We’re launching new features to help e-commerce brands collect even more reviews and show them beautifully to shoppers on their website. With more reviews, this helps brands increase their social proof, grow their sales, and increase revenue.
Introducing SMS - a new channel for brands to engage with customers and request reviews through text messages.
Nowadays, reaching customers through a single channel isn’t enough. With SMS, Fera is powering e-commerce merchants to engage with your customers through multiple touchpoints. This allows you to reach customers wherever they are - and not just an email inbox that they can simply ignore.
Important: To use SMS review requests, your store must collect customer phone numbers at checkout. This information is necessary for Fera to sync phone number to your account and send SMS review requests.
If you haven’t enabled phone number collection yet, follow this step-by-step guide for Shopify.
How it works
You will continue to be able to send automated emails to your customers requesting a review. Depending on how your automatic review request campaigns are set up, you can send an initial email and a follow-up email (this one is optional).
An SMS campaign can be set up so a text message is sent after the last e-mail. This allows you to reach customers that didn’t engage and leave star ratings and or text reviews with your emails.
Note: The copy of the SMS messages can be customized, however note that we have tools in place to ensure that the messaging stays compliant and not fraudulent, or spam.
Pricing
Our SMS feature allows you to send unlimited review request messages at no additional cost. Charges are applied only when an SMS request results in a star rating and or text review. Each successful review generated through SMS will incur a flat fee of $5.00. This ensures that your costs are tied directly to the measurable outcomes of SMS.
You will be charged directly via Shopify billing.
Why should you incorporate SMS into your reviews strategy?
1. Obtainable Information
On e-commerce marketplaces such as Shopify, Wix, and Big Commerce, there is a field that you can easily enable to have the customers input their phone number during checkout. Fera will automatically sync the customer profile information, that way their phone number is automatically imported to your dashboard so you can set up your SMS campaign.
2. Get Seen and Be Read
According to Shopify, 43% of email recipients in the US say that they always or often delete emails from brands without reading them first. That’s 64% of more reviews that you’re potentially missing on. With e-mails, customers can easily ignore, delete, and never open.
SMS messages have a 98% open rate, far surpassing what e-mail can do. In addition, a whopping 60% of consumers say they read a text within five minutes of receiving it. This ensures that your message is seen and customers take action in leaving you a review.
3. Omni-channel Leads to Increased Engagement Rates
Research shows that marketers using three or more channels in their campaigns see a purchase and engagement rate 250% higher than marketers using single channels. Instead of relying on a single channel, incorporating omni-channel marketing creates more personalized experiences that align with customer preferences. By reinforcing messages across channels, you’ll remain top of mind of your customers.
How to send SMS review requests with Fera
To start utilizing SMS as part of your omni-channel strategy, you can follow our step-by-step guide on setting up your SMS campaign. Read the full setup instructions in our Help Center.
With Fera, start automatically collecting customer reviews today and build a review strategy that drive trust, sales and long-term sustainable growth. Turn your happy customers into powerful social proof. Start your free trial today.
Note: The SMS review request feature is currently available only for Shopify stores located in the USA and Canada. Sign up to our waiting list here to be the first to find out when SMS is available in your country and/or marketplace.
