Marketing
The Holy Grail of Customer Communications
Text messaging takes convenience and service to a whole new level
By Richard Rutigliano, PriMedia Inc.
COMMUNICATIONS IS FUNDAMENTAL TO ANY
relationship, including the one between
a home comfort company and each of its
customers. A company that can maintain
helpful, two-way dialog with customers
around the clock has an
enormous advantage over
a competitor that rarely
makes contact and expects
customers to make a phone
call to request service.
The communication tool
of preference for most consumers today is the
one they carry with them everywhere at all
times: the mobile phone. If you could reach
customers regularly via text messaging and
get them to text you back, you’d achieve the
Holy Grail of customer communications.
Many large companies are already
engaging customers by text, and now compa-
nies of any size can do the same. The tech-
lno ogy you d nee to i t i
ma n a n hi ti t d
sop s ca e
text-based communications is here today.
Once you learn to use it effectively, you can
provide customers a level of convenience
unlike anything before. You’ll also be
able to communicate with them directly and
quickly, knowing they will receive your mes-
sages and be able to respond immediately.
Texting to mobile phones offers signifi-
cant advantages over other communications
mediums. Most importantly, consumers are
glued to their phones like no other device.
Mobile phones, especially smartphones
like the iPhone and Android devices, are
compelling tools that users just can’t seem
to put down.
TSG Global Inc. has compiled some
interesting statistics that demonstrate the
consumers’ powerful embrace of mobile
phone texting:
• 80 percent of cell phone owners use
text messaging
• 95 percent of text messages received
are opened and read within minutes
• 75 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers
send text messages; 49 percent
d l d own oa apps; d an 49
t
percen use
Internet browsers on their phone
• People who text-message send or
receive an average of 35 messages
a day.
Companies across the economic
spectrum have noticed consumers’ prefer-
ence for mobile communications and are
adjusting their marketing accordingly.
Forrester Research reports that spending
on mobile marketing increased from $1.7
billion in 2011 to $2.7 billion in 2012.
By 2016, companies are expected to spend
a combined $8.2 billion on mobile mar-
keting, compared to $7.4 billion on social
media and email marketing combined.
Forrester also polled companies on the
expected effectiveness of various marketing
strategies over the next three years. Fifty-one
percent of respondents said they expected
mobile marketing to be more effective. This
compares favorably to display advertising
(35 percent), television (21 percent), out-
door (15 percent), and radio (10 percent).
WHEN A STORM HITS, YOU ARE WANTED
In the ldwor
f o home
f t
com or , t t ex -
based communication makes a lot of sense
for companies and customers alike. Most
importantly, the customers themselves
are likely to perceive their home comfort
company as a suitable texting partner.
We need only look back a few months to
October 2012 when Superstorm Sandy put
many homeowners and businesses in crisis
situations that had them desperate to make
contact with their comfort providers.
Basements were flooded, appliances were
ruined, and land-based telephone systems
were knocked offline for days or even weeks.
Customers needed help desperately
in the form of heating repairs and
installations, emergency backup
power, generator fuel, handyman
services and more. Imagine how they
would have appreciated a text from you
stating your company was up and running
and providing a temporary phone number to
reach you during the crisis.
Between Sandy, Irene, the 2011
Halloween Nor’easter and the 2008 New
England ice storm, nearly all customers
along the Eastern Seaboard are acutely
attuned to storm risk. They believe that
storm frequency and severity have increased
and understand that mobile phones are
often the only functioning systems in the
wake of a major storm. If a home comfort
company offers the opportunity to com-
municate via text, many customers will see
that as a benefit and reassurance.
Continued …
12 • OIL&ENERGY
