Finally, you did it: your brand is sending and receiving text messages with customers — have you started to calculate the return on investment (ROI) for your business texting program, though?
And don’t worry: if you haven’t introduced a business texting program just yet, knowing the ways to measure the effectiveness of one beforehand is still very useful.
95% of text messages are read and responded to within just three minutes of being delivered, according to SMS Comparison. In looking at this statistic alone, it’s clear that business texting should be effective for your company. But you need to dig deeper and uncover exactly how effective your business texting program ultimately is.
Calculating ROI is dependent on your goals and success metrics, which all vary. Companies in every industry calculate and measure ROI differently to understand what they’re actually achieving after the roll-out of a business texting program.
Let’s take a closer look at how to calculate the ROI for a business texting program with quantifiable metrics of success.
How to Calculate ROI for Business Texting
Track Inbound Phone Call & Email Volume
Inefficiencies ruin a brand’s ability to serve its customers. What if you could reduce the inbound phone calls and emails that plague productivity on a daily basis? Well, you can.
Knowing it takes just a text message to ask a question and receive an answer, customers will engage in a two-way, real-time conversation. Artificial intelligence (AI) allows you to automate responses based on keywords and the intent of inquiries, which delivers answers quicker than any amount of staff could. It reduces the burden on staff to keep up with every inquiry, too.
Even if you didn’t choose a business texting service to entirely replace any other channels of communication, it’s still important to measure the number of inquiries the software takes on. It’ll prove whether your customers prefer text messaging and, if so, to what extent.
As the business texting program gains momentum, you might decide to limit staff dedicated to phone calls and emails. Both phone calls and emails require an employee to take manual action, and the truth is that your staff should be focusing on more much important tasks to drive the business forward.
Business texting is cost-effective as it relies on AI to automate text messages without losing that special touch of personalization. Your customers always get the information they’re seeking right when they need it.
Address Customer Churn Rate
Churn is an issue no one wants to ever struggle with. If you’re facing a high customer churn rate, customers left your brand and it’ll be incredibly difficult to bring them back later on. Often, this is because you’re failing to engage with them on a regular basis.
Business texting opens the door to an ‘always on’ conversation of sorts. Customers know that your brand is available around the clock, and your brand can take important updates, reminders, and promotions directly to them as well. Two-way, real-time conversations that feel organic are exactly what customers expect from the brands they love most.
Especially with membership-based businesses such as gyms and fitness centers, text messaging proves to be highly effective in minimizing customer churn and fostering long-lasting relationships. Gyms and fitness centers can use business texting to remind members of upcoming classes, for example.
Measure churn rate to understand how many customers choose to leave your business behind, but then identify why they’re not buying again or renewing a membership. It could be due to lackluster experiences that may not exist until you establish and ramp up your business texting program.
Capture Positive Reviews with Surveys
Ask your customers what they think of your brand and its products or services. More importantly, collect feedback surrounding their experience with your brand. As a result, you’ll obtain the opportunities to generate positive reviews that build brand equity.
Surveys should feel effortless to complete — when sending out surveys via text messaging, your business quickly gets a response to see if customers are happy with their experience. Address any issues before they spiral out of control and surface as negative reviews on a platform such as Tripadvisor or Yelp.
When you notice an uptick in positive reviews online, you’ll know you’re on the right track with your business texting program.
Avoid Late Payments
In the property management industry, late payments will frustrate and — most importantly — shake up your top line. Business texting, however, allows you to easily remind residents when their rent is due.
Notice a decrease as you’ve started deploying reminders via text message? If so, your business texting program is successful.
Motivate the Use of Promotional Offers
Track the promotional offers distributed by text messaging to monitor for click-throughs and purchases. As both metrics increase, you’ll realize that customers find it easier to spot outreach in a messaging app than an email inbox.
Get Started with Business Text Messaging
Closely following these goals and success metrics will ensure your business texting program continuously benefits the organization by attracting and retaining customers. Overall, a business texting program generates customer lifetime value in all the different ways it can be used.
Medallia Concierge is an in-app messaging solution that personalizes and heightens customer and employee experience and builds loyalty. Create opportunities for your brand to engage in a two-way dialogue and uncover deep insights into how people interact with your brand in real-time, allowing for swift service recovery and building “wow” moments that delight.
