Last week we talked about a few different reasons why text messages don’t get responses from customers. In this post we’ll talk about specific things you can do to actually get more responses to your messages.
With many businesses still adjusting to doing business remotely and adapting to customer needs, it’s important you understand how to encourage back and forth communication. The conversations you have with customers can be as valuable as in-person interactions. And the more responsive and engaged your customers are, the more likely they are to continue supporting your business as well as recommend you to others.
1. Send Photos and Videos
Authentically communicate with your face and voice by sending video and picture messages. Doing so in addition to a text message grabs attention and shows you are indeed a real person. And we love talking to other people!
Other types of images also help encourage responses. For example, many fitness professionals send an image with a list of the class schedules for the week. When customers have access to the schedule on their phone, it becomes easier to share with family and friends as well.
Many Skipio users also see great engagement and success when sending selfies and short video introductions. In particular, doing so before a meeting — even one that’s a phone call — helps the attendees get to know you sooner.
(The Skipio platform eveb allows you to take photos, record videos, and send them directly to your contacts. Or attach multimedia you previously saved.)
2. Be Clear and Specific
People love texting because it’s a quick and easy way to get in touch. Help keep it that way by clearly wording your messages. Be careful that you’re not asking too many questions or giving too many CTAs (calls to action). The longer and more complicated a message is, the less likely people are to respond.
If recipients can read the full text and respond from the preview they see on their phone, that’s going to mean more responses because it’s so easy to do.
If recipients can read the text in just a few seconds and understand immediately what you’re asking, that’s going to mean more immediate responses because they won’t have to ask for clarification.
Those are just 2 examples; we encourage you to think of others.
3. Send Messages at Appropriate Times
“Appropriate” is of course subjective, but we can probably all agree that 11 PM is not an appropriate time to text customers. Right? Similarly, texting customers at 5 AM is not appropriate.
Texting people on certain days of the week is also not necessarily appropriate. Many people don’t want to be bothered on the weekends. And depending on your business, there’s a good chance whatever you have to say or ask can wait until Monday.
Not sure when customers want to be texted? Ask them! You of course won’t get agreement from everyone, but ask and look at the patterns in their answers. Because if the majority of your customers don’t want to receive messages in the evenings or on Sundays, you know you won’t receive responses.
4. Avoid Sending Too Many Links
If people need to go elsewhere to read something or watch something before responding, you’re less likely to get immediate responses as well as responses overall. That’s the case even if the information is really important for them to know.
People might follow the link, get distracted, and not remember to reply to your text. Or in some cases they just won’t see it as worth their time. Others will simply “get to it later” and then never bother responding.
Unfortunately, links can also sometimes cause texts to not get delivered at all if a recipient’s carrier thinks the message is spam. So if you try to send a lot of messages at one time and they all have the same link and there’s not really any personalization to the message, that looks like spam to a carrier.
None of this means you can’t or shouldn’t EVER send links. But it does mean to be mindful of links if people don’t seem to be engaging when you send them. It might turn out they’re not getting the message at all.
5. Rewrite Messages that Don’t Get Responses
Do you feel like certain types of messages perform worse than others? Sometimes all it takes is rewriting a message that isn’t performing well and suddenly you’re flooded with responses. Tweaking just a few words or changing even the first sentence can make an impact.
Maybe the tone was unintentionally off-putting or the question included wasn’t clear enough. Maybe you didn’t ask a question at all, so people didn’t see a need to respond.
Especially if in a series of messages you notice a drop-off in responses once you send the third message, for example, rewrite that third message! You should always be trying out new ideas and engaging in a process of learning.
Start sending better texts today
All of this starts with practice and by simply doing. You may not see an influx of responses at first, but over time these changes add up. Here at Skipio we’ve seen all of these actions work and improve the effectiveness of business texting!
Need a texting tool to get started? Create your Skipio account and build text campaigns that improve response rates by 30 percent or more.
