b2c Archives - Textel

Valvoline Drives Revenue and Increases Coupon Send Rate by 76% With Textel

by Jenna Stephens | Aug 14, 2023 | Business Texting, Customer Experience, Service, Success Story, Texting

Increase in coupon send rate

Increase in coupon redemption rate

Decrease in average handle time (AHT)

About Valvoline
Operating for over 150 years, Valvoline is a global marketer and supplier of premium branded lubricants and automotive services. Ranked as the third best passenger car motor oil brand in the DIY market, Valvoline has powerful brand recognition, notable for its exceptional service and innovative motor oil technology. Valvoline’s operations are extensive, with approximately 1,400 quick-lube locations and with the second largest retail brand by number of stores in the United States. In addition to the services they provide in store, Valvoline also markets its own brands of lubricants and automotive chemicals.

Industry: Premium automotive lubricants and services brand

Location: 1,200+ locations across the United States

Contact Center Size: 230+ contact center agents

Use Case: Decrease AHT, increase customer engagement

Product: Textel Conversations integration with NICE CXone

The Problem: With a Struggling Coupon Program, Valvoline Needed a More Efficient Channel to Send Promos to Customers

Valvoline’s contact center agents have plenty on their plate. On top of answering questions and fielding customer inquiries, they’re responsible for building up Valvoline’s customer experience in some critical ways.

Through the company’s coupon program, their contact center helps customers save money by sending coupons based on a customer’s service needs, automobile type, and more. These can then be redeemed the next time a customer brings their car to a Valvoline retail location. The coupon program has supported the brand’s customer loyalty, providing value straight to its customers.

What’s more, it helps drive direct revenue. But their contact centers were struggling to get the coupons sent out efficiently using only email. With email, agents could only opt customers in for coupons using an integrated page pop-up on their CCaaS platform. Send rates were low at only 17%, and redemption rates hovered at a mere 8%.

“We were emailing all our discounts to customers,” Valvoline’s Joseph Patrick said. “Getting email addresses over the phone left a lot of room for agent error and bounce back, which hurt our redemption rate.” Patrick, the company’s technology manager over customer support at the time, said the inefficiencies and error rates were too great to ignore. So, they turned to Textel.

The Solution: Valvoline Added Texting to Their CXone Workflow, Boosting Revenue, Customer Engagement and Efficiency

Valvoline already used the NICE CXone platform to streamline its IVR and track its customer experience metrics. So, Patrick pulled the data to see if there were any trends in customer preferences. Reports revealed huge clusters of customer phrases like, “Can you text it to me,” and “Text me my coupon.” This, he said, proved the demand for texting options.

After we analyzed our call transcripts, we saw an opportunity to send out coupons to our customers via SMS text instead of just email.

Joseph Patrick, Valvoline

“After we analyzed our call transcripts, we saw an opportunity to send out coupons to our customers via SMS text instead of just email,” Patrick explained.

But, with such a massive volume, +4.5 million estimated customer interactions annually, Patrick wanted a solution that would integrate right into their existing technology, ideally connecting with the contact center platform they already used.

On a recommendation from NICE, Textel provided a quick, easy and trusted text messaging experience for Valvoline’s discount coupon program. And, we connected into their CXone system. Textel worked alongside Patrick’s team to enable business texting at all of their contact center locations, then decided to tackle the issues with the coupon program. In just four weeks time, Valvoline had launched their text messaging solution and started to see results.

Using MMS, Textel Helped Valvoline Streamline the Coupon Program

MMS messaging opened the door for a new solution to Patrick’s problem, giving agents a way to text picture coupons to customers. “Now, they can send picture coupons by text message in the same page pop flow they’re already familiar with,” he said.

To implement this, Patrick’s team used the existing pop-up page agents were previously using to send coupons over email and included a new option for MMS text messaging in the drop-down menu. Pulling in available customer data, the text creates a custom coupon that agents can send to the customer’s cell phone on record. And to cut down on wasted time, Patrick’s team set it so that the customer’s phone number was pre-populated, making it quick for the agent to send the coupon over.

Now, agents are texting location-specific coupons tailored to fit their customers’ profiles with just a couple of clicks. The results are both impressive and unexpected. According to Patrick, they noticed their first positive ROI on the project cost in just two weeks from the launch date.

First, they saw the coupon send rate increase 76%, while coupon redemption has also increased at Valvoline Instant Oil Change stores. The integrated SMS capability also led to some additional efficiencies in the Valvoline contact center. Their average handle time (AHT) decreased by 20 seconds since deploying SMS, accompanied by a 10-second decrease in holding queue time.

“When you’re answering 200,000 calls a month, a 20-second improvement in AHT is very significant,” Patrick said.

With a 90% swing to prefer SMS over email, Valvoline customers have shown they’ll use texted coupons when given a chance. “At the end of the day, it’s about making each contact center interaction better,” Patrick added. “It’s clear that the text option for discount coupons meets our customer’s preference for SMS. Overall, business texting has improved agent efficiency and service level, further enhancing our customer experience.”

The Result: With Textel, Valvoline Improved Customer Engagement & Operational Efficiency

76% increase in coupon send rate.

After adding the option for SMS coupons within their coupon program, Valvoline was able to make their program more efficient and saw a dramatic increase in the number of coupons sent to customers.

20-second decrease in average handle time (AHT).

Once they added texting, Valvoline’s average handle time for customer interactions decreased by 20 seconds. Their holding queue time also decreased by 10 seconds. The improvement of both metrics saved them time, allowing them to connect with customers faster and more efficiently.

8% increase in coupon redemption rate.

With more coupons being sent to their customer base, Valvoline was able to increase revenue in their contact center. Within just the first few weeks of adding texting, they saw an 8% increase in the number of coupons redeemed by customers.

Industry: Premium automotive lubricants and services brand

Location: 1,200+ locations across the United States

Contact Center Size: 230+ contact center agents

Use Case: Decrease AHT, increase customer engagement

Product: Textel Conversations integration with NICE CXone

Making the Most of Each Message: 6 Tips to Writing a More Effective SMS Message that Catch Your Customers’ Eye

by Laura Krajewski | Jun 29, 2022 | Business Texting

Let’s take a walk down memory lane back to high school. You’re writing an essay for your English class and remember what your teacher had said about the introduction paragraph — it has to have a “hook.” Something needs to grab your reader’s attention or they won’t have a reason to keep reading.

Ok, so you’re not in high school English classes anymore (thank goodness!), but I’m here to tell you that you shouldn’t abandon that advice from your teacher. When you’re communicating with any audience, you want to make an impression. Especially when you’re trying to engage your customers, your writing needs to catch their attention and hold it.

This concept is especially important when you’re writing an SMS message to send to your customers. While SMS is a great channel in terms of reaching customers with speed and flexibility, you only have a handful of words to make the message truly worthwhile. With 160 characters or so to capture your customer’s eye, you have to make deliberate choices to make the writing effective. We’ve put together a list of six helpful tips to writing a more effective SMS message to make the most of each text sent.

>>Read Next: SMS Message Examples from the Employees of Dunder Mifflin Paper Company

6 Tips for an Effective SMS Message

1. Treat your first few words like a subject line.

When a text pops up on my phone, I can’t avoid the impulse to glance down and skim the first few words of the message. In just that glance, I can sense the tone and can decide whether I want to open that text right away or if it can wait. Is a friend in need? Does my sister need me to babysit again?

When you send an SMS message to your customers, always consider what they will see as the preview in their message inbox or on their notification screen. Treat the first few words as you would an email subject line: it’s the customer’s first impression before they open the text. Intentionally use powerful words (e.g., “explore,” “start,” “level up,” etc.), short sentences, or the customer’s first name through dynamic parameters to catch attention.

>> Read Next: 6 Tips to Harnessing the Power and Potential of Your SMS Marketing Services

2. Avoid confusing words and stay concise.

Just this morning I had a promotional SMS message from a politician pop up on my Apple Watch. The copy was wordy and the text was long. I don’t have time for that! Without a thought, I opened my phone and immediately deleted it. Attention spans are short, so when you send a text to your customers, get to the point quickly to ensure you capture their attention.

In general, the shorter the text, the better. That rule is especially when you’re sending a proactive text to your customers. Keep the copy between 75-115 characters, or 3-4 lines long. Make sure your texts still look professional and are easy to understand by all age groups. Once you use big complicated words, long sentences or unnecessarily abbreviate words, you’ll lose your audience.

3. Use visuals.

If the goal is to catch the eye of your customers, add in visuals where you can. MMS messaging makes texting customers much more interesting. Add in multimedia like images, GIFs, video, and audio to make your messages pop. Images are a fun way to give your messaging personality and flair.

Create attractive graphics that catch your customers’ eyes if they’re quickly scanning a text.

Graphics can be used to communicate important information like discount codes or upcoming sales. When you add movement to an image — like as a GIF — this too will make your text stand out.

4. Express gratitude.

The customers on your opt-in list are likely to be some of your most loyal. And your loyal customers want to feel valued and cared for. So why not use every opportunity you can to express your thanks to them?

When you send a text out, make sure your customers feel appreciated. Use expressions of gratitude in your text copy to build a connection with your customer base, even when you’re just sending an appointment reminder or a discount code. Add in phrases like “you’re the best, we appreciate you, your loyalty has paid off, thanks for being our customer” to boost engagement and interest in your brand and in your SMS message.

>> Read Next: The 5 Best Practices for Texting Customers (Without Spamming Them)

5. Use timely language.

Part of capturing your customers’ attention is to use some urgency in your writing. Powerful, emotional words and short sentences can effectively communicate when there is a time-sensitive event like a sale or low-inventory. Plus, most of your customers are going to be on the go when they receive your message. To add timely language in, use phrases like “this weekend, starting now, almost over, today only” so your customers want to open and read your text right when it shows up on their phone.

6. Assume your customer knows nothing… but also that they’re not stupid.

There’s a fine line between coming across as helpful to customers and being patronizing. The tone of a message can determine whether your customers stick around or not. Avoid over-explaining and address your customers like they’re adults…because, more than likely, they are! You don’t have to start at square one when explaining your product or a sale to your customers, but keep the language accessible.

Be mindful when writing copy for your customers to not make them do additional work just to understand what they’re reading. Write instructions and descriptions simply and logically. Then, read and re-read before sending. Send a test text out just to your team internally to make sure the message hits right. Or, test it on a safe outsider to the brand to get their first impression before you blast it to hundreds of your customers.

Your customers want to connect with you. Read more about how to build texting into your customer journey for a long-lasting customer relationship.