Text Messaging for Customer Retention: Everything You Need to Know

When it comes to retention, businesses need to engage their clients through communication and focus on creating long-term relationships. 

Here, communication stands for two-way interaction that serves the customer’s needs more than the business. Among all, messaging for customer retention is one of the most personal and effective ways to engage clients. compared to other channels as it has a 209% higher response rate.

In this post, we’ll explore how messaging for customer retention can be used.

What is Customer Retention?

Customer retention is the ability to keep your customers coming back. It’s about creating long-term relationships with your customers so that they continue to do business with you. It involves creating a loyal relationship with your customers through communication. engagement, building value, and rewarding them for their loyalty. 

Customer retention is extremely important for enterprises because it costs far less to keep a customer than it does to acquire a new one. In fact, it’s estimated that it costs five times as much to acquire a new customer than it does to keep an existing one.  any business that sells products/services. It is impeccable for any business to have a good customer retention rate for survival and growth.

Why Customer Retention Is Important?

Most startups and businesses today are valued based on customer retention rate. Higher customer retention indicates the possibility of exponential growth in the future and the quality of product/service delivered is phenomenal.

Here are some major reasons why businesses need repeat customers:

• Lower Marketing Cost

  As mentioned earlier, customer retention is extremely important for businesses because it is much easier and more affordable to keep a customer than acquire a new one.Acquiring a new customer goes through multiple stages like running campaigns, creating awareness, building interest, requesting consideration, and adoption. Each of these stages requires the organization’s valuable time, money, and manpower to complete. However, up-selling, cross-selling, and reselling to your previous buyers is a much cheaper and profitable option.

• Word of Mouth Marketing

  Client retention means that the buyer is happy with your product and customer service which leads to brand marketing and referrals. They would refer your product/service to their friends, family, and colleagues. Thus, building an involuntary word-of-mouth marketing campaign and driving growth.

• Higher Revenue and Greater ROI

  A loyal customer is more likely to make purchases frequently and tends to stick around longer, which means they generate more revenue and have a greater lifetime value. They would most probably approach your complementary product/service rather than going for a new vendor. For example, if your entity is selling POS and printing machines to a restaurant, you can also upsell POS software to your customer. Even the restaurant will prefer buying both POS software and machine from one single vendor rather than going for a new seller.

• Improved Insights

  Retaining customers also provides companies with valuable insights that can be used to improve the product/service. For example, customer feedback can be used to make changes that will make the product more appealing to new customers and help reduce the churn rate.

• Improved Brand Image

  In today’s digital world, customers are more likely to leave reviews and feedback about their experience with your business. Good reviews and feedback can help attract more customers and improve your brand image.

• Builds Trust for Stakeholders

  Investors, financial institutions, and other business partners are always interested in knowing how much trust your customers have in your brand. A higher customer retention rate is a good indicator that your brand is trustworthy and here to stay for the long term.

How Text Messaging Improves Customer Retention

The power of mobile marketing cannot be ignored. According to a report in the economic times, Indians have an average mobile phone screen time of 5 hours per day.

While mobile marketing is a broad term that includes everything from app-based marketing to in-game ads, one of the most effective ways to reach your target audience is through SMS.

Text messages have a 98% open rate, which is nearly guaranteed exposure for your brand. Not only that, but text messages also have a 45% response rate, which is much higher than other marketing channels like email (21%) or social media (6%)

This makes text messages an incredibly powerful tool for customer retention. Here is how SMS could be used to keep loyal clients associated with your businesses.

• Personalized Greetings

  Text messages can be used to increase customer retention by keeping your existing customers happy and engaged with your brand. It is useful to send them birthday greetings, anniversary wishes, coupons, discounts, or exclusive offers.

• Targeted Marketing

  Easily segment your audience and send them targeted messages that are relevant to their interests. This helps improve the chances of them reading and responding to your messages.

• Warm-Up Inactive Customers

  You can also use text messages to increase the recall value and encourage customers who haven’t interacted with your brand in a while to come back. By sending them a simple text related to an exclusive offer, brand or product, you can quickly re-engage them and get them interested in your brand again.

• Resolving Issues in Real-Time

  Text messages help resolve customer issues quickly and efficiently. Besides, text messages are one of the best ways to receive customer feedback and provide them with updates related to products, services, and tickets.

• Reminders and Alerts

  You can send text messages to remind people about payments, appointments, or deadlines. You can also send alerts related to changes in your product or service, adding a new feature, or upcoming events.

• Quick Check-In

  A quick check-in text message goes a long way in making your customers feel valued. You can use it to show your concern, offer support, or just shoot the breeze. It is not intended for a particular purpose but a general old friend’s WhatsApp “Hi”

  Overall, text messages are a great way to retain existing customers. With a high open and click-through rate, you are sure to see an increase in customer acquisition and retention.

Suggested Read: Top 14 Free Bulk SMS Apps for Marketing

Do’s and Don’t While Text Messaging Clients

While text messaging is an incredibly powerful tool, there are a few things to keep in mind to make sure you’re using it effectively. Here are a few do’s and don’ts to keep in mind for improved client retention through SMS.

DO’s

• Keep your messages short and sweet: People are more likely to read and respond to a text message that is brief and to the point. Make sure you add only relevant information within 160 characters.
• Use text messaging to provide value: Whether you’re sending a coupon, discount, or update, make sure your message is relevant and useful to your audience.
• Segment your audience: By sending targeted messages to different segments of your audience, you’re more likely to reach the right people with the right message.

DON’Ts

• Send too many messages: You don’t want to bombard your audience with too many texts, or they’ll start tuning you out.
• Send messages late at night or early in the morning: Depending on your audience, you should make sure you’re sending texts during hours when they’re likely to be awake and able to respond.
• Forget to proofread your messages: Make the SMS’s clear and free of any typos or mistakes.
• Send cold messages: A cold message is a text message that is sent to a potential customer who has had no prior interaction with your brand. These messages can come across as spammy, and you’re likely to see a high opt-out rate if you’re not careful.

Sample Text Messages for Customer Retention

• Thank you for the purchase, [First Name]! We’re glad you’re happy with your purchase. Reach out to us for any questions or concerns.
• Happy birthday, [First Name]! We hope you have a fantastic day. To celebrate, we’re giving you a [XX] % discount on your next purchase.
• It’s been a while since we’ve heard from you, [First Name]. If you need anything related to [product], don’t hesitate to reach out.
• Hi [First Name]! We hope that your problem has been resolved now! Rate or customer service on a scale of 1 to 5. Thanks!
• Thank you for the purchase, [First Name]! We’re glad you’re happy with your purchase. Reach out to us for any concerns. 

Conclusion

It is quite important to retain your customers for survival, growth and profitability. Text messages are a powerful tool that can be used for customer engagement, acquisition, and retention. When used correctly, they can be an invaluable part of your marketing and customer service strategy.

Related Categories: Contact Management Software | Scheduling Software | Bulk SMS Software

FAQ’s