How to utilize SMS to get customer feedback

One is to know and heed the customers’ needs. Another is keeping existing customers to stay associated with your business.

Improving many aspects of your business such as customer service, internal processes and your products/services means you must know how your consumers feel about your company and their experiences associated with you.

However, acquiring customer reviews can sometimes pose a challenge for business owners and marketers, even if you do it online.

But did you know that you can use SMS or text messaging to get customer feedback or online reviews?

Oh yes. You definitely can. But time is of the essence for a customer. Today, some consumers don’t have much time to give their online feedback or even think about giving one because of time constraints or current obligations. Fortunately for business owners wanting to know what’s inside the minds of their customers, there are a lot of ways to ask and acquire online reviews. And one of these ways is through SMS marketing or the use of text messaging.

Text messages are more likely to be read and responded to than emails. That is only one of the SMS marketing benefits that you can leverage. If you’re truly serious about finding out what your consumers think about your brand to improve customer experience, then you can accomplish this while also increasing your online ratings via short message service.

Here are quick tips on how you canutilize SMS in getting customer feedback.

When you talk about collecting customer feedback, you can choose from a lot of ways to do so. The easiest may be through SMS marketing. You may not know this, but most customers will click a link when they see it on a text message. Take advantage of an opportune moment like that to ask for customer reviews.

Scheduling or automating your text surveys is the best way for small businesses to ensure consistent collection of customer feedback. It reduces the manual time you spend on such a task, so you’re assured that automation will work well.

Choose your preferred date to send out text surveys to customers who opted into your text messaging service within a predefined amount of time. Don’t forget to make another automated text that confirms the entry of their feedback and sends a pleasant thank you message.

It may be a text message only, but you still have to maintain a professional tone when sending text surveys for customer feedback. It’s best to stick to standard practices for business texting after a casual conversation with your customers. Consider creating your text messages as professional as your emailed survey requests.

When doing SMS marketing in sending out text surveys, it is recommended to mention your business’ name to maintain a strong sense of your branding and to remind your customers that it is your company who is requesting the feedback.

You also have to stay positive when customers respond with a stern no or don’t respond at all. Depending on your preference, you can respond politely or not. Keep your text message requests short and sweet. When customers see how long your messages are, chances are they will delete them. Additionally, proofread your feedback request extensively to exude that professional tone you’re going.

Being timely in anything that you do can bring wonders. Consider it with SMS marketing. Because we all know, almost everyone in the world has access to mobile phones than toilets. Take advantage of your text messaging services by putting it in a prominent place on your website to make customers opt-in to receive your SMS updates.

You can send a text message right after a recent purchase or service acquisition, asking for quick feedback regarding the transaction and the purchased product or service. But make your text surveys short in length to encourage more survey completions. Customers are more likely to abandon a survey halfway through when it takes ages to finish.

You can also request online feedback after customer service/support sessions. It’s only natural to have a “follow-up” after a conversation with a customer. Send a text message asking for customer feedback about your customer service and their experience with them.

Remember to send it right after a customer service session as their experiences are still fresh in their minds.

Campaign messages can bring you excellent SMS marketing benefits. It’s a very effective method utilized by almost every brand there is today. Sending an SMS to customers who recently bought a product from you about a new discount deal your company is having can help you gain momentum with pleasing them with your great discounts and generate great feedback in return. With campaign messages, businesses can reach and engage directly with their customers and promote products or services.

It’s the most uncomplicated template of all SMS marketing messages. It is the obligatory “Thank You For Your Business” template which doesn’t need more explanation. This type of SMS message is perfect for starting as it doesn’t require customers to give up any personal data or effort, reducing overall friction that leads to more online reviews.

A sample of this template goes like,

“Thank you for shopping with us today! To help us know how we can improve our service, kindly click on this (link) to share your experience with us today.”

Thank customers who visited your store with or without any transactions. Just give them your gratitude for checking out your place of business and everything that you offer. Visitors are inclined to be future customers when companies appreciate even when they are only stopping by your business, notably if your staff displays excellent customer service during their visit. Hit them up with a text message(if you’re lucky to acquire their mobile numbers) saying thanks and asking for a location review with a link to Google review or other review sites.

Product reviews are no-brainers. They are a staple in every marketing strategy, even in SMS marketing. Online product reviews are vital for any small business that sells online. Any product can see a boost in sales with enough positive reviews. As a business owner, you would love to have that boost in sales while establishing your brand and product on the market, stamping your authority in the business industry.

Attract more product reviews by sending messages of gratitude to recent customers, and then stating your business is always working hard to provide high-quality products that you would like to hear from them about what they think about your product.

Another SMS marketing benefits is you can encourage customers to give online reviews on Google reviews. Google reviews are not simple things that only give you online reviews from customers. They also boost your SEO, which is today’s most reliable strategy in promoting your small business and increase your ranking in Google search results. Because most people are now on mobile phones and logged into their Google accounts, it will be a smooth sail to send them a text message asking them for a Google review with a provided link to the site. Don’t forget to thank them for stopping by your place of business.

Most of the times, businesses are busy generating a positive review out of their customers. But sometimes, business owners solely want to know how well their business did in their customers’ eyes. It is where you tell them,

Ask for customer feedback with a good-natured question. This type of SMS comes in handy in times like these where you are looking to improve your product or service.

If someone from your circle of people bought something new and they are satisfied with it, chances are they will recommend it to you and all your friends. If you have been in the business industry for a long time, you know not all customers are equal. You always have your best customers, and you should maintain your best at all costs.

The best customers are the ones most likely to recommend your brand to their families and friends. If that doesn’t mean an increase in sales and positive customer reviews to you, then you should start considering it now. Ask your customers through a text message with this question:

As a business owner, you should consider every customer feedback an essential thing to better your brand. Always let your customers know that their insights are much appreciated and vital to your business operations. Let them feel their opinions matter, whether be it good or bad. The important thing here is to establish a stronger relationship with your customers by making them know they have a voice in this industry.