How SMS Automation helped Wine Selectors convert 51% of their snail mail contacts to email

How SMS Automation helped Wine Selectors convert 51% of their snail mail contacts to email

Snail mail, messages sent by post, can be costly, time consuming, and increases the carbon footprint of a company. That’s why many companies have opted to go paperless to reduce physical clutter and decrease delivery time and costs.

One study estimated that companies spend almost $8 billion on managing paper every year. While other big businesses have saved up to 3,000 hours of labour and 100,000 trees by going paperless.

The challenge, outside of internal operations—is asking for customer permission to switch. Reaching out to hundreds, if not thousands, of contacts can be time-consuming and frustrating using traditional approaches. Sending by post to ask a customer to switch is costly, while calls can go unanswered and emails left unread.

In the past two decades, text messaging has been the preferred form of communication. With an open rate of 98%, SMS is an immediate, cost-effective tool for businesses.

See how our client, Wine Selectors, used SMS automation and artificial intelligence to switch hundreds of their contacts to paperless invoices with only a few text messages.

The Client

For over 45 years, Wine Selectors has worked to bring their customers the best Australian wine, hand-selected by their expert Tasting Panel from boutique to big-name wine producers across many regions. They were recently named one of 2021’s Trusted Brands in Australian Wine Subscriptions, delivering curated wines, detailed notes, magazines, and exclusive offers and events straight to their customers' doors.

The Problem

A small group of Wine Selectors’ customers were still receiving their invoices via post, which is harder to manage and expensive. Asking customers for permission via email is not always the best solution. Customers may not check their emails for days and may also forget to reply. Others may have invalid email addresses, which result in bounces.

The Goal

Wine Selectors wanted to switch their customers over to digital invoices, which would be delivered by email. First, they needed their permission, and once they received it, they would also need to confirm the current email address on file or acquire a new one.

The Solution

Wine Selectors chose Conversr to help them contact their customers and update their email database.

Equipped with artificial intelligence, Conversr provides flexible template SMS conversations that can automate customer engagement. The beauty is that conversations feel as if they were exchanging messages with another human being. Conversations are intuitive, prompt replies, and deliver next steps.

At a fraction of the cost of traditional call centres, our platform helped Wine Selectors scale up engagement like never before. If Conversr can’t understand a reply, an agent is alerted to review the conversation or to call them.

There were two variations of conversations that were created:

1. For customers with an email on hand



2. For customers without an existing email in our database



The Results

Conversr helped Wine Selectors achieve remarkable engagement rates, with 68% of contacts responding to the campaign and 51% converting to paperless invoices.

What is also impressive is that Conversr helped update 28% of the contacts' emails and only 0.2% opted out of this automated SMS conversation.

We were looking for an efficient solution that allowed us to improve our ability to service our customers' needs. The implementation of Conversr did this and more; the results proved to be a game changer.

— Ian Wright, GM ICT at Wine Selectors

Want to learn more about Conversr and what it can do for your organisation?