A big “a ha” type moment I want you to pay attention to in life:
Anytime you have a business interaction and think to yourself, “Wow, that was way easier / faster / more efficient / more enjoyable than it used to be,” try to figure out WHY and also what you can learn from that interaction and apply to your practice.
I had one of these last week that made me think, “Wow, that was WAY easier than normal.” And it was an interaction with a new sunglasses brand…
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Confession: my head is huge. Not in an ego way (at least not usually), but in the literal sense. When you see an adjustable hat that says, “One size fits most”… I’m never most.
Big head, big brains, whatever. Point is, I have trouble finding sunglasses that look like they belong on my massive melon.
But my buddy turned me on to the Big Kahunas by Detour Sunglasses, which are actually made for big-brained people like myself. Not to mention the price is right, especially for someone dealing with young kids grabbing and trying on my shades.
So I ordered a pair! And they were working out great. But at some point during the summer, I got some kind of substance (sunscreen? oil?) on my Big Kahuna lenses that I couldn’t get off. And so I started wearing them less.
And several times, I meant to go to their website and submit a customer service form about it, but forgot.
Here’s where it gets interesting…
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Detour Sunglasses sends me text messages when they release new frames, have sales or want feedback on product ideas. Just the other day, they sent me one of these messages.
And I grabbed my sunglasses, took a pic of the lenses and replied to the that message.
Here’s an image of that exchange:
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Other than getting new lenses for my shades, why is this such an excellent exchange? And what are the takeaways you can use when texting your prospects?
1. Right place, right time. They message me once a week-ish. But this particular time, I had been thinking about the sunglasses recently, then their message popped up. Coincidence? You could call it that. But in reality, they’re simply staying top of mind with me so when the time is right, they’re top of mind.
2. Convenience – What’s the normal process to reach customer service at a place like this? Something like go to the website, find a specific contact form, fill it out, take a picture, upload it to their site, pick “all the images that contain a school bus” in a captcha to prove you’re a human, then hope the message got to the right place. Total pain.
SMS removes 95% of that friction and makes it totally convenient.
3. Speed – They got back to me quickly (within a few minutes). I didn’t have to check my email or go dig through my spam folder. Text right to my phone.
4. Humans – Obviously a person wrote this. You can see the personality in their reply text. This in and of itself provides a little dopamine hit, just having a fun interaction with someone at a brand.
My youngest brother is the marketing director for the largest craft brewery in Fort Worth, and he spends time each day replying to every comment on social and every SMS they get back on their text channel. Why? Because those small interactions create an affinity and loyalty for the brand.
Facilitating even small personality-rich human interactions via text can set your practice apart from every other provider.
5. Easy – This was easy for me. It was easy for them. They didn’t need to have some massive tech stack with a ton of integrations and layers of complexity. “We have an SMS system, we text people, if they text back, we can help them.” So simple! Don’t overcomplicate it.
And these are all takeaways you can apply to your practice and the way you communicate with prospects and patients via SMS.
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To wrap it up….
Be aware of business transactions that make you say, “Hmmm, that was easier / faster / more enjoyable than normal.” And then figure out what you can learn from it.
AND if you aren’t using SMS right now, start. It’s a simple channel to leverage for more consults, and to convert more prospective patients on followup.
SMS is easy if you have the right system. All you need is an SMS program that:
- Allows you to send SMS to multiple people at once (batch-sending to segments of your audience)
- Allows you to automate SMS (so you can text people who fill out your contact form automatically)
- Allows 2-way texting (so people can text back and you can converse with them)
- Allows you to schedule ON times and OFF times (so messages don’t get sent at 2 a.m. for example)
- Has a simple web interface so anyone on your booking team can message with prospects
- BONUS: Can tie in your Facebook Messenger and Instagram Messenger conversations, so all these live in the same spot.
If you have a system that does this, AND your team knows how to use it… you’re equipped to book more consults, delight more prospects and make your team more efficient.
And if you don’t have this type of system, hit reply and say “Win with SMS!” and I’ll show you a system that checks all these boxes.
– T-Cole Texting
PS – I showed my buddy (the one who told me about Detour) this SMS thread, and he thought it was great too. I marketed Detour back to him, reminding him how great they are. Yet another way word-of-mouth works…