To grow as a business, you need to recognize and respond to the needs and wants of your customer base. Your employees are not expected to be mind readers, which is why market research is such a valuable commodity. There are many different channels in which you can conduct a survey or user poll with your customers, including email, online, traditional mail, mobile apps, and text messages.

Surveys are an important component of market research.

More and more companies and organizations are turning to mass SMS for a better way to collect customer feedback, in addition to reaping the benefits of its marketing applications. Between its ease of application and higher response rates, there are many reasons to turn to mass SMS polls to find ways to improve your business, whether you are looking for ideas on new products or feedback on your performance.

Simple Set Up

One benefit of text message polls is that they have a simple set up, with no difficult coding required and the ability to create a message and send it to your customers in a matter of minutes. You only have to set up a few different keywords for each poll response. Then, you can compare the number of responders to each keyword to see which one is the most popular. Additionally, if you already have an online survey developed, you can simply text the link to your customers. It may be simple to set up, but it is also a flexible medium that allows you to develop a variety of polls and surveys to match your company's needs.

Immediate Feedback

Not only can you send out your poll or survey quickly, but you also benefit from immediate feedback with text messages. Text messages have a 98 percent open rate, and 90 percent are read within 3 minutes. Because people read texts so quickly, it also improves the speed at which they respond to your poll. A pilot study of the efficacy of text message surveys in low-income populations by BMC Public Health found that most people who responded to the survey did so within a short period of receipt. This quick response ensures you will get the data you need quickly.

No need to wait for SMS survey responses.

More Responses

More people choose to respond to polls and surveys with mass SMS than other channels. Because people prefer surveys through text over other mediums, they are more likely to not just respond but also answer more of the questions. The same BMC Public Health study found that people responded to 72 percent of multiple choice questions and 76 percent of Likert-like scale questions when using text messages.

Higher Quality Information

Not only will you get more responses when you use your mass SMS system for polls and surveys, but you also will get higher quality feedback and information. In another study done in collaboration between the University of Michigan Ann Arbor and New School University, researchers found that when interview-type surveys were done via SMS, the answers were of higher quality than when done through a voice interview, even if it was an automated system and not a real person.

Most likely, this is due to people feeling more comfortable with answering questions via text than verbally responding. Additionally, they can answer the questions in their own time, putting more thought and effort into it. With higher quality responses, you will have better information off of which to work when developing new policies, programs, products, or other changes to your business.

Easy to Use Analytics

Mass text messaging services also offer easy to read analytic data, which makes it easy for you to analyze the responses and act upon the data. Another benefit is real-time access to data, instead of having to wait for responses to come in and compile the information as you would with a paper survey. This allows you to start taking action immediately, if you feel it is necessary based upon the results.

If you are looking for an easy way to engage with your customers and find out their feelings about some aspect of your company, whether it is your customer support capabilities or a new product or service, the fastest, easiest, and most reliable way to do it is to conduct mass SMS polls. You can rely on the findings because you will have a larger response rate and better information.

Learn more about how texting can help your business in this informative Club Texting blog post.