VoIP texting: What it is and how to do it right

VoIP texting: What it is and how to do it right

VoIP phone texting has emerged as a versatile and cost-effective way for businesses to engage with their customers. By leveraging VoIP technology for text messaging, you can achieve seamless customer interaction with a global platform. VoIP texting lets you send and receive SMS using a VoIP number that’s text‑enabled. You get business‑grade messaging with your existing phone identity. Text messaging offers businesses unparalleled reach, letting them deliver personalized content directly into the hands of their audience. SMS has impressively high engagement, with an average open rate of 98% and click through rate of 36%. 

In this post, we’ll look at concrete examples of how businesses can use VoIP texting. We’ll see how modern businesses benefit from adopting this approach, and we’ll look at how you can leverage Twilio Programmable Messaging to get there.

As we dive in, let’s start with a brief primer on how VoIP texting works.

What is VoIP texting?

VoIP texting is the ability to send and receive SMS and MMS over the internet, like with WiFi. You get to keep your existing business phone identity so customers can text you on the same number they call. VoIP simply refers to the type of number you’re texting from.

How VoIP texting differs from SMS “over cellular”

With VoIP, your messages are transmitted and delivered over the internet, as opposed to traditional telephony/cellular networks. And just to be extra clear, they don’t travel over the VoIP audio channel.

VoIP texting works similarly, as text messages are sent as data over the internet without relying on traditional mobile networks. It’s only at the final delivery phase—if the recipient is on a traditional mobile network—that the VoIP text message is converted into a standard SMS format and delivered.

With VoIP, you can send and receive texts from devices not traditionally associated with SMS. Instead of being restricted to texting only to/from your mobile phone, you can use text from your computer. You can even build or use software applications to automate text messaging programmatically. VoIP texting is an incredibly flexible (and cost-efficient!) way to communicate via SMS without relying on cellular service.

VoIP texting integrates seamlessly with other internet-based communication tools, providing a unified platform for voice calls, video calls, and text messaging. This also makes VoIP texting an attractive option for businesses looking to streamline their customer channels.

How businesses can use VoIP texting

What might this mean for your business? Let’s look at three examples of how businesses are using VoIP texting to engage their customers more effectively and efficiently.

Marketing and promotions

Imagine an online boutique clothing store is looking to boost its spring collection sales. Engaging its customers through marketing and promotions is crucial. Traditionally, the company has used email for flash sale alerts, especially as its customer base has grown. However, the company also knows that most of its customers browse the store on their phones and engage more via SMS than channels like email. 

Using traditional SMS texting is sometimes not an option. Constraints like message length and high costs for large-scale campaigns make it impractical. To overcome these limitations, the business turns to texting with VoIP.

By adopting VoIP texting for marketing, the store can use online tools and no-code platforms to craft an engaging campaign for its spring collection. The store sends out rich, detailed messages with exclusive promo codes and links to its online catalog. With this strategy, the business not only reaches more customers (including those abroad), but it does so at a lower cost. In addition, it’s able to track engagement through click rates to optimize future promotions.

Customer support

Let’s look at another example: A tech company that offers 24/7 customer support for its software products. Initially, they relied heavily on emails and phone calls, but this often led to delayed responses and frustrated customers, especially during peak hours or when a technical glitch emerged.

To improve the customer support experience, the company adopts VoIP texting, setting up an automated, interactive support system. Now, customers can text their issues to the company’s dedicated support number and receive instant, automated responses with troubleshooting steps. Most of the SMS chat conversation is automated through AI-backed conversation flows and scripts, but the customer can also choose to be queued for a live agent if needed.

By choosing a VoIP texting system, the company significantly reduces wait times, improves customer satisfaction, and can handle a higher volume of inquiries efficiently.

Order and delivery updates

As a final example, let’s consider how a company would use VoIP texting to handle customer notifications like order and delivery updates. An online retailer specializes in high-end handmade crafts and artwork, but it’s hard for them to update customers on order statuses and delivery timelines. When order volume was smaller, the company would simply send emails with this information manually, but as the number of customers and orders has steadily increased, so have the incidents of miscommunication, confusion, and delayed notifications.

With VoIP texting, the retailer can pair its order management system with an SMS messaging API to deliver automated messages at key stages of the customer journey. The retailer sends timely, personalized messages for order confirmation, item dispatch, and day-of-delivery notifications. This approach significantly enhances the customer experience, reduces miscommunication, and offloads some of the burden on company staff.

Benefits of using VoIP texting

We’ve looked at some concrete examples of how businesses might use VoIP texting for marketing, customer support, and account notifications. The benefits include:

• Cost-effectiveness: VoIP texting reduces operational costs by using internet connectivity for message delivery, which is less expensive than traditional SMS.

• Flexibility and scalability: Businesses can easily scale up their messaging volume and content without significant infrastructure changes, and they can power their messaging capabilities with automation to keep their human support needs low.

• Global reach: VoIP texting enables businesses to send messages to customers worldwide without incurring the high costs associated with international SMS fees. 

Start VoIP texting with Twilio

VoIP texting is a powerful and flexible technology for businesses looking to engage their customers with ease—but without the high cost. It’s a scalable approach, especially for businesses that drive their VoIP texting with automation and programmability.

MessagingX is Twilio’s comprehensive business messaging platform, empowering businesses to reach their customers across multiple messaging channels. Within a centralized platform, businesses can leverage the Twilio Programmable Messaging API and Conversations API to reach customers over SMS, MMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and more. If you're ready to get started with Twilio, contact us today.

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