Texting to expand customer communications

INNOVATION

A study by Simple Texting revealed 98% of all text messages are read by the recipients.

Texting to expand customer communications

By Beth Ladd, ASA Vice President of Innovation Editor’s note: The staff at ASA’s D.NEXT innovation lab at Research Park on the campus of the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana recently concluded a study on the proliferation of text messaging as a tool to deepen customer relationships. These are the lab’s findings. For more on the D.NEXT innovation lab, visit www.asa.net.

The last two years have been a roller coaster of changes for distributors and customers alike. Before 2019, traditional sales were a majority of customer communications followed by a smaller percentage of remote and digital self-service.

However, during 2021, B2B customer behaviors adapted to accelerate the number and frequency of remote and digital interactions to balance with in-person.

A recent study by McKinsey & Co. notes that B2B customers now report using 10 or more channels to interact with suppliers — up from five in 2016. That means your customers’ expectations are higher than ever when it comes to their supplier relationship and communication experience.

An implication is that a business cannot serve the needs of all segments of customers without opening new channels of communication. Customers expect a multi-channel experience to reduce the friction of finding, buying and returning products, as well as support for the sale. And one of the least intrusive and most ubiquitous communication methods available today is text messaging.

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Texting characteristics

Many would not necessarily think of text messaging as a B2B communication channel, but the reality is that not only is it a viable option, it is already commonplace. According to a 2019 study by EzTexting, 84% of customers already receive text messages from businesses, and 69% would like to be able to reach out to businesses via text. Your customers have already been exposed to texting by other businesses, and they seem to be ready to use it. So, given that this is a viable channel for communicating with your customers, what differentiates texting from other communication channels?

Text messaging has improved visibility relative to traditional channels of communication because of its prominence on your customers’ devices. A 2020 study on texting by Simple Texting found that:

Customers check their phone anywhere from 3-7 times an hour; 42% of millennials check their phone more than 10 times a day;

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9 8% of all text messages sent are read by the recipients; and 6 0% of surveyed customers would like to be able to text businesses back about support.

These statistics should not be taken to mean that texting is “superior” to or should replace current channels of communication; instead, we believe texting complements existing channels and allows your business to capitalize on each channel’s strengths and each customer’s preferences.

For example, calling someone on the phone gets excellent and unambiguous communication, but requires the recipient to stop and respond. Email allows for asynchronous communication and record-keeping, but suffers from low visibility and can struggle with back-and-forth conversation. Texting is asynchronous, has excellent visibility and is built for ongoing conversations, but can’t send files and only allows for shorter messages. Choosing which channel of communication to use for an interaction allows you to improve your customers’ experience.

One option for business use is a dedicated SMS messaging service; a piece of software that centralizes texting ability and contact management in one space. These services allow a business to send and receive text messages from one central phone number, manage their contact info and create a single point of contact for their customers. Instead of sending a message from a personal phone, these services use a program to create and send text messages.

These services are surprisingly affordable for how useful they are. Many of these services have a subscription package, where you pay a flat monthly fee and receive a set number of messages. Some instead charge on a text-by-text basis separate from maintaining the account. The cost of these services is almost entirely dependent on the volume of texts sent; cost-per-text ranges from 2 to 6 cents per text, and plans can be as affordable as $25 a month.

Let’s consider an example use case to demonstrate what we mean — updating a customer on the status of a unique order. JakeThePlumber has special-ordered two pairs of valve stems from OmniChannel Distribution for a service job. The manufacturer says they expect to ship them to Omni next Tuesday, but when Tuesday arrives, the valve stems are not included in Omni’s shipments. Rather than email or phone JakeThePlumber, Omni’s shipment coordinator could simply text from Omni’s existing phone number to briefly update them on the status of valve stems. No interrupting a job, no voicemail, no chance of the message being buried in an inbox — just a quick text to keep them in the loop.

“The ASA D.NEXT lab believes texting complements existing channels and allows a business to capitalize on each channel’s strengths and each customer’s preferences.”

How can I text my customers?

When we think of texting, the experience that most likely comes to mind is using a personal phone; after all, it’s the form that people are the most familiar with. However, when considering texting in a business context, there are several concerns with the use of personal devices.

Different employees have different phones and different numbers, meaning there isn’t a unified message record between the customer and the business — it’s fragmented across individuals’ devices. This significantly increases the risk of information not being shared within a business and miscommunications developing. Without a central hub, securing and maintaining master customer contact data is also nigh-impossible.

So, if texting is an excellent channel for short-form communication, but texting using personal devices is unwise, what alternatives exist?

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A recent study by McKinsey & Co. notes that B2B customers now report using 10 or more channels to interact with suppliers — up from five in 2016.

Evaluation of SMS messaging programs

To understand the real potential of this software, the D.NEXT lab evaluated 12 of the most highly ranked SMS services on the following criteria: E ase of creating and continuing two-way conversations C hat, contact and user management B arriers to entry and use The majority of the services in this space are tuned for mass-marketing, sending the same message to hundreds or thousands of customers; they are capable of two-way conversations, but it is not their primary focus, and this shows in both functionality and user experience.

During our evaluation, we opened an account with each service and signed up for the free trial. Every SMS service we tested offers a free trial, typically two weeks with a limited number of free messages and near-complete access to the program features. We tested each service’s functionality, including but not limited to: 21

S ending and receiving messages, pictures and files

T he ability to schedule a message to send at a later time.

I nitiating new conversations and maintaining existing ones

P roviding a built-in template creator that enables business users to create and insert reusable messages if you want consistent or “canned” messaging.

C reating and managing contacts S cheduling messages and auto-responders W riting and using message templates C reating and managing users and permissions There are some functions that we were unable to thoroughly test, such as text-enabling a landline or data reporting.

O ffering both a browser-based interface and a mobile app.

T he option to reserve a toll-free or local number for exclusive use.

T he ability to alternatively text-enable an existing landline number after a verification process.

S upporting importing contacts through a .csv file (two of the three also support importing directly from Microsoft Excel).

S upporting multiple business users, though not necessarily for free, and enabling the owner to manage user permissions; and

Your valve order has arrived at our facility.

It will be delivered by 4 p.m. today.

Thank for the update.

We will keep an eye out for it at the jobsite.

Texting software common functionality

Out of the 12 leaders we tested, the D.NEXT lab favors three services for ASA distributors. These three differentiated themselves from their competitors by readily allowing a user to initiate and continue two-way conversations, straightforward and robust user interfaces, and affordable pricing without compromising functionality. While not necessarily part of the evaluation criteria, during the course of our testing, we found that the three favored services have common functionality that includes, but is not limited to: T he ability to send and receive SMS & MMS messages and easily attach images.

T hey do not charge the user for receiving SMS messages, but they do charge for receiving a MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) message.

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T he capability to integrate with other software using an API.

Considerations before use (aka the fine print):

These services are considered A2P (application-to-person) messaging instead of P2P (peer-to-peer) messaging. It is important to be aware that A2P messaging falls under regulations and restrictions that you do not face when texting as an individual.

A prominent U.S. law regulating the use of A2P messaging is the 1997 Telephone Consumer Protection Act. That law is intended to protect individuals from text messaging spam. The law requires a business to obtain written consent from the customer (opt-in) before being permitted to send messages using an A2P service. Please ensure you are prepared to comply with messaging regulations before engaging with your customers via A2P text messaging.

Further, with the inception of the European Union (EU’s) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in May of 2018, U.S. companies must employ an additional level of vigilance and rigor if there is a chance that they may be the “controller” or “processor” of the “personal data of data subjects” that the EU designates. A U.S. company with a strong internet presence should ensure they are GDPR compliant. This necessitates customer consent (opt-in) as it is one of the only justifications for your use of other people’s personal data.

Interested?

If you would like to learn more about this class of software, which services we preferred, what similarities they share, as well as what differentiates them, The D.NEXT lab has compiled a detailed analysis for ASA members. To access the full detail, please visit the ASA member portal login (MyASA) at www.asa.net to access this member’s only report.

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