Preferred Market Solutions, LLC, Northfield, N.J., has added SMS texting capabilities to its Preferred Patron™ Loyalty Rewards Program Software with Integrated Email.
Users can deploy the new texting capability much as they have Preferred Market Solutions e-mail features, according to Brett Perlman, managing member and chief marketing officer, told Loyalty 360.
“Most people are texting today,” Perlman said. “When it comes to bulk texting, the rules engine is critical. When you think about SMS texting, you think about blasting an SMS text to all customers, which we easily do but, by tying the SMS texting functions directly into our loyalty marketing engine, a merchant is able to selectively market to a focused group of customers that meet the criteria of the promotion.”
The rules engine helps manage the communications in terms of messages, frequency and other parameters, Perlman explained.
Two loyalty program members of the same hotel group, for example, might have very different tastes, for example. One might be drawn to the chain’s lower-priced properties for budgetary reasons, while the other person might prefer some of the higher-end hotels due to the additional amenities. The loyalty and other marketing messages these loyalty club members need to be different, Perlman said. Similarly, the messages might be triggered for different reasons (e.g., birthdays, reaching or nearing different point levels, etc.).
Preferred Patron users can program the software to send out notifications as customers meet rules that users establish. The notifications will continue to run based off the schedule and frequency the merchant sets in the loyalty rewards program.
“We didn’t want to try to have all companies fit into the same box, just as companies shouldn’t treat all loyalty members the same,” Perlman explained. “Just because you start a loyalty program doesn’t mean you have loyal customers. You have to treat customers uniquely in the market place. Each person is a unique individual.”
The new SMS capabilities include other features as well:
The Preferred Patron Interactive Texting™ feature enables customers to “pull” information via SMS text rather than relying on marketers to “push” a text message. For example, if a customer wanted to receive a “daily deal,” he would send an SMS text to the merchant using a predefined “SMS action word” that the merchant creates in the loyalty system. Once the loyalty system receives the mobile originating message from the loyalty customer, it sends back the coupon information directly to the customer. Another example would be an event reminder whereby the customer wants to know specifics of a scheduled event they have setup with the merchant (e.g., doctor’s appointment).
Marketers can now use the application to send “one-off” mobile text messages with both pre-canned and custom messages. According to Perlman, this tool will be especially helpful for industries that need an easy to use, flexible and convenient way to connect with their customers, like an automotive facility that want to let its customers know that their vehicle is ready for pickup.