14 • OIL
&
ENERGY
Marketing
CUSTOMERS LOVE CONVENIENCE
Fear of severe weather events may be the
most obvious and compelling reason for cus-
tomers to give you their permission to text
them – which is a Federal Communications
Commission requirement; more on that
later – but it’s not the only one. With a little
prompting from you, customers can also
see the tremendous convenience of texting
in day-to-day communications.
With a full-service home comfort
company, text-savvy customers can easily
imagine the possibilities:
• They can receive reminders about
upcoming service calls.
• They can pay bills instantly from their
phones.
• They can view price protection offers
and enroll immediately.
• They can check their balance.
• They can request service – and maybe
even schedule appointments themselves
on the spot.
Texting is also highly applicable with
will-call customers. You can remind them
when their tank is getting low, send daily
price updates, enable them to place an order
in seconds with no phone call and notify
them when a delivery has been made.
HANG YOUR HAT ON IT
The conveniences will be so evident to
the text-savvy customer that it makes sense
to not only incorporate text communica-
tions but to place it front and center in your
marketing. By emphasizing the convenience
of mobile phone communications, you can
shift the focus away from problematic issues
like price and fuel choice and onto your
suitability as a business partner. Imagine
how easy it would be for a homeowner to
choose between an “ultra-convenient pro-
vider of advanced comfort services” and a
“heating oil company.”
As customers enter texting relationships
with you for the safety and convenience
factors, they’ll also be making it much
easier for you to market your products and
services to them. You’ll be able to put offers
in front of them confident that they will be
seen and read – probably within minutes.
Compare that immense selling power
to the effectiveness of other available
mediums. Social media is great for building
your image and personalizing customer
relationships but the reach is limited,
and focusing too much on sales can cost
you followers. Email marketing is a great
medium for extending special offers, but
the open rate doesn’t approach that of text
messaging. Newsletters offer excellent
opportunities for relationship building,
customer education and extending special
offers, but they lack the instant interactivity
of text messaging.
Text messaging is just one of several
effective mediums available today, but it’s
easy to imagine a future in which it is the
dominant channel for all customer com-
munications. As such, it makes sense to
jump in now and try to become the most
text-friendly provider in your market.
STRIKE THE RIGHT BALANCE
Text-based communication with cus-
tomers is uniquely powerful because of
the customers’ tight “relationships” with
their mobile phones. With that power
comes responsibility – to treat your texting
privileges responsibly and to not engender
customer resentment. Were a customer to
start thinking that you sought access to their
mobile phone just to spam them with sales
pitches, your advantage would be lost.
It’s one of those (many) instances where
it really pays to think like a customer and
imagine how you would like the texting
relationship to unfold. First, be certain that
you are offering real value by enhancing
their convenience and sending texts that
they’ll be grateful to receive.
That will be easy if your company uses
an advanced back-end computing
system because you can build
direct links between text
back-end. You can enable cus-
tomers to pay bills by text wi
simple one-character respons
your text. You can automati
notify them of upcoming appoint-
ments or enable them to schedule
their annual service or acc
price protection offer. You can
also become their principle
source for storm informa-
tion and include helpful
tips on last-minute prepara-
tion. Once you are delivering
welcome services like those, c
tomers will be more likely to tolerate
occasional marketing message
To optimize your text com-
munications, you’ll need a
mobile website so customers
can view links and interact
with you instantly through their
mobile phone browsers. Creating a
mobile site that is based on your
regular site is a fairly simple
that companies should be taking
to accommodate customers and
prospects who like to search the Internet
on their phones.
KNOW THE RULES
As I mentioned above, text messaging
takes you into the regulated public air-
waves and exposes you to laws such as
the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
It’s not as intimidating as it sounds, but
you need to heed the rules. As long as you
opt customers in, disclose your intentions
clearly and document customer consents,
you’ll get off on the right foot.
Once you understand the rules, you can
begin soliciting customer enrollments and
collecting mobile phone numbers. You’ll
probably do a lot of communicating across
different channels to announce the new
service, so it makes sense to launch com-
bination solicitation/promotion campaigns
that emphasize the company’s commitment
to superior customer service.
Mobile phones are the most impor-
tant, valued communication devices that
consumers and business owners carry.
Companies that master the medium can
build a huge lead on the competition.
Why not get started today?
As always, if your company needs advice
on how to get started, give us a call. We’d be
happy to help, 1-800-796-3342.
and
th a
e to
cally
ept a
us-
s.
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