exchanged, the faster you can get back to work.

Customers can be more informed.
You can write whatever you want to your customers. Fullbay does include a number of prebuilt messages you can send off quickly, but 2-way texting opens up the power of conversation.

Need to provide a detailed theory of why a semi’s radio turns on every time someone steps on the brake? You can do that.

Need to explain to a customer that no, a certain part isn’t available until next week? You can do that.

Need to write a sonnet about that amazing cup of coffee you had this morning? We don’t necessarily advise it, but you can do that, too.

Staying in Fullbay lets you keep your eye on the prize.
Before we rolled out this feature, you’d have to actually leave Fullbay if you wanted to call or text with a customer.

NO LONGER! By communicating with them from directly inside Fullbay, you…well, you stay inside Fullbay! Think of all the times you’ve had to flip back and forth between the app and your text messaging service. Maybe it’s a few seconds, maybe it’s a few minutes, but multiply that out over the course of days, weeks, and months, and…well, you get the idea. That’s a lot of lost time you can get back.

Fullbay saves your text messaging threads.
Need to review a specific texting thread you had, like, three months ago? Fullbay saves it. You can head back into that thread at any time to see what was said, and when. Think of it as our way of helping you keep all your communication in one easy-to-reach place.

CHATTY CUSTOMERS ARE HAPPY CUSTOMERS

We’ve said this a lot, and we’ll say it again: happy customers are often return customers. And happy customers like being kept in the loop. They want to know what’s up with their vehicles. Brian Still, Executive Vice President of TDI Fleet Services in Texas, once told us that when a customer has a bad experience with a shop, the “majority of the time the bad experience that stands out in their mind was not a bad repair, but a lack of communication.”

Don’t be the shop that gives them a bad experience.

Communicate with your customers!

Once more for the folks in the back—

COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS!

Let them know what’s up. Let them ask questions. Answer those questions. The more time you both spend on the same page, the more pleased they’ll be with your repair services.

Customers that bring their vehicles back again and again tend to leave nice reviews when asked…and they also tend to tell their colleagues about your operation. Those colleagues are likely to check you out because someone they like and respect has spoken highly of you. Bam, word of mouth marketing done.

Also, bam, more revenue!

HOLY GORGONZOLA! HOW DO I GET 2-WAY TEXTING?

If you’re already a Fullbay Connect subscriber, then 2-way texting is yours to use! Head to your Integrations page—if you have a qualifying plan, you’ll see the “2-Way Texting” card and be able to turn it on. All of our plans come with a certain number of free texts, so see which one you’re on before writing out lengthy soliloquies to your customers.

If you aren’t using Fullbay Connect and you crave the dopamine hit only a text message response can offer, well, join the club and take a look at the Fullbay Connect integration phase for more details. And, y’know, maybe get subscribed!

In the meantime, we’ll continue to build out the kind of features repair shop owners didn’t realize they were missing. And hey, maybe if you’re new to Fullbay you can try our free demo or ask us some questions…we promise, we always text back.

via GIPHY

Whoa, wait, are you still here? What’s up?

Fullbay. Bruh. You promised us a limerick.

Oh…oh darn, we did. Um. Well, in the spirit of romance and texting, here we go.

There once was an app called Fullbay
That enabled shop texting—yes, 2-way!
Repair customers rejoiced
Their concerns could be voiced!
And so could their need to say “Hey.”