Why SMS should be part of your feedback strategy

Why You Should Use Text messaging for Your Survey Feedback Strategy

By: Anthony Link, CEO, The Connections Group

Historically, companies have relied on phone and email for customer engagement and obtaining feedback and surveys. However, text messaging is today the fastest growing contact channel for customer service and feedback. This is simply due to its convenience, ease of usage and reliability.

The data speaks for itself:

• 81 percent of the population own cell phones;
• 50 percent + of customers prefer contacting support through text;
• 3 percent of consumers said they would respond to an SMS survey*;
• SMS has a response rate that’s 7.5 greater than email;
• 98 percent of all text messages are opened; and
• 90 percent are responded to within three minutes.

Compare these statistics to email, which only has a 21 percent open rate, a three percent response rate and an average response time of 90 minutes.

Jay Conrad, president of The Connections Group, says,  “People communicate via text more frequently these days.  With conversational marketing we see higher engagement rates, higher cost satisfaction and greater ease of problem resolution.  People are more apt to text or access a web app than to call housekeeping for extra towels or contact the concierge to book a dinner reservation spontaneously and even when not on-site.“

For businesses today, utilizing texting for survey delivery and responses is an easy and quick way to obtain feedback information. It empowers and engages customers, who might not otherwise respond to email or telephone surveys, to provide feedback on their experiences.

And they will definitely appreciate the convenience of doing so via SMS. Using a text messaging system allows customers to interact with a business without long hold times or delayed responses. After all, the faster a problem or issue is solved, the greater the customer’s satisfaction and loyalty.

Benefits of SMS survey deployment:

• Cheaper than over-the-phone or face-to-face surveys
• High response rates
• Quicker response rates
• More accurate responses
• Easy setup
• Cost effective

At The Connections Group we work with CustomerCount, a premier provider of world class, enterprise-capable, guest experience measurement tools. By integrating with our SMS text platform, CustomerCount is able to delivery surveys for their clients via text messaging. And the results have been amazing.

CustomerCount’s omni-channel approach expands the traditional communication methods and provides customers the preferred channel to initiate their feedback through text messaging.

Bob Kobek, president of CustomerCount, explains: ““We’ve seen a change in the way that our surveys are accessed. Mobile device popularity continues to grow. A year ago, 45.7 percent of our responses came from mobile devices. Today it’s 51.87 percent and growing.

“Our clients love SMS survey deployment and their customers really appreciate the ease of accessibility.”

SMS surveys provide a holistic customer communication experience and are an instant way to evaluate and ensure customer satisfaction and continued growth. It provides invaluable real-time data and analysis businesses need to create superior customer experience that skyrockets satisfaction and growth!

We believe it is the future for customer feedback survey delivery.

If you agree and want to find out more, contact Anthony Link at 561-414-4302 or Bob Kobek at 317-816-6000.

*Ipsos MORI

About CustomerCount

CustomerCount is a feature-rich, cloud-based survey solution providing intuitive real-time reporting, fast turnaround on requested updates, and detailed and dynamic data gathering capabilities to support process improvement efforts, build customer loyalty and improve your bottom line.

Developed and managed by Mobius Vendor Partners, CustomerCount was initially designed for the timeshare and contact center industries and is now used by organizations across numerous different vertical markets and industries.  For more information call Bob Kobek, president, on 317-816-6000 and follow them on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook.

About The Connections Group