SMS Marketing for Door and Window Suppliers & Fitters
With the spring/summer season now properly established and the weather picking up day by day, it is the time of year that many homeowners will be looking at taking advantage of the longer dry spells and generally more predictable weather to give their houses that much needed makeover and get some new doors and windows fitted.
Although the windows and doors market suffered heavily under the recent depression, the latest research indicates it has made an incredibly strong recovery, boosted by increased confidence in the home improvement market and a sharp rise in the number of new build completions, helped partly by the increase in availability of help to buy schemes.
As a whole, the UK door and window sector has an annual revenue of over £2 billion and has a projected growth rate in the region of 2%.
With increased competition in the marketplace and a wider than ever range of products available for every budget, door and window suppliers and fitters need to find effective new approaches to marketing in order to stand out from their competitors. SMS is a low cost and easy to implement solution that offers incredible versatility. Read on to learn more.
SMS Marketing for enquiries, orders and estimates
For many newer houses, doors and windows will be standard sizes, and when it comes to replacements it is fairly straightforward for a homeowner to order with confidence that they will be a correct fit. For older houses, on the other hand, irregular and non-standard sizes are not uncommon and these may require the customer to provide measurements in order for a customised estimate or quote to be prepared.
In either case, SMS Marketing is a perfect way to keep your customers in the loop from the very first moment of interaction. Whether your customers choose to use your website, telephone or sales office as their first point of contact, be sure to follow up with an SMS confirmation that you have received their order or enquiry and that it is being processed – as well as thanking them for becoming a customer. Because SMS marketing is so prompt, it will immediately instill a sense of confidence and a belief that they have chosen a company that cares about a swift response.
An example message might read something such as:
“Dear Mr Davies, thank you for choosing to order your new patio doors from DCDoors.co.uk. We are pleased to confirm your order has been received and is currently being processed…”
Do be sure, however, to get the customer’s consent to receiving SMS messages in advance and offer them the opportunity to opt-out to ensure that you are compliant with the new GDPR legislation. [LINK]
Follow up and customer communications by SMS
Once you have started the conversation using SMS Marketing, the key is to maintain the dialogue and make it an integral part of the customer experience. There are a few ways you might choose to proceed beyond the initial confirmation, depending on your process.
If an order is straightforward and everything is in order, why not tell the customer –
“Dear Mr Davies, everything is in order! We’ll be back in touch soon to confirm the estimated installation date for your patio doors. In the meantime, if you have any questions call us on 0800 333 444. Thanks for choosing DC Doors…”
If you’ve identified a problem with an order or need more information and need to contact the customer, then SMS is also a convenient channel to use, if the customer has expressed a preference. In this case, you might send a message such as:
“Dear Mr Davies, we just need to confirm some details concerning your recent order at DCDoors.co.uk. Please give our team a call on 0800 333 444 so that we can make sure everything is in order…”
A modified version of this message can be used if attempts to reach a customer by telephone have been unsuccessful.
Dates and arrangements by SMS
Most adults have their mobile phone on hand almost all of the time, and it is rarely out of reach. This means that as well as being by far the best communication device, it is also a very handy place for customers to have key information at their disposal – such as when their new doors or windows are due to arrive or to be fitted.
A simple and straightforward SMS message is all it takes to ensure that customers have this information in the most accessible way – and you don’t need to worry about whether they have had a chance to check their email inbox either. After all, SMS messages have an open rate of almost 100% and are usually read within minutes.
Why not try something like:
“Dear Mr Davies, we are very happy to confirm that the team from DC Doors is scheduled to fit your new patio doors on Monday 25th June at 9:00am. Not convenient? Give us a call on 0800 333 444 now and we’ll be happy to rearrange…”
Once the date has been confirmed, a reminder nearer the time is highly recommended.
SMS Marketing for satisfaction surveys
We’d all like to assume that as a business, we are the best in the field – but ultimately it is the opinion of our customers that matters, and SMS Marketing is a great tool for gathering such information. It is remarkably simple to create and use an SMS survey and because SMS messaging is so practical, it tends to get higher response rates than other channels.
An SMS survey will typically consist of four to five questions, each of which should be possible to rate on a numerical scale. For example, you might ask the customer
“On a scale of 1-5, where 5 is the highest, how happy are you with the standard of fitting of your new patio doors?”
For best practice, make sure you seek the customer’s agreement to participate beforehand, and thank them for taking part at the end. You may also wish to consider adding an incentive to participate, such as a free door care or window care kit.
Here at Fastsms, our experts are always ready to help your business unlock its full potential with our award winning business bulk SMS messaging solutions. To find out more and to get your account set up and ready to go today, call now on 0800 954 5305.
