You already know that SMS is more effective than email. That’s why you’re using it. But did you know that the SMS industry could be costing you customers – without you realising why?
That’s because the SMS industry is rife with hard-to-detect problems, causing SMS latency and unhappy customers. These days, customer expectations are higher than ever, and with the industry unable to track the quality of SMS routes – or verify delivery – your SMS delivery time could be losing you customers.
The worst part is that you might not even be aware of your true SMS delivery rates. In some cases, SMS aggregators generate fake delivery receipts (FDLR) when a message fails to deliver, feeding you false information about your SMS delivery.
In this article, we’ll explain how and why your SMS delivery time could be costing you customers, demonstrating how Augnet can fix those issues for good.
The importance of customer experience
For context, it’s important we don’t underplay the role of customer experience (CX). With 89% of businesses competing primarily based on CX, it’s literally a game changer.
Today’s consumer is discerning, demanding and short on time, which is why your business needs to provide a faultless service. Otherwise, you risk losing customers.
The need for reliable SMS communications is made even more necessary by the rise of A2P (App-to-Person) messaging. Fuelled by global trends, customers now rely on app activation codes, OTPs (one-time passwords), delivery updates and appointment reminders more than ever before.
When you combine A2P messaging dependency with consumers’ high expectations, the need for reliable SMS communications is greater than ever. Sadly, the SMS industry is letting you down, and here’s how…
How is SMS delivery time costing you customers?
Due to the SMS industry's lack of quality control, you could be losing customers. And one late message can be all the difference. According to PWC, 32% of people said that after just one negative experience, they would stop doing business with a brand they’d previously loved. Here’s how you might be losing them…
SMS supply chain issues
Currently, SMS messages are sent across a supply chain via multiple aggregators before reaching the local exchange, then the recipient.
On this supply chain, a high volume of routing alterations are made every day, which is known as Fast Frequency Transactional Trading. With each added step on the supply chain, the risk of SMS latency grows.
SMS latency normally comes down to supply chain issues, which is when the SMS provider or service operator encounters an issue that isn’t resolved quickly. If one provider has issues in the supply chain, your SMS may arrive late, or not at all.
Remember our impatient consumer? They’re likely to get frustrated and hit re-send – or give up entirely – if they have to wait for longer than 10 seconds for one-time passwords or activation codes.
Unreliable SIM Farm routes
There are other dark tactics at play, such as SIM farms, causing SMS latency and unhappy customers. Sometimes, a percentage of SMS traffic on the supply chain is blended with unreliable SIM Farm routes. SIM Farms are servers plugged-in with SIM cards that can automatically send A2P messages to thousands of people.
SIM Farms are unlicensed and less reliable than regular SMS routes. Whether you are knowingly or unknowingly using SIM Farms, you are not GDPR compliant and some digitally impatient customers will likely turn to other brands that offer more reliable SMS communications.
FDLR (fake delivery receipts)
While not technically a reason for SMS latency, FDLRs make it impossible for you to resend undelivered SMS and retain impatient customers.
It’s estimated that up to 1 in 20 messages come with fake delivery receipts. This is when one of the SMS aggregators in the supply chain fails to deliver your SMS but tells you that it was delivered successfully. These nefarious providers generate FDLRs to convince you their service is high-quality and you should keep using them. It’s not just you who they are tricking. Since it’s so hard to detect, it’s also everyone else in the supply chain.
In essence, those bad actors have thrown your message away and pulled the wool over your eyes. This makes it harder for you to accurately gauge the quality of your SMS communications.
Augnet: Helping you retain customers
At Augnet, we’re solving the SMS quality challenge by delivering the world’s first auditable SMS delivery system. In the current supply chain, there’s no way to monitor providers, verify SMS delivery or mitigate SMS latency. Augnet changes that.
With our SMS Aware algorithm, we analyse unique data points in real-time to ensure your SMS gets delivered by the quickest, most reliable, GDPR-compliant providers.. With our improved quality control, you’ll enjoy more satisfied customers and longer customer lifetimes.
In a nutshell, we believe your SMS should reach every target customer, from customers needing security authentication in real time to your patients needing urgent GP appointments. After all, SMS communications should be delivering results, not costing you customers.