5 Things You Should Know About Using Business Texting in Collecting Feedback and Reviews

To grow your business, it must be on a path of constant improvement. You need to know the right decisions to make to ensure you invest your precious resources in the correct projects. One of the things that can guide you is customer feedback. In addition to helping you steer your business, positive customer feedback can also be used to advertise your best products. While the data customers give you is invaluable, it is not always easy to obtain it. You can make the task easier by embracing business texting.

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Business texting allows you to utilize SMS surveys. These work by using texts to send the customer to a secure site that captures their responses to your surveys. When using business texting, you need to abide by the regulations of your jurisdiction. You also need to remove landline numbers from your contact list to save money. To aid you with both these tasks, use Landline Remover.

Why Send a Text When You Can Send an Email?

Emails are fairly ubiquitous, and they are regularly used by businesses and customers alike. There is a place for emails when it comes to communicating with clients. Nevertheless, it may not be the best tool for customer surveys. One of the big problems is the dreaded spam folder. Many business emails find their way to the spam folder where they are never seen. Sending surveys this way increases the odds of them falling into a pit of obscurity. Furthermore, people usually associate emails with work. This will add another layer of reluctance when they decide whether they will fill in the survey or not.

In comparison, texts are known for their high open-rate. SMSes have the remarkable ability to demand the attention of the recipient immediately. As a result, 98% of texts are opened, which is vastly higher than emails which have an open-rate of 20%. Additionally, 95% of texts are opened within three minutes of being received. Stats like these have made SMS marketing a staple for advertisers. If you want your surveys to have the widest reach, and if you want the fastest responses, it's hard to beat text messaging.

Collecting Feedback With Business Texting

The process of collecting feedback and reviews is made smoother with text messaging. One of the biggest benefits is that it improves response times. According to research, 31% of SMS surveys are answered, with the bulk of them completed within five minutes of receiving the text. Another study by Pew Research Center compared the response rates of SMS surveys and email surveys. After sending out invitations to a survey, the group containing text and email surveys had a 15% response rate once 30 minutes had passed. In comparison, the email-only group had a measly 6% response rate.

Types of SMS Surveys

There are numerous SMS survey types available. Which type you pick will depend on what kind of business you have and the kind of data you are attempting to obtain. Periodic SMS surveys give you insight into what customers are thinking over a long-term period. This can alert you whether changes and new strategies implemented are working or not.

Event-based SMS surveys are triggered by a customer’s actions. For example, if a customer opens an account or spends above a certain amount, it could result in an automated SMS survey being set up. Such surveys are useful if you are attempting to better understand how customers are experiencing a specific aspect of your business. If you want to know more about what happens when things go wrong, use churn surveys. Such surveys focus on customers who have not used your business in a long time. By finding out why they left, you can figure out how to not repeat past mistakes.

5 Things to Keep in Mind When Collecting Feedback With Business Texting

When collecting feedback and reviews, there are ways to do it effectively. There are also ways to rapidly waste your time and money in the process. If you stick to a few guidelines, you can ensure you get the most out of your surveys.

1. Keep It Brief

One of the biggest reasons customers don’t fill in surveys is that they consider it an arduous task that gives them no reward. There will be much less resistance if you keep your surveys as short as possible. Ask only the most necessary questions and word them as succinctly as possible. The text containing the link should also be short. It needs nothing more than a brief introduction to your business along with an explanation of the survey.

2. Make It Clear and Easy

If your survey is convoluted, customers are likely to give up partway. Making surveys widely understandable is harder than you might initially expect, as it has to make intuitive sense to the recipient regardless of their age or the device they are viewing it on. Ensure your language is clear and unambiguous, and avoid adding fancy elements that could result in your text or your survey being rendered in unexpected ways on different devices.

3. Timing Matters

To maximize your odds of getting a response, send your texts at the right time. Good times to send SMS surveys include after a customer has made a purchase, and after a customer has resolved an issue. Customers will still have the experience fresh in their minds, allowing them to give accurate feedback.

4. Respect Privacy

Before you start utilizing business texting, whether for SMS surveys or text marketing, ensure you have the proper permission from your customers first. Customers must opt-in before you send SMS surveys. Furthermore, they should be able to easily opt-out if they no longer want to receive your business texts. Don’t bother sending texts to customers who have opted-out or haven’t opted-in. They will not be responsive to this form of communication and instead they will be annoyed by your business.

5. Follow Up

SMS surveys don’t need to be a one-way form of communication. If a customer returns negative feedback, don’t just record it. Address the problem straight away and ensure the customer no longer faces that issue. This is the best way to build trust with your customers and show them that their responses are valued. If customers notice that your business is using surveys to provide better service, they are more likely to give their feedback in the future.

Business Texting Is The Best Way to Gather Customer Feedback

Collecting feedback and reviews is a tough task. As discussed, the process is made significantly easier if you use business texting. Due to the convenience of text messaging, customers are far more likely to open them compared to emails. This increases the odds of your survey being completed. If you stick to a few best practices such as acquiring your customer’s permission before texting them, you can also ensure you get the most out of your SMS surveys.

When implementing business texting, you should ensure your contact list has no landline numbers. These numbers aren’t set up to send and receive texts, so you’ll just be wasting money messaging them. You should also abide by the regulations of your jurisdiction. In the USA, this involves not contacting any numbers on the National Do-Not-Call (DNC) registry. With Landline Remover, you can solve both these problems at once.

Landline Remover Maximises Your Business Texting

With Landline Remover, you’ll never have to worry about a cent of your business texting budget being wasted on landline numbers. Simply upload a CSV file of your contacts and within seconds, Landline Remover will separate mobile numbers from landline ones. Landline Remover also rids your list of any DNC registry numbers, shielding you from any potential fines from the Federal Trade Commission.

We also offer a convenient payment system that ensures you only pay for what you use. At a flat rate of $0.002 per number or $2 for 1000 numbers, it is the cheapest way to protect your business texting campaign.

Contact Landline Remover today and start getting the most out of your business texting!