Last week, I was browsing Amazon for a new board game, and narrowed it down to five options. I had read the reviews but still wasn’t sure and added a reminder to ask friends. But before I got around to it, I was walking past a board game store, and quickly popped in… I had a friendly chat with the geek behind the counter and got a great suggestion; he asked what I liked and gave me a personalized recommendation that was perfect! Naturally, I bought it.
As convenient as Amazon and many online services are, there is a small gap that companies can fill fairly easily. Sometimes customers just need to ask one or two questions before they are ready to make a purchase or feel like there’s a personal recommendation for them.
With a newly formed partnership between Sonar and Woopra, you can easily send and receive targeted text messages with your customers, helping you to create a lasting and personal connection with your customers that makes them happier while increasing your efficiency and sales.
Here are 4 great reasons why you should consider texting with your customers and some ideas of personalized text campaigns you can try.
Reason 1: 98% Read Rates
I have no unread text messages on my phone right now, and over 4,000 unread emails. I received 128 emails today alone, and so far I’ve only received one text message. A marketing email with 20–30% open rates is considered good, but the AVERAGE text message open rate is 98%. In fact, 90% of text messages are read within 3 seconds! So if you want your message to your customers to be read, try sending a text!
Suggested Text Campaigns to Send with Woopra Labels:
SMS is a great way to quickly get feedback from your customers. Segment customers who just made a purchase or received a delivery and text them to rate their experience. It’s a great time to turn around a bad customer experience or ask happy customers to refer you to their friends!
Send your most loyal users marketing texts with time-sensitive flash sales. Those are the customers most looking forward to messages like these.
Reason 2: Your Customers Want to Be Your Friends
The beauty of text messages is that they help you make a personal connection with your customers. Typically, your customers text their friends and family, and all of a sudden, when you message them on the same channel, you conjure warm, colloquial responses. There may be a few customers who don’t want to receive SMS from you, and that’s perfectly fine: what we’re suggesting is that you reach out to customers on the channels THEY prefer.
“SMS is just much more personal than any other channel. Our customers know: ‘I have this person at Mayvenn that I text and who is always available to me’. They don’t see SMS communication as marketing or sales. When we send our customers coupons, we get individual, personal, texts back, saying ‘hey, thanks for letting me know!’” said Taylor Wang, Mayvenn CTO.
“As you respond to a customer on text, you’re much more informal. You instantly make a personal connection. When you make that personal connection, people are much more inclined to follow through with a purchase.”
— Shaun Lee, Co-Founder, Bohemian Guitars
Suggested Text Campaigns to Send with Woopra Labels:
As soon as a customer signs up, send them an introductory text message letting them know who their point of contact is at your company. Open that personal connection at the very start! You’ll be surprised how many customers respond with their immediate thoughts or questions about your service.
Use Woopra & Sonar properties to message customers with their first names in the message. This will make notes to them seem even more personal.
Reason 3: It Makes Your Customers’ Lives Easy
33% more people have access to mobile phones than toilets! As of last year, sixty percent of total digital media time spent in the United States was on mobile and this number is growing rapidly. Given the time your customers are already spending on mobile devices, mobile communication will make their life easy! When one is on their mobile device, it’s much easier to respond to a text than it is to use web-chat or write emails. Think about how many times you’ve used webchat on your mobile phone vs. SMS, and if you have tried webchat at all, the experience was probably pretty bad.
Suggested Text Campaigns to Send with Woopra Labels:
- If your customer has purchased something, send them shipping updates so they know when to expect it. This will help them feel informed and prepared!
- Add the Ping Widget (a Sonar feature) on your website. The widget will pop up a button prompting your mobile website visitors to text you if they have a question. Adding this button, alone, increased Bohemian Guitars’ sales by 98% in four months. Customers know they’ll get help without having to wait on hold to talk to a person!
Reason 4: You’ll Reach More Customers in Less Time
Average Call Duration or ACD is a key performance metric for call centers. The length of a given call matters because while a call center rep is serving one customer, he/she cannot serve anybody else! Text messages are asynchronous in nature — that means that while waiting for a text back from one customer, your rep could switch to another and help multiple customers at once. Unlike with webchat, he/she doesn’t have the pressure to respond within 5 seconds at the fear of losing a customer to a closed web page. To add to the simplicity of text, all your rep has to think about while sending a text is 160 characters — messages can’t go on and on like they do in email. With text, your teams will be able to serve dozens of customers in the time it would typically take for one and have a low average response time.
“There’s no better way to communicate than SMS. Instant, short, direct. Before, sending a message to everyone in your community meant putting together artwork, placement…all those images, approvals etc. and hoping for a 30% open rate, tops. Now, we think about 160 characters and get it out.”
— Taylor Wang, CTO, Mayvenn
Suggested Text Campaigns to Send with Woopra Labels:
Send texts to segments of customers to get feedback often, and iterate your product quickly to address the feedback you get. Many Sonar customers leverage text messaging enormously to help direct product.
Direct your customers to text you with questions where possible. It will allow your team to service many more customers in the same time.
Get Started with Personalized Mobile Messaging
With the release of the newly formed partnership between Sonar and Woopra, you can easily send personalized text messages based on how your users have interacted with you and your website.
Text messages have 98% read rates, help build a personal connection between you and your customers, and are more convenient!
Create a free account to get started and feel free to reach out! Find out how to set up Woopra and Sonar’s one-click integration here.
The post above was written by Neeharika Bhartiya, Co-Founder and Head of Product at Sonar, a Woopra AppConnect partner. She is responsible for launching new products and fostering growth for the Sonar ecosystem. Follow her on Twitter at @neewho.
