How to Improve The Customer Experience with SMS

If you run or own a business, doing what you can to satisfy your customers’ needs is key to your success. Feedback is an essential resource for learning how your customers perceive your business and what changes to consider to improve the customer experience. Whether the feedback you gather is prompted or unprompted, the collected information can influence your customer experience decisions.

When selecting a customer engagement channel, how do you decide which is best for your business? It comes down to your target audience and which channels would best suit them and their habits.

Customer engagement preferences and trends

Customer expectations and behaviors are constantly changing – with that comes the need to keep up with what communication methods work for them. In this digital age, convenience is a top priority for consumers – this also stands true in customer engagement. SMS, email, and phone are a few ways to engage with customers to learn more about their experiences with your business.

According to a 2019 survey, customers are evenly divided on whether their preferred communication method is text or voice when interacting with companies. That data also shows that generational differences play a big part in which communication method they prefer. Compared to other generations, writing reviews is a popular customer engagement activity amongst millennials.

This generation also prefers a mobile-centric approach, with 67 percent opting to use SMS communication due to its ease of engagement and short time commitment. In comparison, the remaining 33 percent prefer voice channels. As for Baby Boomers, the phone is the preferred method of communication because of the ease and effectiveness of resolving issues.

How the customer engagement channels compare

Although the phone is becoming the least used and preferred customer engagement channel, it’s not yet obsolete. Aside from Baby Boomer’s usage of the method, other customers occasionally opt to call a business directly to speak with a live person and resolve an issue when a major problem arises. This may seem easy enough, but calling a business and being placed on hold or leaving a voicemail that goes unanswered can be frustrating.

As technology progresses and consumer’s expectations change, so does the need for more convenient and reliable customer engagement channels. Turning to SMS as an alternative enables businesses to build an immediate rapport with customers and support better customer service and retention. Since the pandemic, texting has increased; 61 percent of consumers stated they’ve received or exchanged SMS with local businesses.

Compared to emails, which carry a 20 percent open rate, SMS open rates can be as high as 98 percent, take less time to respond to, and are far less likely to be marked as spam. Lastly, for SMS communication, customers have to opt-in to receive them, meaning they want to hear from the business.

Implement SMS feedback to improve the customer experience

Customers shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to provide good or bad feedback. SMS provides a convenient and simple way to engage with customers and produces engagement rates six to eight times higher than email. Gathering customer insights is as simple as our Trusted Partner Program (TPP), where your customers can easily text a dedicated phone number to provide feedback in real time.

Whether you intend to initiate contact or reach out to them first, SMS allows them to provide you with detailed insight into how you can improve the customer experience. Make the commitment to putting your customer first – contact us today to get started.