What happens to your text message if you mistakenly send it to a home phone number? Chances are your message will disappear and will not be delivered. As you already know, your residence or office telephone is not able to receive text messages.
When you say text messages, people think of messages sent to cell phones via mobile network providers. But in the last several years, we’ve experienced the growth of OTT apps that enable messaging on connected mobile devices, which is almost similar to how SMS works.
Now, a breakthrough in text messaging is coming to home phones. This technology lets customers utilize SMS capability through their landlines. A step thought to build a bridge between text-savvy mobile phone owners and the landline market.
By that, I'm referring to the phone number that your moms, dads, and grandparents have been using for 30 years, the thousands of toll-free numbers, and vanity numbers - all activated for texting.
In other words, a home phone number can receive and send messages from any mobile phones. Many platforms provide app-based messaging and landline texting. A mobile subscriber composes a message and sends it to a landline number. The landline owner receives the text message on his computer or mobile device. From there, he can send a reply and the message arrives on the recipient's cell phone like a regular text. But, instead of allocating another number for text messaging, the existing landline or toll-free number is enabled for texting.
Why would you tie your landline and SMS?
SMS has gained approval and recognition as a way of communicating professionally with customers thus ensuring your business number is capable of receiving text messages is completely logical.
With this new texting capability, residences and businesses can upgrade their outdated landlines. The purpose of this is to allow business users to immediately send messages to customers, employees, business partners, or family members who are not good at texting. The text-to-landline support also delivers status reports. The sender receives a report of whether the text reached a voicemail or if it went straight to the live person.
In particular, customers can order food from a nearby pizzeria by texting its existing business number. The pizza joint saves labor since there is no need to man the telephone. Furthermore, businesses could use one number for both calls and text, instead of confusing their customers with multiple contact numbers. It will be easier to engage customers regardless if they prefer landline or SMS.
Another advantage of this service is message encryption. You can expect that the lines are secure when you process customer reports and requests. By leveraging texting into phone lines, companies can scale from a fledgling business to a burgeoning enterprise.
Activating texting on a conventionally voice-only contact number launches the evolution of landline into a multi-service centered solution in which functionalities including Rich Communications Suite (RCS) comes to play.
Messaging also contributes a major function in RCS, which is backward compatible with text messaging. Therefore, allowing texting for landlines, set the stage for larger and better phone line systems.
As the texting network continues to grow and progress, landlines with their texting capability will find its place alongside SMS. With more than 140 million active landlines numbers today, dynamic texting services will have a powerful effect on the value and prevalence of SMS.
Uses of Text Messaging for Phone Lines
Businesses are discovering increasingly more ways to connect with customers through texting. Furthermore, your customers might wish to text your business for a lot of concerns:
- Find out more information about a product or service
- Check account balance and due date
- Place an order
- Check order status
- Look up branch locations
- Make and confirm reservations
Because of this, many businesses are utilizing SMS to:
- Send appointment reminders
- Provide customers the option to text your business number
- Use one phone number for email campaigns, print ad, radio ads, website or online ads
- Product activation
- Offer discount coupons or QR codes
- Send virtual gift cards
- As part of verification procedures for email and social media sign-ups
- Password confirmations or resets using OTP authentication
- Gather customer feedback and surveys
With TextingRights, you only need one number for voice calls and text. There is no need to switch carriers. Want to enable your business line for texting? Visit our demo page for the instructions.
