SMS Essentials – Part 1: Achieving Customer Success Using SMS Marketing
As you may already know, customer communications is critical to the success of any business. Welcome to our “SMS Essentials” series of articles in which we discuss simple and effective actions to scale your business and take communications up to a notch. Follow this series to discover ways of keeping your customers coming back to you time and time again! In this article, we take a look at how you can harness the power of SMS marketing for enhanced customer success.
How would you define a successful business?
The answer varies from person to person, but the most common answer simply is the business’s innate abilities to make a profit and perfecting formulas over time. While there may be some who are working towards achieving non-monetary goals that are personally worthwhile to them, and others trying to make an impact, turning a profit somewhere along the lines is what almost all businesses aspire to achieve.
But how does one build a profitable business?
There are several aspects that play a role in creating a successful business, but everything can come apart at the seams if you do not have a loyal customer base. Some of the most successful companies in the world are customer-centric—right from Trader Joe’s to Amazon to Apple. Customers tend to stick around much longer when their overall experience is pleasant. Think of it this way: You go to a restaurant to be met with the most amazing food you’ve ever eaten, but the wait staff was rude and you had to wait 30 minutes for your table despite making a reservation a week in advance. It takes away from the main reason you went there: the food.
Unhappy clients can have a sort of domino effect on an entire business plan.
So how do we achieve customer success using SMS marketing?
Here’s how 160 characters (length of an SMS) could be all that it takes to put you ahead of the game.
At this point in time, millennials in the U.S. are on the cusp of surpassing the Baby Boomers as the country’s largest generation. By 2019, the number of millennials in the U.S. is estimated to reach a whopping 73 million. Across the world, millennials comprise 25% of the world’s population. According to a survey in 2017, digital outlets are the go-to source for millennials to consume information. With the passage of time, this trend is likely to dominate how a significantly larger section of the population consumes information.
SMS might seem like a way of cutting corners but, for a generation that is constantly on the move, it might just be the underdog that brings it home.
One of the 2 factors that can be attributed to customer success is the immediacy and accessibility at which information can be conveyed. A text message provides both of these aspects in addition to being a convenient and cost-efficient medium of communication.
When taking into account the current demographic of customers, SMS is the most ideal medium of communication. It’s instant, it has a higher response rate, and it’s almost impossible to ignore. Emails and phone calls can be viewed as disruptive because they tend to hinder the customer’s daily routine. Reading and responding to a text message takes about 90 seconds, give or take. Sending a casual reminder or a brief update is far easier through SMS.
Agility is the way to go
Multi-channel marketing is perhaps the most efficient way to touch all bases but is very difficult to carry out on a budget. Bulk text messages are far less expensive and could get the job done just as well. Text messages are personal and more relevant than other media. Personalizing a text message when sending out promotions, notifications, or recommendations further builds customer engagement.
Building an ongoing relationship with your customers is key to a successful business. According to a study by Bain & Company and Earl Sasser of the Harvard Business School, a business can achieve anywhere between a 25% to 95% rise in profits with just a 5% increase in customer retention. And if we‘re measuring the success of a business based on profitability, SMS marketing could be the elixir that sustains customer success.
It’s thus of utmost importance to make the most possible use of the humble SMS technology. In the following articles in this series, we’ll discuss how to achieve just that. Stay tuned.
