Brands using SMS as live chat.Use as a channel to improve customer experience

Brands often use this service for conversations triggered by specific actions, such as cart abandonment or page exit. Customers who sign up for SMS communications can also ask a brand a question via text and get an answer from a representative who is a member of Attiv’s team connected to that brand’s dashboard.

The service costs more than the standard Attentive SMS plan, which includes a base fee and a monthly texting budget, to cover staff costs. But Bruckner said it led to better customer service and helped Home Threads generate more than $36 million in revenue in 2021. SMS has become the largest driver of traffic retargeting from sites, surpassing Meta, Pinterest and Google.

“I get small alerts and I never miss a text. That’s why I feel it fits the way people work and live,” he said.

Established as a channel for improving customer experience

Homethreads isn’t the only successful SMS strategy, especially live chat. During Cyber ​​Week, over 5,000 brands using Attentive generated $1.1 billion in sales from SMS campaigns. But conversations with a live representative had a 69% higher average order price than conversations with an autoresponder, data from Attentive shows.

Bloomreach, an e-commerce engagement platform, saw a 50% increase in SMS messages sent during Cyber ​​Week this year compared to last year, reaching 3.8 billion total messages. No data was released on how many of those conversations were two-way, but CMO Amanda Elam said SMS as a whole is becoming a channel for customer experience.

“The ability for brands to communicate with customers across all channels is no longer a differentiator and is fast approaching a natural expectation,” Elam said.

Attentive CMO Sarah Barni says the two-way conversation allows it to tailor its response to a customer’s specific situation, similar to how a store clerk directs a customer to a specific floor. .

Barni said: “Customers don’t want to be bulk-sent with the same message, and they don’t want no response, so for SMS marketers, it’s very difficult to tailor messages to that customer. It’s very important.”

“Customers just want to feel heard.”

Luggage and accessories brand Calpak launched SMS in mid-2020, becoming an early adopter of Attentive’s concierge service. This allowed customers to respond to text messages and have live conversations with representatives.

A common conversation during shopping is about color and size choices, said Jeannie Singh, director of sales and marketing for Calpak.

“We are very pleased with the results,” he said. “Most of these conversations are like, ‘I need help finding an item,’ or ‘I want this item in a different color.’ Customers just want to be listened to, just the other side. I think they want to feel that someone is listening to them.”

Attentive launched its concierge interactive text service in June 2022.

There are also conversations about warranties and product availability. If a customer asks a question that a concierge attendant cannot answer, the conversation is routed to a brand representative.

Another benefit of this live chat exchange is that you can receive real-time customer feedback, such as adding information to a product page.

“Such information is totally useful for making decisions elsewhere,” Singh said.

resource-intensive strategy

However, live chat SMS is not suitable for all brands. For SMS in general, the cost of obtaining customer contact information via SMS exceeds that of email. Subscription cancellations are also much more common, so brands need to think carefully about when to send texts so customers don’t feel annoyed, Singh said.

Growing your contact list also has its fair share of hurdles. Singh said Kalpak began preparing Thanksgiving weekend sales in September and October, promoting SMS sign-ups and partnering with influencers.

“We wanted to make sure we had a healthy list going into this season, and I think the bigger our list, the more returns we get,” he said. there is

Draper James, the apparel and lifestyle brand founded by actress Reese Witherspoon, currently doesn’t have any live reps in its SMS strategy, says CEO Erin Moennig. . There was an experiment in which storefront staff at the company’s flagship store in Nashville responded to text messages, but it was quickly scrapped, he said. This test was done to help customers shop for gifts just before the holiday season. However, when store staff were busy responding to customers on the floor, there was sometimes a time lag between the time a text was received and the time a reply was given.

“If you don’t have urgency, you kind of lose the effectiveness,” he said.

high degree of engagement

But that doesn’t mean the brand won’t try again in the future.

“We are very pleased with the results,” he said. “For us, this comes down to manpower. But there are a lot of things we can and want to do with it. In the future, we hope to provide a very individualized element.”

For example, a recent campaign asked subscribers which of two color options they prefer for the color of a particular apparel item. SMS lists are only about a quarter the size of email lists, but have higher open and engagement rates.

“We often launch exclusive services like VIP or early access. The group is small, but the engagement level is high,” Moennig said.

Attentive’s Varni said having a live chat element in their SMS strategy is especially useful for brands that have a high level of inquiry and consideration around purchases.

For example, a person waiting for an agent in an online chat may log off before getting an answer to their question.

“We are very pleased with the results,” he said. “If you’re looking to buy a luxury handbag and it’s above a certain price, you’ll want to know a little more about it before you add it to your shopping cart and buy it. Use text in those cases. It allows us to interact with brands in a much more seamless way.”