Embracing Digital Connections…Texting

Yes, we’ve all seen it and most of us have done it…multi-tasking by listening and texting, reading and texting, sending a quick text to touch base or share a piece of information and more.

While many thought “texting is for our kids”, it is now mainstream and becoming further integrated into everyday business.

We’ve heard of distributor salespeople getting texts from their customers inquiring about pricing, delivery times and inventory levels. We’ve seen contractors send photos of products and UPC numbers. And some distributors text delivery updates and product sheets to their customers.

In other words, texting is becoming part of the omni-channel experience that some customers, or individuals within these customers, are using and is becoming more “standard”.

The challenge for many distributors is that these are “one-to-one” interactions with industrials within your company, sometimes on personal cellphones, with no ability to integrate with your ERP system, to track or to ensure quality.

Additionally, there are some legalities if you want to mine the data and utilize texting for marketing purposes … which is becoming prevalent (think of all of the times that retailers ask for your cellphone number … and then you get information via text from them!)

A leader in this space, dedicated to serving distributors in the building trades, is Moblico, a new ElectricalTrends advertiser.

Some texting thoughts from Moblico:

Interesting Fact – There are more connected devices in the US that there are people and Americans spend 30% of their waking day looking at their mobile phone screen.

Its’ obvious that the mobile experience has greatly changed our behavior and expectations at home, play and at work.

Moblico’s mission is to help distributors do more business on mobile devices.  We are dedicated to helping distributors and contractors bridge the technology gap, leapfrog your customer experience and transact with customers anytime, anyplace and anywhere – via the device that is always with them – their phone.

Since 2010, Moblico has helped their clients improve customer service, expedite orders and expand their customer base.  Moblico helps speed up how customers transact business, including placing orders and checking stock, with our mobile app and texting technologies – from wherever they happen to be.

Moblico Benefits:

• Speed Up Ordering – Remove friction in your business and let your customers order the way they want to – via text or mobile app. Bonus – your sales and support team will be more productivity.
• Deliver a Better Customer Experience – Engage your customers anytime, anywhere with state-of-the art contextual mobile applications that put your business in the palm of their hand.
• Find New Contractors – Finding new contractors can be like finding a needle in a haystack. Let’s geofence their office locations and deliver your message directly to their connected devices. (Email us to ask what “geofencing” is and how it generates new opportunities. We’ll send you a brief description.)

Moblico Solutions

• Business Texting – One-to-one text and picture messaging streamline communication, speed up ordering and increase productivity.
• Team Texting – to use with internal groups as well as external groups (consider for project management for a specific customer)
• Broadcast Texting – One-to-man text messaging communication to promote new products, special offers, with real-time announcements … and they can include pictures / graphics.
• Hybrid Mobile App – Moblico puts your businessin the palm of your customers hand and provide a complete customer experience – including e-Commerce, documents, training, events, nearest locations, and much more.
• Geo Targeted Advertising – Reach your contractors where they work and drive them to a landing page – which includes a lead generation form. (this has some interesting applications tied to joint marketing with suppliers as well as add-on selling to contractors … and even customer appreciation initiatives!)

Moblico’s solutions can connect to your CRM, ERP and eCommerce solution as they have worked with distributors who needed integration into Epicor (Eclipse and P21), Infor, Insite, SecondPhase and Schmitt ProfiTools.

Click here to view their video to learn more.

For more information on Moblico, visit their website at www.moblicosolutions.com or email Stacey Pandeloglou.

Think texting is “new”, consider these business text statistics (and yes, some are consumer-driven, but our customers are also consumers and exhibit similar behaviors in ordering electrical material):

• The number of monthly texts has increased by more than 7700% over the last decade.
• 89% of people always have their smartphone easily accessible.
• Texting is the #1 most used way of communication among Americans younger than 50.
• 82% of text messages are read within 5 minutes (says something about curiosity and expediency!)
• Smartphone users spend 22% of their time on their phone texting but only 10% of their time using email.
• 68% of Americans between 18-29 said they had sent/received text messages “a lot” the day before
• 47% of Americans between 30-49 said they had sent/received text messages “a lot” the day before”
• Over 83% of Millennial’s text more than they talk
• 78% say receiving a text message is the fastest way to reach them for important updates / purchases
• 76% said that speed is the most important feature of messaging to impact satisfaction
• 91% of users who opt in opt-in receive text messages see those as “somewhat” or “very” useful.
• 33% said they opt-in to text messages to gain access to more meaningful content

While the above is obviously not specific to the electrical industry, they are indicators of behavioral change as well as text acceptance.

Marketing is about engagement. Communications is about repetition.  Service is about information and speed. Customer processes are becoming more automated for information which is transactional in nature while, at the same time, companies seek to gather data / metrics regarding productivity, customer service and customer interaction.  Text marketing is something to consider as part of your marketing mix … and it’s not as expensive as you would think.  As a “first adopter”, could it be a differentiator?

Recognizing that it is new, what would be your concerns? Where do you see the opportunities?