What Comprises an SMS Survey?
Similar to other surveys, the core of a text message survey is to gather information from your users. SMS or text marketing experts create a short survey tailored to the information they need and send it to their respondents through an SMS survey tool.
People check their messages frequently, which grants an SMS survey a high open rate. Whether you are looking for customer feedback about a product or customer satisfaction, an SMS survey offers effective convenience and real-time feedback while enhancing the outreach.
Why Do Businesses Must Use the Best SMS Survey Software?
Customer insights are the secret ingredients marketers, product owners, managers, and almost everyone on the team will want. These insights provide a clear headway whether you want to build marketing campaigns, improve existing products, or acquire customer feedback.
While building Qwary, we have been using SMS surveys for several reasons, including;
- Cost-Efficiency: SMS surveys are most cost-efficient when compared to other types of surveys. Using an SMS survey tool, it’s easier to manage bulk SMS delivery and gather the results. More importantly, SMS surveys have a high response rate, given their ubiquitous communication.
- Speedy Response and Analysis: Provided you with SMS survey software, you can deploy these surveys instantaneously. Speaking from experience, this is better than forms of surveys such as IVR, emails, etc. Moreover, you can extract information from a vast group of users at once, which is not possible by sending emails or calling the customers.
- Streamlined Survey Delivery: Email surveys and calling through IVR can go unnoticed, but an SMS survey is hard to miss. As they also have a high open rate, these surveys maximize the chances of getting the responses you need from the target audience and improve your product further.
- Setting Up SMS Text Survey is Easy: Subject to the SMS survey tool you are using for the process, it's easier to create, launch, and collect these types of surveys. Plus, you can quickly analyze survey data using the same software.
- Impressive Customization: Not only is it easier to create surveys to acquire mass text data, but they are also customizable. With text marketing software, you can personalize the information shared and asked through the survey, enabling you to build customer-centric products.
- Lead Generation: Inbound SMS marketing helps acquire new customers by igniting conversations with potential leads. The sales representatives design and initiate SMS conversations, including promotional offers and requests.
Components of a Good SMS Survey Tool
To achieve good results, you will need an intelligent SMS survey tool through which you can not only send and receive text messages but also launch text message marketing campaigns. Add to that, choose an SMS survey tool that has multiple integrations and is enabled with automation.
Let me help you understand why you need all these things to run surveys via text;
- Customizations
I have seen first hand that personalized SMS surveys are better. Customizing the SMS content and approach yields better results as we are now asking specific questions to the relevant audience. This brings higher engagement and more accurate data.
However, effective customization is possible when you are using a good text messaging platform. So, always segment your audience based on demographics, issues faced, purchase history, etc, to collect customer feedback.
- Branding
Company-branded surveys are trusted more than the ones sent without any branding elements. So, your tool should be able to personalize the survey design to reflect your brand values.
Within this, maintain a consistent branding structure throughout the survey to create a seamless user experience.
- Deliverability of SMS (Method and Quantity)
The text messaging marketing software you choose should have a robust messaging infrastructure, ensuring high deliverability rates. Depending on your customer base, choose software that can send surveys across your customer base multiple times without any limitations.
Here I will recommend you look for features like carrier routing and retry logic to ensure the survey platform you choose can help you reach the target audience.
- Integration Capabilities
Prefer using SMS survey tools that can integrate with your CRM, marketing, and other business tools you are using. Ensuring this means you can eliminate manual data entry and seamlessly transfer survey data for analysis.
Such powerful features and integrations will improve customer feedback. Built-in analytics can help correlate data with customer information and extract deeper insights for targeted marketing strategies.
- Reporting Capabilities
You don’t have any use for raw data if the tool you choose does not have reporting features. Go for a tool that has in-built data visualizations, including charts and graphs. This will make understanding the data and extracting key takeaways easier.
More importantly, you will need a tool that has filters. Yes, always check the range of data filtration in the tool of your choosing. You will need to know data according to metrics like completion rates, response times, etc.
- Pricing Structure
Don’t be too rigid with your budget for a business text messaging tool. Look for the tools that provide the most value. The majority of the tools you use will have a tiered pricing structure wherein you will get monthly text SMS credits. Choose a solution whose plan aligns with your needs and where you will get the most relevant features at the least cost.
8 Best SMS Survey Tools to Choose From in 2024
It all comes down to this… Out of hundreds of software, which are the top 8. Let’s find out. Rest assured that I have considered all the aspects of a great SMS survey tool before making this list.
Qwary revolutionizes SMS surveying with its built-in features and AI capabilities. With AI, you can launch responsive SMS surveys, wherein your customers will interact with the brand in real time.
Using Qwary, you can use your official or personal phone number to send SMS. We use Twilio to integrate your chosen phone number with an SMS survey tool. Sending surveys through a dedicated number can quickly boost your survey response rate as we have several business-friendly and customer-centric features, including;
- Smart SMS scheduling
- Event-based triggers to launch surveys
- Dynamic conversations with personalized content and resources
With Qwary, you can also run a two-day dialogue, effectively boosting engagement and customer buy-in.
Pricing:
Qwary has two plans, Started ($199 per year) and Enterprise (Custom Pricing structure). In both, you will get all the SMS survey capabilities without limitations.
An online survey software, QuestionPro, has proven to be one of the best SMS survey tools. Using this, you can create and send surveys in real time while analyzing the results as they come through.
Create new surveys from scratch or use one of their 350+ templates. Analyze results with advanced features like skip logic, text piping, survey looping, and branching.
Key Features
- Dashboards to view survey responses with a wide range of filters.
- SMS survey results reporting based on TURF analysis.
- Surveys with multimedia support to enhance its aesthetics.
- Question branding capabilities ensure you get accurate responses.
- Two-way factor authentication to receive surveys only from actual customers.
Pricing:
Four different plants:
- Free
- Advanced: $99/month
- Team Edition: $83 per user/month
- Research Edition: Price on Request
Despite all the good things about QuestionPro, there have been complaints regarding their data analysis and availability of SDKs. Plus, using the solution is a bit complicated, and you will find similar issues with its pricing structure, which takes some time to grasp.
SurveyMonkey is one of the best names in the survey industry, and its SMS survey data collection capabilities are impressive. Using the SMS survey tool in SurveyMonkey allows you to send time-sensitive texts at the right time. Send bulk SMS to know customer satisfaction, get feedback, and much more.
Key Features
- Set triggers to send and receive SMS for different events like employee onboarding, post-purchase, etc.
- Synchronize customer data with the Active Directory automatically.
- Create mobile-optimized SMS campaigns and make changes to get higher response rates.
- Send surveys on the go to receive accurate feedback when the experiences are fresh.
Pricing:
Three different plans
- Team Advantage: $25/user/month
- Team Premier: $75/user/month
- Enterprise: Price on Request
SurveyMonkey has a number of in-built survey collection tools, but managing all is complex. Moreover, you cannot ask complex questions through this SMS marketing solution as it will also complicate the navigability.
TextMagic is one of the best SMS survey software in 2024, meant to help you receive valuable customer feedback on services and products. It boasts a quick setup to send surveys and also allows scheduling them to receive text messages after a particular event.
Key Features:
- Create SMS surveys with six templates based on different purposes for collecting customer feedback.
- Use the TextMagic dashboard to analyze your survey performance, deliverability, and responses.
- Using essential keywords in customer responses, TextMagic can generate automatic replies as responses.
Pricing:
TextMagic is a dedicated SMS chat software which charges per text, which is $0.049 per text. This means for SMS campaigns with at least 100 messages, you will be charged $4.90.
Given their pricing structure, sending surveys via SMS can get costly, especially when compared to other solutions. Plus, I feel that six templates will limit the variety of surveys you can create.
A fantastic tool to extract text message survey responses, SurveySparrow will let you create conversational feedback forms that are known to have a higher response rate. You can also customize survey designs and use white-label survey services with impressive customization capabilities.
Key Features:
- Use in-built survey reporting tools for analysis and performance tracking.
- Schedule surveys to run automatically periodically.
- Use the integrated Compare feature for a relative analysis of survey responses.
- Run surveys on your mobile device, adding to the task’s convenience.
Pricing:
SurveySparrow will reveal its pricing structure only after a user submits their email and phone number, which is not ideal. However, they have a 14-day free trial, so you can use it to check out all the features, ask for pricing, and then make a decision.
Besides the way they are asking for user information, there are complaints regarding their drag-and-drop functionality, which is not optimized for performance.
Another one of the renowned SMS survey tools, Zonka Feedback, is popular for letting users build text message surveys conveniently. It has a survey builder through which you can add any type of survey question and extract feedback from the audience.
Key Features:
- Use the skip logic and hide logic workflow to customize how the questions appear in an SMS survey.
- Use the white-label components to personalize surveys for your users.
- Automation-enabled multi-channel survey solutions with 100+ survey templates.
- Efficient feedback management compliments survey creation while enabling you to close the feedback loop.
Pricing:
Four pricing plans, Starter ($49/month), Professional ($99/month), Growth ($199/month), and Enterprise (Price on Request).
I had used Zonka Feedback for some time and one thing that always frustrated me was how I could not skip non-relevant sections while doing the surveys, especially when writing questions. Plus, I found that it has limited options for background animations.
A simple yet effective SMS survey builder to send mass text messages to your customers. Its a text marketing software that offers built-in options for sending alerts as well. You collect and manage survey responses while following up with the respondents.
Key Features:
- It lets you connect with people from your Facebook group and send SMS surveys, provided you have their contact information.
- You will get options like Business Texting, Franchise Testing, and Enterprise Testing in a single product.
- Two-way texting allows back-and-forth conversations through SMS.
- Send automatic texts at the right time based on event triggers.
Pricing:
SimpleTexting has a single plan costing $39 monthly if charged monthly. You can get a 20% discount on your yearly plan.
Now, with a tool that is only meant to send and receive text messages, you may think it cannot have many issues. But this one does. For one, the software by itself stops sending messages with a reason to prevent potential spam. The dashboard is not as intuitive as advertised.
TXTImpact, a USA based text messaging and SMS marketing software, has a wide range of features to let you communicate efficiently with your customers. Among the top software of 2024, this one is enabled with Autoresponder and trackable links to help you improve text marketing strategies.
Key Features:
- Two-way texting and trigger conditions are based on the responses received from the users.
- Access all social media networks in one place and communicate with your followers, subscribers, etc., from a single place.
- Manage text messaging design and wording as the solution lets you manage and control the survey format.
Pricing:
Single plan costing $65 per month.
The pricing of TXTImpact is higher than that of others on the list. What I feel that the user experience of creating, launching, and managing surveys could have been better.
Why Choose Qwary for SMS Survey?
Qwary takes the SMS survey experience to the next level, offering several unique functionalities. Here’s why you should choose Qwary;
- Multiple Delivery Methods
Send SMS surveys in different formats, including an anonymous link, text message, two-way text message, and Facebook Messenger. You can create mobile-friendly survey links and schedule bulk SMS sending to get the maximum number of users to respond.
- Conversational SMS Survey
Qwary provides access to the conversational survey, creating a more engaging experience for your users. The bot, which takes care of the SMS survey, creates a natural and conversational flow where the following questions are based on the user’s responses.
- Multiple Integrations
Qwary integrates seamlessly with CRM and helpdesk platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot, etc. Through these, you can trigger SMS surveys to run automatically at specific times and events and extract responses from customers while it is fresh in their minds. Using a Two-Way SMS gateway, you can create a real-time feedback loop.
Conclusion
SMS campaigns are not a thing of the past. From the SMS survey programs and solutions mentioned above, you can imagine the importance and utilization of this survey method for extracting user insights.
Customer insights, whether they are positive or negative, are instruments for any business to build better products and solutions. Plus, these surveys have a much higher response rate, so if you are not sending surveys via SMS, start now.
To learn more about the Qwary SMS survey tool and its capabilities, book a demo.
FAQs
- What is an SMS survey?
An SMS survey includes sending text messages to the user’s mobile phone. Through this, companies and organizations can collect feedback from the target audience using the accessibility and simplicity of sending an SMS.
- Are text surveys and SMS surveys the same thing?
Yes, the both are the same. In both, you take the survey to the user’s mobile operationalized through SMS campaigns and distinct motives. The surveys are users' questions regarding the products and services they are using to make changes according to the user’s preferences.
- Can I also use WhatsApp for SMS Surveying?
Yes, similar to using Facebook Messenger, you can also use WhatsApp for SMS surveys. WhatsApp surveys are even more cost-efficient and have a higher engagement rate than a simple SMS marketing survey. All the things you can do with an SMS survey can be done with a WhatsApp survey as well.
- Can I create and share a survey on iMessage?
You won’t have to do extra work to send an iMessage survey. The SMS surveys are routed through the network carriers. You have to create a survey once for each use case, and it will be sent across to the users irrespective of the devices they are using.
- How do I prevent my SMS survey from turning into spam?
Even if you have the best survey in the industry, repeated messages sent to the customers can considered spam. To prevent this, get explicit consent from the respondents about their participation in the survey. Plus, the messages you send should be brief and relevant and should be sent from a verified and recognizable sender ID.
