SMS feedback surveys are an excellent way to collect data and discover how customers feel about your brand and products. Many companies use SMS surveys to fine-tune their marketing, sales, and customer service performance.
However, it can be tricky to get quality feedback from customers. Surveys are only as good as the questions you ask, and SMS platforms offer unique challenges that email and web platforms do not.
Even so, the benefits of SMS surveys are too good to pass up. We’ve put together this quick guide on strategies to gather comprehensive feedback from SMS surveys.
What Are SMS Surveys?
In a nutshell, SMS surveys are text-based surveys meant to collect feedback from customers. Text surveys are an excellent method to collect data because of the high open and response rates. Research shows that SMS messages have a 98% opening rate, far higher than 20% for email.
Generally, SMS feedback surveys consist of a single question related to one of your products or services. For example, a common survey question asks customers whether or not they would recommend your services to another person.
Smartphone ownership is practically ubiquitous in Australia, which means SMS surveys can reach a much larger customer base than many other marketing channels.
SMS Feedback Survey Examples
Product Feedback
One of the most common uses of SMS surveys is for product feedback. After a customer buys something, you can send a survey to get their input. These kinds of surveys can give ideas on how to improve your product offerings or improve your brand messaging.
Customer Service Feedback
Nearly a third of consumers say that they would consider switching businesses after a bad customer service experience. So making sure your customer service is satisfactory is incredibly important for retention. SMS surveys can provide actionable feedback from consumers about how to improve customer support.
Delivery Feedback
E-commerce companies rely heavily on delivery services to provide a smooth customer experience. You can get some insight into delivery practices from SMS surveys. Even a simple 1 to 10 rating can provide valuable data about the quality of delivery services.
Event Feedback
If your business hosts an event, you can send an SMS survey to get feedback and improve future events. For example, you can ask participants how likely they are to return to the event next year.
How Effective Are SMS Surveys?
Getting quality feedback is difficult because many customers do not have the time to take an email survey or talk to a customer representative over the phone. SMS surveys provide a quick, accessible solution for the majority of customers.
One of the best benefits of SMS surveys is their response rates. Research shows that SMS marketing, in general, has twice as high a response rate as email. Most people immediately open their text messages, so it’s much easier to get their attention.
Additionally, SMS surveys are easy to deploy. Automation lets you set up a regular schedule, so you don’t have to send messages manually. SMS marketing is also highly cost-effective. With an average cost of just a few cents, SMS messaging is one of the cheapest forms of digital marketing.
Overall, SMS surveys are an effective method of getting customer feedback. Combining SMS surveys with a multi-channel campaign strategy is key to maximising returns on your marketing efforts.
Tips for Getting Good Feedback
Here are some tips on how to get valuable feedback from SMS surveys.
Define Goals
Before building a survey, figure out your survey goals. You don’t want to start formulating questions with no direction or purpose. Respondents have limited time, and any time wasted on pointless questions is better spent answering more valuable inquiries.
You should also look for already existing research data. You may find the answers you are looking for, so you can build your survey to gather new, unique data.
Send at the Right Time
If you send your survey at the right time, customers will be more likely to take it. The key is to send one right after they see the impact of their purchase. For example, sending a request right after package delivery is an excellent way to grab the customer’s attention and increase their likelihood of taking the survey.
Incentivise
Customers respond well to small incentives, like discount codes or gift cards. When sending out surveys, provide a modest bonus for customers who take it. It could be something small like a coupon or a drawing for a big prize. Adding incentives makes the customer feel that giving a response is worth a few minutes of their time.
Use Simple Questions
The most important part of the survey is asking the right questions. Questions should be simple and allow for quantifiable answers. For example, asking a customer to give a 1 to 10 rating on some service is more straightforward to quantify than asking for qualitative feedback. Watch out for ambiguous wording that can complicate results.
Don’t Spam
Just like email, customers hate spam text messages. Make sure to limit your messaging flow to a reasonable amount. If you send too many low-quality spam texts, customers might stop paying attention entirely. Generally speaking, you should mostly send surveys after the customer takes some action.
Update Your Marketing Strategy With TouchSMS Surveys
TouchSMS offers a full suite of SMS marketing tools, including:
- Two-way SMS
- Bulk SMS
- Message personalisation
- Template management
- API integration
- Real-time reporting
- Virtual number management
- API integrations
- Spam compliance
We strive to take the hassle out of SMS marketing with flexible SMS campaigns and management tools. TouchSMS can help you define, create, and manage an SMS campaign to optimise your marketing efforts with minimal input.
Our prices are affordable, and you don’t have to sign any contracts or pay any monthly fees plus, you’ll only pay for the messages you use. So if you are ready to take full advantage of SMS feedback surveys in your marketing funnel, contact us or call us at 1300 794 419.