3 Ways to Send NPS and Review Requests via SMS

Think of the last book you read or series you binge-watched.

Now ask yourself—why’d you decide on that particular book or series? Chances are, it’s because someone recommended it to you. Either a friend, colleague or celebrity.

The point is, reviews matter. They make a measurable difference in consumer behavior. Just take a look at the numbers, conversion rates lift by 120.3% if the shopper has interacted with reviews. The benefits extend far beyond sales. Reviews can also impact your Google rankings.

Of course, a handful of reviews from a few years ago isn’t going to cut it.

In this article, we cover how to use text messages to collect more customer reviews and ratings. Why texts? Because they get read. People ignore emails, turn off push notifications, and throw away paper forms, but they almost always read their texts.

There are three ways to collect reviews via SMS.

1. Send an NPS survey by text
2. Text out a link to your survey
3. Follow up individually with customers

We’ll review all three. Let’s get started!

Method 1: Send an NPS Survey via SMS

Also known as the “Net Promoter Score,” NPS reviews are the gold standard in assessing customer experience. NPS surveys consist of a two-part questionnaire:

• First, ask customers to rate your business, product, service, etc. from 0 to 10
• Then, ask them why they chose that rating

1. Create an SMS Keyword for Your Review Request

The first step is to create a keyword customers can text in to receive your survey. If you’ve never created a keyword before, follow these instructions. Be sure to adjust your confirmation messages.

2. Set Up Your Custom Fields

In order to easily check your overall NPS score, you’ll want to organize your responses into two categories: the rating and the why. Create two custom fields, one number field and one text field.

Give them easy-to-remember names. We suggest “NPS Rating” and “NPS Review”.

3. Send Your SMS Format Feedback Questions

Next, you’ll want to open up the data collection feature, select your keyword, and select the two custom fields you created in the last step. Now type out your questions.

For the NPS Rating field, you should ask:
On a scale from 0 to 10, with 10 being highest, what’s the likelihood that you would recommend us (our company) to a friend or colleague?

For the NPS Review field, you should ask:
Tell us a bit more about why you chose that score?

Here’s what it will look like within SimpleTexting:

When a user subscribes with the keyword, they’ll automatically receive these questions and their replies will be logged in the respective fields.

4. Collect Customer Emails (Optional)

It’s common to offer incentives like gift cards in exchange for reviews. If this is part of your strategy, you can also ask for your participants’ emails so you can follow up with the gift later on.

5. Autoresponders

We hate to break it to you, but not everyone will reply with a perfect 10. Respondents should be grouped as follows:

• Promoters (score 9-10)
• Passives (score 7-8)
• Detractors (score 0-6)

You should follow up with all of these groups separately. For example, you should ask detractors how you could have done better. If someone is a promoter, you should send them a message asking them to post their review on a public review site like Trustpilot.

Under the subscribers panel, create a segment for each group.

Next, create an autoresponder for each segment:

Method 2: Request Reviews by Sending a Link via SMS

You’ll be relieved to hear that this method has significantly fewer steps than last. If you use a tool like Typeform, you can send a link directly to your survey.

1. Send Out a NPS Review Survey via SMS

Create a campaign, add the link to your survey, then click the Shorten URLs button. After that, select the group of contacts you want to send the survey to and click send.

2. Track Who Clicked It and Follow Up (Optional)

If you used our URL shortener, you can track who clicked (and did not click) on the link. Use this information to send personalized follow-up messages. Here’s an article with more details about how to segment your audience based on click behavior.

Method 3: Follow Up Individually After Conversations

Both of the methods we described above are useful if you want to text a survey to a group of customers at once. But what if you want to send a review request via SMS to just one person who had a particularly good experience? Easy. We’ll explain how.

1. Create a Template

First, create a template. This will save you time and make sure you’re ready to roll as soon as an opportunity to send a review request comes in.

2. Wait for the Right Time

You shouldn’t send out a review request after every conversation. Wait until you’ve delighted a customer! This could be after you’ve resolved a problem, gone above and beyond to accommodate them, or shown real value.

3. Direct Customers to Your Review Site

As soon as you know you have a happy customer on your hands, open your template and send it to them!

 Final Thoughts on Sending a Review Request via SMS

There you have it. Three different ways to turn SMS into your review-acquiring secret weapon. We do have some parting words of wisdom for any business that needs more reviews. Be sure to:

• Ask politely; don’t be pushy
• Offer equal incentives for everyone, even unhappy customers
• Offer incentives that are not dependent on reviewers making another purchase

These may sound obvious, but they still need to be said. Don’t sweat it if all of your reviews aren’t perfect fives. The study we mentioned at the introduction of the article found that five-star reviews are often seen as “too good to be true.” Purchase likelihood peaks at ratings in the 4.0 – 4.7 range.

If you’ve never used a texting platform before, feel free to sign up for a 14-day free trial of SimpleTexting today!