The Internet of Things is becoming increasingly more real and consumers are beginning to see technology integrated into their lives in ways we’ve never seen before.
Smartphones are the epicenter of it all as the ultimate control to control everything in your life. You can control your thermostat, your baby monitor, your locks, and even your blinds with it. The next big thing is virtual assistants in your home, so you can tell it what to do instead of controlling it through your phone.
Virtual assistant texting
Texting is one of the easiest forms of communication these days, especially when it comes to relaying important information quickly. The person who receives the text is likely to answer within just a couple of minutes making it the fastest way to get a hold of someone who might not answer the phone because they are in a meeting, watching a show, or just don’t feel like talking on the phone.
But now, you don’t even have to pick up your phone and mess with a smartphone keyboard. Virtual assistants will begin taking over that role for you. Amazon’s Alexa is going to be doing it for AT&T customers starting tomorrow. It won’t be long before other carriers are added as compatible, and other virtual assistance programs will jump on the bandwagon too.
What this means for your business
As technology emerges and things change drastically in our lives, businesses need to be aware of the change, so they can prepare for the future. The way in which you engage with your customer is ever-changing. This move, in particular, means texting businesses will become even more of a necessity than before.
Two-way text communications already puts you ahead of the competition because it means your customers can get automated artificial intelligence responses to repetitive questions by simply texting. But adding the virtual assistant capabilities into it means customers are even more likely to text in their questions than ever before because it is easy.
For example, a customer may want to know what your Thanksgiving and Black Friday hours are. Rather than calling in to the store, it would be so much easier to ask Alexa to text your company and ask about holiday business hours.
Your artificial intelligence texting platform would recognize and categorize the question in order to send an automated response with an answer.
Tech is constantly innovating, be ready
People keep wondering if texting is going to go out of style with all the new technology coming out, but time has shown that it will never go away. New technology has incorporated texting capabilities instead of trying to avoid it, and it is a form of communication our society has grown accustomed to. As your business is preparing for the future, and especially as you are preparing for the coming year, consider your texting platform and how it will fit into your business as the years go on.
