SMS - The Moneyball of Customer Communications
Jonathan Walsh
CPaaS & Mobile Messaging. SMS, Email, WhatsApp. Country Head - Leading APAC Growth
I've just ticked over 8 months with Esendex and I continue to be blown away by the passion of the people, the benefits we deliver to customers day-in, day-out, and the effectiveness of the humble SMS in the customer journey.
Those that know me well, actually even those that don't know me particularly well, will know that away from business, I love sport and I love a good statistic. It will come to no surprise to anyone that when Moneyball, a book by Michael Lewis, was released in 2003, I rushed to the shops to buy it and read it in a day.
Later released as a movie starring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, Moneyball is a true story, about the Oakland Athletics professional baseball team and General Manager Billy Beane. The A's had the 3rd lowest payroll in the MLB, it's budget was just one third that of the New York Yankees, and through statistical analysis and theory they were able to assemble a competitive team that ultimately reached the playoffs, despite its modest budget.
Beane valued On-Base percentage above almost anything else, at a time when sluggers/hitters were being overvalued by other teams. The data supported it, on-base percentage was a predictor of wins, the only thing that home-run percentage predicted was significant growth in salary.
On-Base and Open Rates
A player that is regularly walked, and more often than not gets to first base might not be as sexy as a player that can semi-regularly hit a ball into the bleachers, but if you're on-base, you're not out, if you're not out, you increase your chances of getting to the home plate.
SMS (on-base) might not be as sexy as Email or Social Media (the slugger). But open rates of up to 95% are what make it one of the most effective channels for customer communications. The first and most important objective of any communication is that it is received, SMS performs better than most.
As it was for Billy Beane, the theory is simple, but it works. The more people that see your message, the faster they can take action, the bigger the impact on your business, the larger the ROI.
If you are curious to learn more, I'd be more than happy to have a chat.
#sms #customerexperience #digitaltransformation
Data visualist (Tableau/PowerBI), aspiring coloured pencil artist, men's health & wellbeing advocate, & highly interested in personal fulfilment.
4 年I have only ever seen about the last hour of the movie previously, so I decided to watch the full movie last night via Netflix. I'm not sure how well the movie aligns to actual events at Oakland during that season, but I noticed that the improvement in match results only came after Billy Beane became more personally engaged with the players. So was it just the use of On-Base percentage theory, or did a change in leadership style also contribute to their successful run to the top of the ladder at the end of the regular season?
Connector | Focusing on Outcomes | Optimist
4 年That's a great movie Jonno and I love the way you've used the analogy. Very clever! It makes perfect sense to me!
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4 年Insightful and interesting comparison! Yes, open rates of SMS are very high.
Innovation Lead @ 1st Locate
4 年Well 1. I now want to watch Moneyball and 2. great article Jonathan thanks for sharing.
Senior Sales Engineer at boost.ai - Delivering outstanding customer experiences.
4 年Excellent post Jonathan Walsh. Love the comparison and you are exactly right about SMS not being perceived to be that home run hitter but the stats say otherwise. Going to have to watch Moneyball now!