Alerts · 5 min read
How to write account alerts people trust
Name yourself first, give the one fact that matters, and never ask for what a scammer would. Here is how to write alerts that get read and acted on.
A bank text lands on the same screen as a dozen scam texts pretending to be a bank. Every financial alert has to get past that. The customer has a few seconds to decide whether the message is real and whether they need to do anything. The habits below help them decide quickly, and none of them need a copywriter.
Say who you are in the first words
Open with your company name, the same way every time: "Harbor CU:" or "Lakeline Lending:". People learn the pattern, and carriers expect to see it. A message that opens with "Your account" and no name looks like every phishing text the customer has already deleted.
Give the one fact that matters
Each alert should carry one piece of news: a payment amount and due date, a charge and the merchant, a balance below the level the customer set. Put it in the first line, because many phones show only a line or two in the notification. If you have two pieces of news, you have two alerts.
Fit it in one text
A standard text is 160 characters. Go over and the message is split in two, which costs two credits and can arrive out of order on some phones. Emoji and some special characters cut the limit to 70. The Textcierge composer counts as you type, and it counts merge fields such as {amount} and {due_date} at their longest likely length.
Never ask for what a scammer would
Do not ask for a password, a full card number, a PIN or a one-time code in a reply. Say so in your alerts from time to time: "We will never ask for your PIN by text." If an alert needs an action the customer can't take with a one-word reply, point them to your app or the number on the back of their card.
If you do include a link, use your own domain, not a link shortener. Carriers filter shortened links in financial messages, and customers have learned not to trust them.
Make replies one word
The best alerts can be answered with YES, NO, PAID or a number. "Was this you? Reply YES or NO" is quick for the customer and easy for your team to sort. Replies land in the shared inbox, where a NO on a card alert rises to the top and goes to whoever handles fraud.
Send at a sensible hour, unless it can't wait
Payment reminders and statement notices can wait for morning. Send them between 9am and 8pm in the customer's time zone. A fraud alert or a sign-in code cannot wait, and customers expect those right away. Textcierge lets you set quiet hours for each alert type, so urgent alerts are never held back.
Watch delivery, not clicks
For alerts, the number that matters is delivery. After each send, look at delivered, failed and replied. Failures show the carrier's reason, such as a landline or a disconnected number. Clean those up, because a payment reminder that never arrived is a late payment you could have prevented.
A good alert names the sender, gives one fact, asks for nothing a scammer would ask for and arrives when the customer can act on it. Get those four right and most of the rest takes care of itself.