Quick, easy, and direct, business texting is an essential tool for effective outreach that ensures customers hear your message: texting boasts an incredible 98% open rate and 45% response rate compared to email's 20% and 6%, respectively. Such impressive statistics explain why businesses increasingly look to texting to boost customer engagement.
Despite its ease, however, simply texting customers and hoping for the best will not guarantee success. To truly harness the potential of this powerful outreach tool, you need a well-crafted strategy in place before you send out your first message.
In this post, we will explore some of the best practices to optimize your texting outreach, looking at the importance of tailoring campaigns to specific customer segments, planning and executing follow-up procedures, and navigating the challenging landscape of second attempts and non-responses.
Starting conversations, the right way
The beginning of a conversation, or the "hook," is arguably the most important message you’ll ever send customers. A strong opening message that is timely, relevant, and personalized creates a lasting impression on which you can start building trust and rapport, essential for establishing long-term customer relationships.
Setting the stage for an engaging interaction, Statflo's Chat Starters provide an excellent solution for initiating conversations. Chat Starters are pre-set message templates used to create and send the first message of a campaign. These templates help maintain consistency and control, avoid common outreach mistakes, and ensure your messages are always tailored to your customer’s needs and sent at the optimal time in their journey.
Chat Starters increase the likelihood of receiving a positive response and engaging customers in genuine two-way conversations. If deployed properly, Chat Starters adapt to any type of campaign and are particularly beneficial for financial institutions and telecoms who need to earn customers' trust – the foundation upon which to strengthen relationships in a way that contributes to long-term retention and revenue growth.
Sending appropriate campaign messages
Sending appropriate and relevant content to the customer is essential to optimize outreach and maximize impact. This means understanding their unique needs, preferences, and customer journeys, and then tailoring your messaging accordingly.
For example, new customers should receive a welcome campaign message introducing them to your brand and making them feel valued and appreciated. Customers up for renewal should be targeted with campaigns highlighting the benefits of your ongoing relationship. Post-purchase, customers will appreciate a general check-in that addresses any concerns or issues they may have with their product or service.
Matching the campaign to the customer's lifecycle stage or the time of year can significantly improve engagement and help you build lasting relationships. For example, telecoms will benefit from sending messages to early adopters about the latest device launches, while financial institutions can build timely and targeted campaigns around RRSP and tax seasons.
Going beyond the first message
Sometimes, your first message will be a home run, and the conversation will take off exactly as you hoped.
Other times, however, you'll need to put in more effort. Nurturing a successful conversation often requires persistence and a commitment to understanding your customers' needs. Here are some best practices for when you go beyond the first message:
- Response Time: Quick response times signal to the customer that you value their time and are committed to addressing their concerns or answering their questions. Ideally, sales reps should respond within the first 15 minutes of receiving a text from a customer to ensure effective communication and demonstrate your company's dedication to providing exceptional customer service.
- Reach Rate: Analyzing reach rate - the proportion of Chat Starters that receive a reply – identifies how effectively you grab customers' attention. By continuously monitoring and adjusting your Chat Starters based on their performance, you can optimize your outreach efforts by only using the most effective tactics that engage your customers.
- Second Attempt: If a customer doesn't respond to your first attempt, they shouldn't be considered a lost lead. Contact customers again to maximize your reach and give them another opportunity to engage. Persistence often pays off, as customers may have simply missed or overlooked the initial message. Our analysis found that more attempted contacts – even up to 9 attempts - improved activations and renewals without negatively impacting DNCs (Do Not Call requests).
- Left Hanging Rate: A high left hanging rate – measured as the number of unfinished conversations where the sales rep doesn't reply after the customer has responded - indicates missed sales opportunities and poor customer experiences. By following up customer responses in a timely manner, businesses improve their conversion rates and enhance customer satisfaction.
A measured first step
In today's fast-paced, tech-savvy world, communicating effectively with customers through a medium as responsive, ubiquitous, and convenient as text messaging is invaluable. And by focusing on key texting tactics that optimize customer outreach, businesses create a solid foundation to nurture lasting customer relationships, sustainability, and growth.
Starting a conversation in the right way is essential for customer experience and engagement but remember that it's also crucial to monitor and analyze conversation metrics. By implementing well-crafted campaigns, timely responses, and personalized follow-ups – all backed up by the data and insights that leading texting platforms like Statflo afford you - you can unlock the full potential of text messaging as an outreach tool and drive lasting customer relationships.
Transform your customer outreach with the power of business text messaging by booking Statflo demo today.
