Using WhatsApp Business To Conduct A Text Survey

Are you looking for a fast, affordable and efficient way to gather customer feedback? A text or SMS survey might be the ideal solution. Small business owners can particularly benefit from the targeted market research and client feedback that text surveys can provide.

You could use a text survey to gather feedback on new ideas, measure customer satisfaction, and gain valuable comments, criticisms and observations from your contacts. So, let’s dive straight in. What are text surveys, how do they work on WhatsApp Business, and how can you set one up? We’ll cover the benefits, best practices and top tips to help abide by WhatsApp Business’ rules to avoid getting banned.

What is a text (SMS) survey?

Text surveys allow you to capture feedback from customers or clients via text message. You can gather feedback through questions that the customer replies to via text or through a URL link included in the text message. The participant clicks the link and enters their feedback via a survey form.

How do text surveys work on WhatsApp Business?

Text surveys are simple to put together using a third-party survey service. Once your survey is ready to share, you can send a survey invitation link within WhatsApp Business using the Broadcast feature. Your contacts can then open the URL and complete the survey in the web browser on their phone.

How to send a text survey on WhatsApp Business

WhatsApp Business allows you to send polls in group chats, but doesn’t have an in-built text survey feature. Find out how to send polls on WhatsApp’s FAQ pages.

Luckily, plenty of third-party apps will allow you to create text surveys to send. Please note that YourBusinessNumber has not reviewed the third-party apps below.

Sprinklr

Sprinklr provides AI-powered insight software to help turn data into actionable steps to make businesses more customer-centric. Their HSM template functionality allows you to create a fully customised survey to send via WhatsApp Business.

Find out more about Sprinklr.

SurveySensum

SurveySensum offers objective-based templates to guide you through setting up your survey, including Net Promoter Score, Star Rating, Customer Effort Score, Custom CX, Customer Satisfaction and Satisfaction with Contact Center. You can add your branding and share via URL on WhatsApp Business.

Find out more about SurveySensum.

SurveySparrow

SurveySparrow is an all-in-one Omnichannel Experience Management Platform. They offer a simple drag-and-drop form builder that can include images and videos, plus customisable templates. Once your survey is built, share the link to it on WhatsApp Business.

Find out more about SurveySparrow.

Types of text survey

Service feedback

If your business is service-based, you’ll want to ensure your customers are satisfied after every interaction. If they’re not, a text survey provides a chance for them to have their voice heard, and for you to rectify the situation before it gets out of hand.

Product feedback

If you sell products, surveys are a great way to make sure you’re hitting the mark every time. Ask for feedback on existing products or gather ideas that will delight your customers in the future.

Event feedback

Whether you host webinars online, live stream events or provide in-person experiences, a survey is an excellent way to make sure you’re meeting your audience’s expectations. Send a survey shortly after an event to ensure maximum engagement.

Delivery feedback

While it may be tempting to pass the blame for a bad delivery experience on to the delivery service provider, ultimately, your customers will still associate it with your brand. Reaching out to customers lets them know that you care, and if you repeatedly receive poor feedback, it might prompt you to switch delivery providers to one that will enhance your brand experience overall.

Support feedback

A survey is a fantastic way to measure your support team’s effectiveness when it comes to helping your customers. Asking your clients to fill out a short form after every interaction can pinpoint any issues early, as well as providing valuable positive feedback to pass on to your team.

What are the benefits of text surveys?

Text surveys are superior to email surveys for a variety of reasons. Text surveys are:

• Affordable
• Easy to send to a large audience
• Generally answered quickly
• More likely to be opened than email
• Easily timed for maximum impact
• Ideal for collecting feedback and customer sentiment

Text survey best practices

Before you send your text survey, take a moment to review the best practices below. As with all marketing messages, your goal should be strengthening and growing customer relationships. Follow the guidelines below to ensure you’re consistently hitting the right note.

Send only to contacts who have opted in

Compliance is crucial when it comes to text surveys. Ensure you have permission to send marketing messages to every contact you include on your Broadcast list.

Keep it short and sweet

Make your message brief, clear and to the point to maximise engagement. If your brand has a distinctive tone of voice, try to work this into the message so that it sounds like it comes from the same voice as your regular marketing messages.

Add an incentive

Make it worth their while to respond by rewarding their feedback with an exclusive discount code or entry into a prize draw.

Aim for perfect timing

Try to send your text survey when your customer has your product or service at the forefront of their mind. For example, send the invitation message shortly after their purchase, visit or booking and ask if they enjoyed their experience.

Consistency is key

Your contacts need to know that text survey messages are genuine. Make sure you send every text survey from the same business number as you use for your communications with them.

Plan what to do with the data

As much as customers love to have their voices heard, you shouldn’t bombard them with requests for feedback. Create a firm action plan for using survey responses for business improvement so you can make the most of every interaction.

Text survey message examples

Not sure how to word your text survey invitation message? We’ve got you. Try these ideas below:

After an event

Hi there, we hope you enjoyed the webinar today. We’d love to hear your thoughts to help us make our events the best they can be: [URL]

We hope you enjoyed our event! On a scale of 1-10, how likely would you be to recommend this session to family and friends? [1 – Not likely at all, 10 – Very likely]

After a purchase

Thank you for purchasing [item name]! Your feedback means a lot to us, please let us know your thoughts: [URL]

Your [item name] was delivered yesterday and we hope you love it! Let us know how you get on: [URL]

After a delivery

Hi, your item was delivered today at 4:15pm. How did we do? Let us know: [URL]

Many thanks for your purchase of [item name] which was delivered on [date]. We’re working to improve our delivery service and your feedback is valuable to us. Complete this short survey to be entered into our monthly prize draw: [URL]

After a service

Thanks for your recent booking with [employee name]. We’d love to hear how you found our service. How satisfied were you with your experience? [1 – Not satisfied, 10 – Very satisfied]

We hope you loved your [service name]! Did we meet your expectations? [Reply Yes or No]

How to do a text survey using WhatsApp Business… without getting banned!

What are the top issues to consider when sending a WhatsApp text survey? You must ensure that your messages are:

• Only ever sent to opted-in contacts
• Are relevant
• Aren’t sent too frequently

At YourBusinessNumber we never condone using WhatsApp Business to send marketing messages to unknown contacts or groups that haven’t specifically given consent to receive them. If you do, you run the risk of a temporary or permanent ban, not to mention annoying your customers – which is the last thing you want to do.

The best way to send your survey link on WhatsApp is using the Broadcast feature. This allows you to send targeted messages in a ‘one-to-many’ format to specific groups of contacts. The recipients will receive the message sent via Broadcast as a standard, private message in their chats tab. Their reply will also appear as a standard one-to-one message and won’t be visible to other contacts in the Broadcast list. This is ideal for collecting feedback.

So, what’s the risk? WhatsApp’s anti-spam policies are strict, so you must ensure you abide by the Terms of Service document in order to avoid temporary bans. The two most important points are to make sure you secure opt-in permission from contacts before you send marketing messages and only send infrequent, relevant and high-quality messages.

In practice, this means splitting your Broadcast messages into batches and limiting the number you send on any working day.

If you have a brand-new account, it’s worth ramping up your activity over time. Start with fewer Broadcast messages, then slowly increase once your account is well-established and no longer under so much scrutiny from WhatsApp’s screening features.

Finally, always send survey requests to known contacts who have opted in to receive promotional messages and have added your business phone number to their saved contacts.

How can I send Broadcasts on a larger scale?

The Broadcasts feature on WhatsApp Business works well for sending to smaller numbers of contacts, but what if you need to send to a larger group? The WhatsApp API offers Enterprise level users a better solution if you’re looking to send Broadcasts to 100s of 1000s of customers.

Find how to get started with the WhatsApp Business Platform.

How can I get started with WhatsApp Business?

We’re glad you asked! Now is the perfect time to unlock the power of WhatsApp Business and watch your sales soar. Plus, with your work and personal WhatsApp messages housed in separate apps, you can create a better work-life balance for yourself.

So, how do you set up WhatsApp Messenger and WhatsApp Business on the same phone? Believe it or not, you can have both apps installed and working on the same phone, but you can’t use the same number for both. That’s why we created the perfect solution.

With YourBusinessNumber, you can generate a brand-new second virtual phone number to verify your WhatsApp Business app. In just three clicks, we’ll send your new number via SMS message, so you can get your new Business account set up straight away. Plus, with a low monthly cost, flexible contracts and a dedicated customer support team, you’ll stay in complete control.

So don’t wait a moment longer! Get started and generate your new number today.