Mobile Messaging has resulted in increased productivity, higher lead conversion rates and improved customer satisfaction at Hillarys Blinds.
Improved communications could mean curtains for the competition
Hillarys Blinds is the UK’s largest manufacturer of made-to-measure blinds and window dressings; processing over 6,000 orders and manufacturing nearly 35,000 blinds every week.
Customers appreciate the individual service offered by Hillarys’ sales advisors who visit the customer’s home, recommend on suitability of style and fabric for their windows and take accurate measurements. They then process the customer’s order right through to final fitting.
A more efficient sales team
Providing a personal customer experience is a proven business strategy for Hillarys – over 85% of turnover is generated by the sales advisors.
The Company recognises the importance of technology and good communications and has invested extensively in every area of the business to optimise efficiency and improve business-critical communications.
Paul Mellors, ICT Systems Engineer at Hillarys, spoke about the business drivers for implementing a text solution; “We wanted to provide our mobile Sales Advisors with an alternative to phoning. It’s not always convenient for people to receive a phone call and leaving a message causes delays. People are familiar with text, it’s unobtrusive, direct, instant and private and for a business, it’s a very cost effective way of communicating with customers.“
Mobile messaging is a key part of Hillarys mobile communication strategy
ProcessFlows supplied a server-based SMS messaging solution, Text Message Server, to Hillarys, integrating it with the existing SAP and email systems to enable the sending/receiving of text messages from within these familiar environments.
Paul comments, “Our investment in communication technology has definitely enabled us to process customer orders more quickly and deliver even better customer service.”
“ProcessFlows Text Message solution was easy to integrate with our existing systems and it’s simple to use. Our Sales Advisors now maintain regular contact with head office support, without spending a lot of time talking on the phone.”
Paul Mellors
ICT Systems Engineer, Hillarys
The latest upgrade has enabled Hillarys to customise their text messages with a unique ID
An alpha tag (often referred to as a message header or sender ID) allows Hillarys to ID their outbound text messages with text (or numbers) which will appear as the ‘from’ address on the recipient’s handset. The customer knows immediately that the message is from Hillarys Blinds or Web-Blinds, so the message is less likely to be missed or deleted.
Alpha tags are also great for SMS marketing, Hillarys are able to use theirs for marketing campaigns and very easily track the success of each campaign.