How an SMS Customer Survey can Take Your Business to the Next Level

When marketing campaigns fail, it’s usually because the message is confused. Any good marketing campaign or advertisement is backed up by a wealth of customer knowledge. It’s far easier to tailor an effective message to your customers if you know exactly who you are talking to.

When it comes to small to medium sized businesses, however, a lot of companies believe that they don’t have the time or resources to truly find out who their customers are. This often results in confused messaging, emails with low open rates and low conversion levels on their website. There is, however, a way that businesses can collect precious data from their customers which will not only help them engage with their customer base on a personal level, but also result in data which can help power future marketing campaigns as well as improve aspects of the company.

Regular SMS customer surveys can give you an insight into what your customers truly think. If for example, the only feedback you’re receiving about your customer service is via social media, then an SMS survey can give you an accurate reflection of your service levels and can also point towards ways it could be improved. The data you gather via surveys such as a customer service one will give you access to customers you may not have heard from otherwise. If someone is happy with your service, they are unlikely to put a post on Facebook about it. If they are unhappy, it’s much more likely your marketing team will be hearing about it via social media, so a customer service survey can give you a much more accurate reflection of the whole picture.

Once you’ve collected the data, you’ll be in a better position to understand the steps that need to be taken in order to enhance the experience of your customers. So if you’re thinking about launching a new marketing campaign, it may be worth thinking about whether or not you truly know your audience, and if the answer is no, then it could be highly beneficial to use your SMS services to conduct a survey. Here are a few more benefits that you can expect from conducting a survey via SMS.

Better response rates

Your future marketing campaigns, whether they’re conducted via email, social media or you have plans for future SMS marketing, will be more powerful if you have more data. Consumers tend to always have their mobile phone within arm’s reach and have become accustomed to engaging with businesses with their smartphones. With SMS messages having an open rate of almost 100%, you stand a far better chance of receiving a good level of data than if you conduct an email survey.

Choosing to collect responses from your customers with SMS means that your contacts will most likely see the message as well as open it. The response rate will vary depending on the type of survey you’re planning on, but with industry experts estimating that almost half of mobile phone users respond to marketing messages if they’re sent by SMS, you have an excellent chance of receiving usable data that can help you make plans for the future of your business.

Quick feedback

Usually, with email surveys, a follow up is required as well as a data gathering process which could take up a lot of time, especially if your survey is being sent to a large contact list. With an SMS survey, however, the feedback will be gathered quickly. If you send the survey via email, there’s a strong chance it will either be deleted or ignored, but with most people opening a text in the first few seconds after it’s been received, the majority of your responses will come quickly.

Gathering your responses quickly allows you to set out an action plan to make any changes that may be required within your business. If you have conducted a survey about an upcoming product or service, for example, the quick feedback will enable you to swiftly rate the future potential of the product. Quick feedback on your customer service levels will also enable you to make any urgent changes before other customers are affected.

Easy to Launch

Conducting an SMS customer survey can be set up in a matter of minutes. They’re easy to create and can also be distributed quickly. Companies often find themselves in time sensitive situations such as an upcoming product launch, and being able to carry out a customer service within hours rather than days puts them in a position which enables them to make any last minute tweaks.

You’re more likely to receive an honest response

Up until now, you may have been conducting very little market research, if any at all. Alternatively, all your market research may have been conducted over the phone. If that’s the case with your business, then your findings might not be as reliable as you think. Customers are far more likely to simply tell you what they believe you want to hear over the phone than if you used SMS to ask the same questions. With SMS feedback, your customers are going to feel more relaxed, which will result in responses that are more honest.

Receiving a call out of the blue can make your customers feel as if they’re on the back foot, and they may just choose the simplest answers to try and get you off the phone quicker. With SMS, on the other hand, the customers are going to feel as if they’re in control of the conversation, and if they feel as if they’re in control, you stand a better chance of receiving candid answers to the questions of your survey. Ultimately, candid feedback is what you want from your surveys, the more accurate your responses are, the better equipped you will be to deal with any issues that flare up.

Contact FastSMS today to get started with setting up your SMS customer survey.