Every business owner knows how important customer engagement is for long-term success. Obviously, no business can survive for long without a clear way to attract and retain loyal customers.
As organizations increasingly turn to digital technologies for customer engagement, they depend on platforms that connect them to the people they’re trying to reach. Those digital platforms, in turn, need to build the solutions that drive engagement between organizations and their customers.
In the world of digital customer engagement, SMS has emerged as a reliable marketing powerhouse for communication, connection, and sales with end users. Surveys continue to demonstrate high open rates and strong engagement with SMS users. One survey found that over 90% of US consumers are interested and/or opted in for marketing texts.
And it’s not just retailers that rely on SMS. Medical providers, schools, and non-profit groups can all use SMS for improved connection with the people who rely on and support them.
In addition, the entry of RCS into the broader marketing ecosystem and the uptick in other channels such as WhatsApp give every organization a broader set of options for communication.
Platforms that provide customer engagement solutions have an opportunity to build powerful digital tools that keep organizations of all sizes and types connected with their audiences in the ways that matter most.
Here are four suggestions for platforms to optimize their tools and create better customer engagement solutions.
Use Integrations to Make Personalization Simple
Customers increasingly look for personalized offers and experiences, and savvy platforms can make this personalization simple for retailers and organizations.
Ecommerce marketing platform Yotpo empowers its customers to create unique experiences on a single platform through powerful integrations. Yotpo customers don’t need one platform for SMS, another for customer loyalty, and a third for reviews; rather, with Yotpo, they have a “one-stop shop” to build customer profiles that allow more personalized shopping experiences.
Customization is no longer an option for retailers. Consumers—especially younger consumers—expect to have a personalized shopping experience, often from their own living rooms. According to Attentive, 81% of consumers ignore irrelevant messages—which means marketers need to get personalization right on the first try!
Marketing platforms that streamline customization through robust integrations can give even small retailers the options that will drive their long-term growth.
Power Connection Through Better Communication
When the messages an organization sends are critical to the wellbeing of the audience, any breakdown in communication could bring negative consequences. Schools and medical providers, for example, need to be sure they can speak to their audience in the language they know best.
At DeansList, empowering educators to meet parents where they are is driving improved academic performance. While there are many school communication apps available across the US, DeansList stands out for its ability to automatically translate text messages into over 100 languages.
Teachers can reach out to parents directly via dedicated phone numbers, and they can feel confident students are supported because they can hold two-way conversations in the parent’s native language.
Many organizations don’t need to use texting to drive sales or scheduling; rather, they simply need a reliable way to communicate. Platforms that streamline communication through services such as automatic translation can make connecting with an audience simpler.
Go deeper on SMS
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State of Messaging 2025 Report
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State of Messaging 2025
Research Report
2024 Patient communication preferences report
Remove Obstacles to Communication
For organizations that don’t have marketing as a primary function, customer engagement solutions can help remove obstacles to communication.
DeansList gives schools a simple way to connect with parents without requiring every school to learn the ins and outs of testing regulations and other aspects of digital marketing. For teachers and administrators who want to focus on supporting educational priorities, DeansList removes obstacles to direct communication with parents.
According to Pew Research, 91% of American adults own a smartphone. Even more interesting—15% of US adults are “smartphone-only” Internet users and do not subscribe to a broadband service.
With growing dependency on smartphones for communication platforms like DeansList give organizations a reliable way to connect with people who need them most. Almost all parents have a phone with SMS capabilities, and DeansList users have seen improved student performance and stronger school/parent connections.
A good platform will make it easy for people who are not marketing experts or technology gurus to communicate directly with their audiences by removing obstacles.
Streamline Staffing and Support Efficiency
For healthcare providers and organizations that rely on scheduling and appointments, building a platform that streamlines the customer journey can save offices time and promote greater follow-through from end users.
At Nimblr, medical offices can automate the entire patient journey through a simple scheduling platform and AI assistant that schedules and manages patient requests “as a human would.”
The platform allows both voice and text communication, which enables patients to connect in the way they are most comfortable. And between scheduling functionality and answering FAQs, the platform acts as a highly trained and knowledgeable assistant, which improves office efficiency and creates a stronger bottom line.
Platforms that can essentially serve as another staff member can boost their customer’s office efficiency and improve digital customer engagement in the process.
Of course, no messaging platform can reliably connect to its own users if its carrier isn’t reliable. For platforms like Attentive, Yotpo, and DeansList, Bandwidth offers the uptime and reliability to ensure their customers that their messages will get through.
To learn more about how Bandwidth supports digital customer engagement and customer engagement solutions, download our 2025 State of Messaging report, or contact our experts.
