You’ve set up your Statflo account, sent your first few messages using a message template to contacts in your campaign, and received a response from a customer. Great! Now what?
As you continue to use the platform, you will likely encounter conversations such as the above example that are in progress but have no actionable result yet. These messages are found in two categories: "Sms In Progress/To Answer" where a customer has sent a response and is waiting for you to reply, or "Open/SMS No Reply" where you sent the last message and await a response.
Let's go through four tips on how to keep active conversations going to maximize the effectiveness of your outreach.
Stick to the channel you started with
In most cases, we saw no increase in conversion rate when a user switched mediums mid-conversation. Stick to the same medium you started the conversation in unless switching makes sense. For example, a customer has a specific question with an answer that would be too complicated to explain over text. In this case, a call is the better channel to continue the conversation.
We have seen instances similar to those with a text-response-call pattern increase the conversion rate because it made sense in context. Remember that if a switch is needed, you should notify the customer before doing so.
Keep in mind the customer’s preferred channels of communication as well when considering which medium to have the conversation. You can always access this in the right-hand sidebar of the chat window.
Respond to every message.
When a customer responds, don’t leave them hanging! Reply as soon as possible. Even just one response from the customer can increase the expected conversion rate dramatically by up to 3x over time. Moreover, conversations that lead to a back-and-forth have the best conversion rates.
Keep it going past the first response.
The ideal pattern with the highest conversion rates is an initial text response from a customer, followed by at least two back-and-forth responses through either texting, calling or a combination of both.
The holy grail of ongoing conversation is relatively simple. If you can manage to bring most of your conversations to the ideal pattern, you'll be awarded a very high conversion rate.
Reach out to everyone you need to
An essential coaching tip we recommend is to reach out to every customer in your campaign by sending the initial text with a message template. By completing 100% of your list, you increase your chances of receiving a reply. That can potentially lead to a sale or at least make the customer aware of you for the next opportunity that comes up.
Even if you don’t receive a response, the conversation rate for our texting users is around 5%.
As the quote goes, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”.
Remember to record your actions at critical moments (such as when you booked an appointment because of the outreach) and close the conversation when it’s finished.