We’re excited to announce that RechargeSMS is here!
RechargeSMS is a transactional SMS tool that lets your customers manage their subscriptions by text right from their messages app. By leveraging RechargeSMS for your subscription management, you give your customers the flexibility they need and meet them right where they are. The barriers of remembering log-ins to portals or dealing with a flooded email inbox are minimized by incorporating transactional SMS into your overall multi-touchpoint strategy.
With a phone number specific to your business, you can reach out via text to notify customers before their order ships, giving them options to swap, delay, add a one-time product, or even change their shipping address—all without them having to log in to their customer portal.
Let’s take a look at the stats of using RechargeSMS transactional messaging:
- 1.4% text opt-out rate (as opposed to double-digit unsubscribe rates with email)
- 40% customer engagement (that’s 13x the engagement rate of email)
- 97% of customers want shipping updates via text
In fact, according to a Twilio survey of more than 6,000 consumers across 3 continents, 9 out of 10 subscribers are waiting for you to text them about their subscriptions.
So your customers are asking for transactional SMS to manage their subscriptions, but what are the other ways in which you can use this tool?
RechargeSMS Features
Communication is a two-way street, and RechargeSMS is the same way. This isn’t just about letting your customers know their order will be processed in three days—RechargeSMS lets subscribers interact with your brand via text message to make changes to their order. Here are a few other options our merchants are already providing their customers with through RechargeSMS:
- Real-time product swaps
- Seamless order skipping
- One-time product add-ons
- Shipping and order date changes
- Address changes
Sounds pretty good, right? But what’s a real life application, you ask?
Picture this: A subscriber gets back from vacation and realizes their cabinet is still full of coffee beans, even though the next shipment is coming in a few days. With RechargeSMS, all they have to do is pull their phone out while they’re grinding that morning’s coffee, and delay the next arrival of more dark roast.
With a simple text, their account updates without them ever having to log in to their customer portal. And then, they don’t have to think about their order again until it shows up on their doorstep—right before they need it, and exactly when they want it. This illustrates that utilizing RechargeSMS isn’t only for reactive updates on a customer’s order. It allows for customers to take the lead and proactively reach out if they want something to change.
This scenario has lasting benefits that transcend the ease of use for subscribers. Because RechargeSMS makes it easier to manage subscriptions, customers stay with brands for longer. In fact, customers that interact with their subscription through RechargeSMS increase their customer lifetime value (LTV) between 15%–30%.
We’re also seeing increasing average order value with the use of one-time product add-ons and as subscribers increase the amount of product in their regular shipment.
Why RechargeSMS increases LTV
Letting customers manage their subscriptions easily keeps things stress-free. Erica Berthold, Head of Marketing at Prepare Your Mind, shares their approach to this.
“PYM believes in being proactive with your mental health, and it’s important to our brand to make the subscription experience as stress-free as possible for our customers,” says Erica. “RechargeSMS allows us to give our customers the most direct control of their subscriptions. Modifying orders through a simple text empowers our customers to use our mood chews in the way that is best for them.”
RechargeSMS also integrates with best-in-class help desk solutions to automatically create a ticket anytime two or more messages come through that are not understood. Combined with the drop in Support messages received over forgotten passwords, this saves merchants time and money usually spent on Support.
GEM saved over $130,000 in Support by syncing their help desk with RechargeSMS. GEM Founder Sara Cullen says, “We’ve saved countless hours automating most of our customer requests by using RechargeSMS. We have automation at our fingertips, so we can focus on more of what really matters.”
Not only does simplifying your communication strategy get your relationship out of the inbox competition game, it saves your business time and money.
“The biggest value that SMS brings to subscription businesses is giving customers the ability to modify their subscriptions on the fly, instead of having to log in to their membership portal. We’re talking about cutting a three to four step process down to one swift move. Imagine the cross-sell and upsell opportunities that become more achievable by lowering the barriers in this way.
Your subscribers’ lives are hectic enough—the easier you make it to manage this piece, the happier they’ll be. Additionally, amidst the swirling unending chaos that is most peoples’ email inboxes, giving customers the option to receive order notifications on mobile means they’re less likely to miss important updates such as cut-off times. Set them up for success!”
Grace Everitt, Creative Director, Tako Agency
Real results, from real Recharge merchants
- A Recharge merchant selling a coffee subscription is seeing an increase of over 25% annual customer value with a subscriber taking any action over text via RechargeSMS.
- A Recharge Health & Wellness merchant is seeing a $10 increase in AOV across all subscribers who interact—in any way—with their subscription via RechargeSMS.
Customers want a lot out of today’s subscription services. RechargeSMS makes it that much easier for the brands subscribers rely on to fit seamlessly into the changes of their daily lives.
So how do you get RechargeSMS, you ask?
Because here at Recharge we believe our merchants deserve access to the best tools that will positively impact your business, we are offering RechargeSMS for free to all our merchants, regardless of which plan you’re on. (That’s right—free. Including no fees for messages sent via RechargeSMS).
Enable RechargeSMS today to your Recharge account.
