Mobile devices have become the most common way of communication among the various available electronic mediums. 90% of the adults own a mobile phone or a smartphone.
Whether it is talking, shopping, taking and sharing photographs or connecting with people across the world with social media, mobile phones have gained an important place in the lives of people.
Researches suggest that adults in the US spend an average of 2 hours and 55 minutes on their mobile phones every day.
So the businesses also see this medium of communicating with the customers as the most useful platform. When we talk about conducting surveys, SMS comes to be a great way to send surveys and receive responses.
And why not, it has a great open and read rate! The average open rate of SMS is more than 95%. Let us understand why SMS surveys are used as a preferred method of sending surveys over others.
Why use SMS Surveys?
In order to be successful, It is important for all businesses to understand what customers want and expect from them and how well they are able to satisfy those needs and expectations.
For gaining this valuable information, customer surveys are necessary to capture Customer Feedback and measure Customer Satisfaction.
But why only SMS surveys? Let’s understand some reasons for this focus on SMS surveys.
1. The reach of SMS is very wide.
Survey results are accurate and can prove to be helpful only if they cover a large number of customers thus telling what the majority of people think.
So to make your survey a success, it would be always a wise decision to choose a medium that has the potential of gaining insights from the maximum customers.
People open almost every SMS, whether it is a survey or a marketing campaign, unlike emails which are many times automatically thrown into spam folders.
This makes the open rate of SMS 95% which is much higher as compared to emails, the open rate of which is around 20% only. With this high open rate, it is possible to achieve a great response rate through SMS surveys as compared to any other type of survey.
2. Can approach Customers Anywhere
SMS is a channel through which customers can be approached anywhere anytime around the world. Customers may not want to take a survey at your premises while they are busy shopping, or they have much other stuff to do after shopping. But SMS is something which they can read and respond to with their own convenience of place and time.
3. Keeps Customers Reminded of your Brand
You can choose to display your brand name in survey SMS in the place of a phone number with good SMS Survey Software. This enhances your brand awareness among the customers, i.e., they are able to recall your brand more easily.
Moreover, with the features like white labeling and branding of surveys, you can create surveys with your own branding and style which further keeps the customers reminded of your brand.
4. Very Easy to Use and Rollout
SMS surveys are extremely easy and quick to be sent in a matter of a few minutes. Surveys with other channels like on-premises may require you to approach the customers or install a kiosk with your device to attract the customers to come and share feedback which may also sometimes require your assistance, but SMS surveys can reach the customers with just a text message.
The customers can easily take the surveys by just opening the survey link given in the SMS and easily fill the survey.
5. Don’t have to Generate Separate Surveys
You do not need to create separate surveys to be sent through an SMS. You can send the same surveys with the survey link with the text message inviting the customers to click the survey link and take the survey.
6. Tracking is made very Easy with an SMS Survey
With SMS Surveys, you can easily track the customers who have taken the survey, completed it or left it in between and who haven’t taken the survey.
When to Use SMS Surveys?
While SMS surveys are an easy and quick way to reach customers and take their feedback, it is important to make use of SMS surveys at the right time and for the right purpose.
Here are some uses of SMS surveys where you can send the SMS surveys at the right time and utilize them to the maximum extent.
1. Post-Interaction or Transaction
The best use of SMS surveys is to capture Customer Feedback at various touchpoints of the customers’ journey, where customers go through considerable experiences that have an impact on their satisfaction.
These are transactional SMS surveys that you can send or trigger to be sent automatically just after a transaction like after a purchase, a billing, a delivery, an interaction or an appointment.
Sending surveys at this time will help you gauge Customer Satisfaction with the real insights of the customers about the experience which they have just gone through.
2. At Events and Workshops
SMS surveys can be used effectively to take feedback from the attendees about certain events and workshops. After an event or a workshop, you can send SMS surveys to the participants to ask for feedback about it.
You can ask whether and how much they liked the event, and what they expect from the next event or workshop. This will help make your events and workshops better each time which your audience likes.
3. For Market Research
SMS surveys are a great way to do market research. You can ask your customers and potential customers what they like and what they expect from you.
You can also ask your customers what prompted them to choose you and in your absence, which other brand they would like to choose and why. This will let you know about your competitors and even the strategies of your competitors.
Moreover, you can research the customers’ choice before launching a new product or product feature so that you can make such a product that satisfies the customers the most.
4. For Customer Engagement
Customer Engagement is all about the interactions between the customers and the organization at various points of contact in the customers’ journey.
Good Customer Engagement leads to better Customer Loyalty and more satisfaction. You can measure these with the help of CX metric surveys like Net Promoter Score (NPS) Surveys and Customer Satisfaction Surveys. You can measure satisfaction with every part of the customer experience.
5. COVID-19 Health SMS Surveys
While the world is going through the situation of a pandemic due to coronavirus, SMS surveys can contribute to deal with this situation.
You can send COVID-19 Health SMS Surveys to know the present condition of your patients, the symptoms of people who suspect corona, and the risk of them being infected.
With this information, you can help people to track their health conditions and prevent the spreading of the disease.
So you can use the SMS surveys for multiple purposes like collecting customer feedback, ensuring better customer engagement, doing market research, or even prevention of spreading of COVID-19.
