Everybody’s on their phone these days. Chances are, you’re reading this on your smartphone too. This device’s functionality is practically equal to a standard office computer, and it’s easier to use. This opens up an opportunity for SMS surveys to rival and win Email ones by the long shot. Today we will take a few minutes to illustrate just how effective SMS surveys can be for your business.
What is an SMS Survey?
As the name suggests, an SMS survey allows you to collect feedback through text messages.
- Timely & cost-effective
SMS messages are inexpensive, and can reach your respondents at any given time, even during an event you wish to evaluate.
- Higher reach
A considerable 86% of the global population has a smartphone in 2022. Can you imagine? Moreover, a lot of people are on the phone for hours on end – every day.
- High open rate
During the last few years, we have seen a drastic drop in email open rates. However, the SMS open rate is a whopping 98%. This means, that a huge chunk of people you wish to ask questions will see your survey, and thus participate.
- Continuous engagement
You can send out SMS surveys at any point in the customer journey. Another plus is they won’t land in the spam folder and will always reach their intended audience.
How you can use SMS Surveys to collect valuable feedback
There are a plethora of ways you can use SMS Surveys to your advantage. Below, we will list the most widely used ones.
Net Promoter Score (NPS) or Customer satisfaction score (CSAT): the most popular use of texting surveys. SMS allows to quickly gather feedback on experiences, features, services, and anything of importance.
Event/visit/experience feedback: SMS surveys allow gathering feedback immediately after an event or experience happens. This contributes to the overall accuracy of the research: people’s memories are fresh yet. You can set up automated surveys to collect information at the right time.
Voice of Employee: such research is not only helpful for finding out what your customers think of your brand. You can use it to check employee satisfaction levels, and employee engagement as well. It will only take your workers a few minutes of their time. As a result, you will be able to see what you can improve, and boost your brand culture.
Read more on the importance of the Voice of Employee here: Voice of Employee: Why Needed?
Votes for new features/contests, etc: SMS surveys are your choice not only to collect afterthoughts but also to include your audience in the development of your product. One of the most important points that influence customer loyalty is the feeling of being included. You can use SMS texts to gather votes on upcoming features, next design choices, desirable merch, and whatnot. This will help you make sure your customers stay true to your brand. They have added their 5 cents to it, after all.
Of course, there are no boundaries for your imagination on how you may use SMS surveys. But hopefully, now you can see exactly how impactful they can be to your customer experience research and even the future of your business.
General rules for a successful SMS survey
Keep your strategy straight
Prior to engaging in any survey, not only SMS, you need to set your goals. Analyze which points of your business you want to gather feedback on, and always act on the data you have collected. There are sadly a lot of cases when a brand collects data, finds the issue, and refuses or stalls to do something about it. If your users/employees will have to comment on the same issue time and time again – without seeing any changes – they will eventually stop responding.
Stay consistent
Make sure you have a constant influx of data rolling in. You want to be knowledgeable about your strengths and weaknesses. Also, make sure to revisit the problematic respondents to see if the changes you have introduced made any positive impact on their opinions. Being consistent with your surveying can help analyze the dynamics of your customer’s opinions of your brand.
Know your audience
Every brand needs to know its audience. When researching it’s important to know the demographics you’re working with to reach the best results. For instance, younger people tend to check their phones more often which makes their response times faster.
Be concise
Make your text (read: messages) short and to the point. You need to make sure it doesn’t take minutes to read into your text. Also, don’t ask multiple questions per message.
Checker – the best SMS Survey Software for your needs
Checker is a professional CX software specifically designed to make your research easy and fruitful. Setting up SMS surveys with Checker is a simple journey, which takes only minutes. The platform will help you to conduct multiple survey campaigns: as customized to your needs, as possible.
Quick and easy setup
Simplified user-friendly builder to easily create mobile responsive and personalized questionnaires in a short time.
Customized survey settings
Full control over survey sending time, chilling period, quotas, personalized messaging, and more.
Advanced performance tracking
Get access to live updates, status reports, performance KPIs and project results in visualized analytics – all with Checker’s robust reporting features.
