Many companies are not being as comprehensive as they should be in developing contact lists for their text message campaigns, and are leaving opportunities buried in their lists of customers. Those gaps in a company’s customer list, especially during the coronavirus pandemic, are big problems, given the statistics that illustrate how text messaging is the dominant channel of choice for consumers today.
This is a problem that Solutions by Text is uniquely qualified to address, in order to make sure that companies are sending messages to every possible customer who wishes to receive them.
When rolling out text messages, most companies start from a particular point in time. They begin seeking consent to send text messages to their customers and the customers who opt in to receive those messages are the ones with whom the companies communicate. But what about customers who were customers before the company began seeking consent? Shouldn’t they receive an opt-in request to start receiving text messages?
Companies need to make sure they have an ongoing campaign of obtaining consent from new customers who are coming on board for the first time. More than likely, those companies have customers who have never received a consent/opt-in request and are opportunities being missed. Obtaining consent from a consumer to send text messages is the most important component of a compliant text-messaging operation.
It is important to remember that text messaging is the most popular and important communication channel for companies today. The average open rate for an email is about 20%, whereas 98% of text messages are read within two minutes of being sent. Surveys have revealed that 30% of people would give up their phone app on their smartphone in exchange for only being allowed to send and receive text messages. By not continually monitoring their lists to make sure they have tried to obtain consent from individuals, companies are missing a prime opportunity to reach individuals in their preferred channel of communication.
Solutions by Text can review a company’s customer logs and identify which customers have not yet received a request to be opted in to consent to receive text messages from a company. Then, it can help build a program to capture consent from every new customer, thus removing any of the gaps that may have existed within that company’s policies and procedures.
Being able to communicate with an entire customer base has never been more important. Updates related to how a company is responding to COVID-19 and the changes that may affect customers are details that need to be shared. The most important step in that process is to make sure that the messages that are being sent are being sent to all of a company’s customers. Everyone who has ever stepped on the tour bus needs to be informed.
