How to Send and Format Text Message Surveys

SMS surveys are a quick and easy way to reach your customers and collect valuable information and feedback. Because text messaging is a convenient way to respond quickly, your business is more likely to receive answers and information right away. 

Today we’ll talk about text message surveys as a tool for your business or organization and how to use them to your advantage.

How to Use Text Surveys for Your Business

Text surveys offer insight into your customers’ behaviors and needs so you can make necessary adjustments to meet business milestones. Obtaining customer feedback can be used for marketing strategies, business practices, and improved customer insight and engagement. 

SMS surveys can be created and personalized for your business to gather the information that will best suit you. Let’s take a look at some of the ways to put surveys to use:

1. Collect Votes

Many businesses and organizations use text messages for polling and collecting votes. This is a valuable and cost-effective method for increasing brand awareness, analyzing purchase intent and gathering customer feedback. 

Survey polls are easy to set up and affordable to manage and maintain. Considering 95% of SMS text messages are opened and read within the first three minutes of receipt, this bodes well for companies that send polls via SMS. Check out a few ways to implement this survey option:

• Retail - Collect feedback about clothing styles, colors, design.
• Restaurants - Gauge whether customers wish to see new items on the menu or which items are likely to perform well.
• Spas - Send a brief questionnaire asking customers if they enjoyed the provided amenities or services.
• Travel - Ask whether the customer received the experience they expected.
• Real Estate - Inquire whether the customer’s experience with your company minimized the stress of selling and/or purchasing a home
• Faith-based Organizations - Gauge whether potential attendees are more interested in a retreat, volunteer opportunity or other group activity.

2. Obtain Feedback About Products and Services

The average response time to a mobile survey is approximately 90 seconds. This reveals just how effective surveys are for businesses in obtaining customer feedback. 

For businesses looking for new ways to improve their customer service, consumer feedback is the best way to capture this information.

Customer satisfaction is the priority with increased competition and ongoing pressure between businesses. Implementing SMS surveys is a great way to create a continuous feedback loop that allows you to pivot and make immediate changes. 

Examples of when to send SMS Surveys:

• After speaking with a customer service rep to ask about their experience
• After a customer tries a new checkout process 
• After a customer has received and used a product

Research indicates that a happy customer tends to share their positive experience with about six people. In contrast, an unhappy customer is likely to share their negative experience with fifteen or more people. These are consequences a business can’t afford.

How to Format SMS Surveys

Text surveys are meant to be convenient and easy for the customer. You want to keep the survey questions short and straightforward to encourage customer feedback. Formatting a survey can be done in several ways, for example:

1. Multiple choice - Ask recipients, “how did you hear about us?” or “When is the best time to contact you?” 

How did you hear about us?

A - Social media

B - Google Ad

C - Web search

D - Friend or family

E - Other

1. Numeric response - Asks recipients to rate their experience numerically. 

Rate your experience from 1 to 5 

1 - I loved my experience

2 - It was pretty good

3 - My experience could have been better

4 - I am unhappy with my experience

5 - I am highly dissatisfied 

1. Open-ended response - Recipients can answer questions in their own words.
   In a few words, describe what you liked or disliked about your recent purchase.

Best Practices

It’s a good idea to follow certain practices that will encourage a high level of participation and feedback from your SMS surveys.

1. Provide an incentive to the recipient. You can offer a small gift or the chance to win something larger upon taking the survey. Let the customer know their time is valuable.
2. Sending surveys at a customer's happiest point is another excellent practice. When a customer’s positive experience with your company is still fresh in their mind, they are more likely to respond to your request for feedback. 
3. Create familiarity by sending your surveys through a dedicated number.  This number is solely for your business and contributes to brand recognition, trust and a long-term relationship with your customers.
4. Always introduce yourself. Letting the customer know who the text survey is from ultimately adds credibility to your messages, improving the likelihood of a response. It’s also a good practice to send follow-up messages if you do not obtain a response. By doing so, you give them another opportunity to respond.
5. Add a call to action to your survey. The response rate from a clear call to action will improve your SMS campaigns significantly. 

Why Use Text Surveys When I Can Just Email?

One of the best reasons to utilize text surveys is the high open and response rate.

Email marketing can suffer from lower engagement rates (20% open rate and 6% average response rate). On average, a person will send 25% more texts than emails. That’s an average of at least 15 texts compared to 12 emails per day. Additionally, many emails end up in your spam folder or simply get deleted without ever being read. 

For these reasons, real-time surveys via text message are preferable to the less reliable email surveys.

How to Send SMS Surveys with Textedly

SMS surveys are a great way to reach people in real-time and acquire useful feedback. With various survey styles and options, it’s easy for every type of business to benefit from text surveys. Surveys are easy to set up, manage and maintain, which improves marketing, brand awareness, business practices and overall growth.

Are you ready to take your business to the next level with SMS surveys that work? Don’t waste another minute wondering how to get started. Sign up today and receive your free trial.