Two-way SMS

If you are looking to engage your customers with SMS marketing, two-way SMS is the way to go. Two-way SMS allows your customers to react to your message by giving feedback, confirming their customer details, or something as simple as opt-out from SMS marketing.

Here's how to get started:

1. Contact support@custobar.com for the setup. We set up the service with our SMS partner and let you know when it is up and running. The monthly fee is currently 40€ / month for the upgrade, and it is available for Custobar Plus customers.
2. Plan your two-way SMS campaigns whilst we set up the service. It usually takes a few days.
3. When the set up is ready, follow the steps below to set up an SMS campaign and don't forget to check our SMS guidelines described in this article.

Setting up a two-way SMS campaign

To set up a two-way SMS campaign, go to "Campaigns" and create a new SMS action.

Next, choose between one-way and two-way SMS by clicking on the phone icon and select the number option, i.e. the dedicated number for your two-way SMS sendings. Then, type your message in the speech bubble. Ensure that you are not using too many unique characters so that the message will not be split into two.

Since the two-way SMS sender name is always the dedicated phone number that has been set up for your Custobar account, remember always to sign and specify the sender inside the message body. In other words, the sender will only see the phone number, not the sender name. Please remember to add your brand name in the message text. This will avoid a situation where the customers cannot determine which company the SMS originated from.

Also, it is worth remembering that the sending number looks like any other local mobile number from the designated country, and standard SMS charges are applied when the customer replies. After you are done, you can hit "Save", and choose your audience and activate the campaign.

After the campaign has been sent, you can see it on the customer timeline.

Also, when the customer replies, you can see the reply on the customer timeline and the events view (Customers -> Events).

How to use two-way SMS?

One of the benefits of a two-way SMS is that it gives customers the option to directly opt-out from SMS marketing. The default replies to opt-out are "N" or "E". This action is automated in Custobar. So if the customer replies with an "N" or "E" in your message, their SMS permission is automatically turned off.

With two-way SMS, when enabled, you can also send the Customer Satisfaction Survey to your customers, and they can then respond directly with a number from 0-10, after which they will receive a second SMS where they can comment freely. This is used when a customer buys an item from the store or contacts the support line, for example.

Two-way SMS also makes it possible for customers to ask different things using SMS replies to your campaigns. For example, they can fetch their own loyalty member number by sending an SMS with "club". A new SMS is sent in response with their unique ID.

If you have any specific needs, custom logic can be set up with Custobar staff and Flow, to have particular answers trigger particular actions. SMS unsubscribe and satisfaction scores logic are configured by default.

We are happy to help you at support@custobar.com.