Text message (SMS) surveys are a great solution for gathering feedback from customers who are on the go. In fact, 90% of SMS messages are read in the first 3 minutes and 82% of people say they open every text message they receive.
Not only does SMS have a high engagement rate, but according to a study conducted by the University of Michigan, people are more likely to give accurate feedback over text. All of this makes SMS the perfect channel for collecting crucial and accurate feedback.
Below are some specific examples of when SMS surveys serve as the best feedback distribution channel.
Phone support feedback
Immediately after you end a phone conversation with a customer, send them an SMS survey to rate the service experience.
This lets you know how well the case was handled and if it might require an extra touch for the customer to come away satisfied. This is known as a case-closed survey, and it determines how happy customers are with the support they received.
Surveys like this are particularly important because unsatisfied customers don’t always complain and instead switch to your competitors.
Purchase feedback
Right after someone makes a purchase, either on a company’s mobile site or in store, send them an SMS survey to learn about their purchase experience.
If the purchase experience was bad, you get to learn why and how to improve directly from the customer. If it was good, the extra touch shows the customer that you care about them and your product’s quality.
Service appointment
When a field service person concludes an in-person appointment, ask them how things went via SMS.
Doing this immediately means you can learn how to improve on the next appointment not only for this employee but everyone else on their team.
Delivery feedback
Immediately after your customer receives a shipment or delivery, send them an SMS survey to understand if the experience met their expectations.
Doing this lets you gauge how satisfied the customer was with their delivery. You get to learn whether the shipping time was too slow or if they don’t care much about fast shipping.
This type of feedback can lead to new position initiatives within the company. If customers don’t care about fast shipping you can reduce the cost of your products. If fast shipping is a priority for your customer, then you should invest in faster shipping and make that fact prominent on your website.
Event feedback
At different points in the event—after check-in, a keynote, or the event is over—send an SMS survey to gauge how your attendees felt about the experience.
Monitoring engagement and satisfaction levels at your events allows you to more accurately gauge what your attendees like or dislike rather than going by your intuition which can be very inaccurate.
Transportation feedback
When someone concludes a flight or ride, ask about their experience via SMS.
They’re more likely to give you better feedback immediately after their flight when the experience is fresh on their minds.
Community feedback
Send an SMS survey to people in your community—this can be your school, church or town hall—to learn about their opinions regarding important decisions.
NPS feedback
Your Net Promoter Score (NPS) is an accurate measure of customer satisfaction and hence your company’s growth. Send periodic SMS surveys to gauge this important metric.
Product feedback
Use SMS as a channel for learning how your customers are using your product and about any of the suggestions they might have on improving it.
Brand awareness feedback
Learn how your customers discovered your brand and their perception of your performance and values as a company.
Doing this gives you an overview of what you’re doing right and shows the changes you need to make to align with what your customers expect.
Employee engagement feedback
Your employees are a vital part of your organization. Use SMS surveys to discover how happy and motivated they are at their job and also get suggestions on how you can make it a better workplace. Be sure to use the two most popular job satisfaction surveys to get the most out of your SMS distribution.
Post-checkout feedback
In the hospitality industry, great experiences are everything, it’s the difference between a guest returning or never checking in again. Use SMS surveys to gauge the overall experience of your guest after they’ve checked out.
Post-visit patient feedback
For healthcare providers, patient engagement shouldn’t stop after the doctor visit ends. Healthcare providers can use post-visit patient satisfaction surveys to learn how patients felt about their experience as well as any suggestions they might have on improving the process.
Wrap Up for SMS survey best use cases
SMS surveys are a great way to gather timely and accurate feedback in multiple scenarios.
You should use SMS along with channels like email to give your company a wider reach and achieve a truly omnichannel feedback program.