Opinion: Five Reasons why Mobile CRM is the New Mandate
Mobile is the increasing medium that brands and retailers are turning to in order to drive online sales, with the continued rise of Smartphone ownership, Customer Retail Management has become all the more vital, with five reasons why being offered by Llew Claasen, vice president of marketing at Clickatell.
1. Today’s mobile customers are not just advertising targets
Today, people rarely go out without their mobile phone. Even at home, it’s usually within arm’s reach. A recent Pew Research Centre Study from 2010 reported that more than four out of five young adults sleep with their phone on or near bed and “many expressed reluctance to ever turn their phones off”.
Times are changing and so are customers. Gone are the days when a broadcast advertising campaign could hook a whole slew of new, loyal customers. Instead, today’s businesses are fighting to be heard through a cacophony of different media channel messages.
Consumers are getting tired of the media bombardment. The recent financial fallout combined with the rise of consumerism and social media, means that consumers are looking for more authenticity, for brands that share their values, simplify their lives and engage in meaningful communication. Businesses that treat the customer as a “human” and not the ‘target market’ in a mobile message, are getting their communication through, the rest of the advertsing noise is just being tuned out.
2. Mobile messaging is most successful at reaching customers.
There is no disputing the extraordinary reach and power of the mobile phone. Statistics from Nielsen in 2010 show that a staggering 71% of the global population or 5.3 billion people own a mobile handset, in contrast, only two billion people are connected to the Internet, according to The Economist.
SMS messages can also be targeted directly to the mobile phone of the user, offering unparalleled reach - even reaching up to 91% of the US population (CTIA, 2010).
3. Mobile messages offer CRM programs key advantages.
Immediacy – SMS messages are sent and received within 5 seconds, enabling ‘real-time’ dialogue with customers, irrespective of their geographical location.
Relevancy – SMS messages are informed by the customer record and are always relevant to the customer’s location, requirement and situation.
Ubiquity – SMS Messages can reach over 70% of the global population.
Simplicity – SMS are less than 160 characters long, making them easy to read and respond to.
Versatility – There is virtually no limit to the type of SMS messages that can be sent or received, allowing organisations to communicate with customers about almost anything.
Actionability – SMS messages can be immediately responded to and replying to short codes is just as quick and can be done in seconds.
4. Mobile messaging delivers the results
Consumers open 98% of text messages received, while e-mail has an open rate of only 20%, according to a 2010 Frost & Sullivan report and has a higher direct response rate at 26% than telemarketing (10.4%), email (6.6%) and direct mail (3.4%) (Direct Marketing Association, 2010).
5. Mobile Messaging is here to stay in CRM
More than 6 trillion mobile messages were sent during 2009 (Portio research), almost 1000 messages for every human being on the planet!
The very immediate and relevant nature of mobile messaging is helping companies create closer relationships with their customers and grow their businesses – by enabling more personal customer engagement by delivering the right message, at the right time, at the right place. Not surprisingly mobile messaging is the new mandate for organizations looking to build closer and more immediate customer connections with higher transactional volumes, improved safety and security and greater global reach and sustainability.
There is no new technology that is more compelling, universal and immediate – making it a winning solution for CRM programs across the globe.