Pinder Takhar, Director of Marketing at mGage Europe, says that SMS is a great way to gather customer feedback and act on it.

For businesses  who continue to look for ways to improve their customer service, the need for thorough feedback cannot be underestimated. Without a true picture of the consumer experience, it is difficult for organizations to ensure they are supplying the best service possible. SMS surveys are a vital tool in the ongoing relationships between brands and consumers, to further enhance services. 

With Gartner predicting that 89 per cent of businesses are facing competitive pressure as they compete mostly on customer experience, brands must make customer satisfaction their priority to remain competitive. 

By initiating surveys, brands can access a continual feedback loop to make the necessary changes to their business. Listen to customer comments and learn from their suggestions to ensure products and services are in line with customer expectations. Research by Esteban Kolsky found that 70 per cent of companies that deliver best-in-class customer experience leverage customer feedback. 

Further research suggests that one happy customer can lead to nine referrals, whereas one unhappy customer can result in 26 other unhappy people, highlighting  the consequences that negative customer experiences can have on current and potential consumers. 

Why use SMS for surveys?
SMS surveys are a quick and efficient tool for any business wishing to gather insights and feedback to improve their customers’ experience. As mobile has become an integral part of our connected lifestyle and with people checking their phones 58 times a day on average, it is an easy way to reach your audience. In return, it allows your customers to respond at any time from anywhere. And compared to email, SMS has proven more beneficial as it has a 7.5 times higher response rate than email, an average 90-second reply time, and a 98 per cent open rate.  

By launching SMS surveys, the sender can look forward to receiving higher response rates and increased customer engagement. Here are some great examples:

• Customer service feedback – when a phone call has ended you can send an SMS survey to your customer asking them to rate their experience and the advisor 

• Delivery feedback – ask your customers to rate a recent delivery to see if the service met their expectations

• New purchases feedback – find out how a customer got on with a recent purchase and how they found the overall experience. 

• Update contact details – allows a customer to update these to ensure your records are up to date

How to integrate SMS surveys
Using mGage’s mobile campaign management tool, Communicate Pro, brands can quickly launch an SMS survey campaign. Brands can create interactive surveys using decision tree functionality and receive open-ended responses to collect the most useful data. All messages can be personalized and automated and can include features like emojis. 

Brands need to tailor questions so that they ask the right questions to the right people to ensure that the questions are relevant. With the data collected through SMS surveys, brands can quickly understand what their customers want, allow them to take on board any constructive feedback so that that they can improve satisfaction in the future.

Final thoughts
To enhance customer loyalty and satisfaction, it is critical to collect consumer feedback via SMS surveys. With more people now on their mobile phones for longer, you can expect high response rates via SMS – highlighting its capability as a highly engaged channel and a great way to connect with customers to gather valuable insights for your business. 

To view a demo or speak with an mGage consultant, get in-touch with us today!