SMS as a communication channel - what should you consider when choosing a supplier?

Why use SMS as a communication channel?
Studies from 2015 show that, on average, we check our mobile phones more than 150 times a day (Sæther, 2018). The study's year, together with technological progress, also gives reason to believe that today's figures look somewhat higher, making the mobile phone one of the most attractive channels for reaching out to current and potential customers.

Many industries have chosen to use SMS as a communication tool. You can see it in taxi services, ticket bookings, customer clubs that send out membership offers, subscription channels and municipalities that send out important information. SMS is also being used for logging in to various user portals and enables two-factor authentication. With the high click-through rate of mobile phones, the SMSes you send out to potential or current customers have less chance of getting lost among other adverts or emails that end up in the inbox. In other words, it represents an effective way to provide relevant offers and information that is customised to the consumer.

What to consider when choosing an SMS provider?
The number of SMS messages sent varies from a few thousand to several million a year, which also means that different companies have different requirements for the solution. The requirements you have for your solution will also determine which supplier you can use, and here are some tips that are important to consider before choosing a supplier:

• Segmentation and targeted communication. Do you want to be able to segment your target groups and send different content to each segment?
• One-way or two-way communication. Do you want to give the recipient the option to reply to the SMS? For example, "Yes, I want more information" to 1900.
• Price. The number of SMS and the length of the content affect the price.
• Integration to CRM. Do you want to be able to link the SMS service to the CRM system you use?
• Timed dispatch. Do you want to be able to determine the time of dispatch in the future?
• Statistics. Do you want to be able to retrieve statistics on who has read the message and whether the message was delivered to the correct number?
• Personal data. For example, do you want to use the name of the SMS recipient for a more personalised message?
• International traffic. Do you want to send SMS to foreign numbers? The conditions vary greatly from provider to provider.

What can we at Adite help you with?
With Adite's independent position, we help our customers by mapping out their needs, highlighting the pros and cons of choosing the various suppliers, while taking care of the negotiation to ensure the best possible terms. Would you like an independent assessment of your company's SMS agreement? Get in touch with Adite for an informal chat.

Written by Solveig Hansen (01.02.2021)

Source:
Sæther, P.DS. (2018,02.05). We just have to check one more time. Retrieved from https://www.nrk.no/dokumentar/xl/vi-bare-ma-sjekke-en-gang-til-1.13686187