Text Request Talks
5 Franchise Marketing Tips with Bin There Dump That’s Luke Hancock
Business texting can help your franchise location connect with more customers—but you need the right tactics in place.
We’ll show you how text messaging can increase your franchise’s local presence.
This article takes insight from our Text Request Talks podcast with Luke Hancock and further distills it into advice specific to texting. Hancock has been with Bin There Dump That for 10 years and serves as the Marketing Manager for their corporate office.
The following tips expand on how to meet the same franchise marketing goals that Luke does with text messaging.
Watch the full interview on YouTube.
1. Earn reviews by text to increase your presence on Google.
Bin There Dump That has over 250 franchise territories, and Hancock is responsible for helping each of their individual locations stand out in local Google searches. The goal is to be at the top of the list every time a customer searches something like “dumpster rental.”
So how does he make this happen?
Online reviews are key to ranking first in Google searches. The more reviews, especially positive reviews, your franchise location has, the more likely you are to beat out competitors with little or no reviews.
That’s why Hancock recommends for Bin There Dump That locations to use Text Request’s Reviews feature to:
Connect your Google Business page to Text Request
Insert custom reviews links into your texts asking customers for feedback
Monitor and respond to oncoming reviews from inside Text Request
Having a strong presence on Google requires requesting and collecting a ton of online reviews—and texting is one of the easiest ways to get your review link in front of current customers. Just text each customer after you’ve completed service to ask them for a review.
2. Mass text seasonal promotions to previous customers.
Your franchise has seasons where your services become a hot commodity. Bin There Dump That, for example, tends to see sales spike at the end of the year, as people are trying to get excess trash out of their garage before the winter comes.
Hancock uses these busy seasons as an opportunity to mass text promotions to previous customers and capture more business. Mass texts work like BCC email, so any responses become one-on-one conversations that customers can then use to schedule their next service.
Bin There Dump That customers don’t always need dumpsters, and so that’s why Hancock commonly sends one mass text a quarter. You should spread your own mass texts out accordingly, so customers don’t feel bombarded.
Hancock says that if you have a bunch of contacts opt out of your texts at once, you’ll know you’re sending too many. That’s why one promotion every quarter or busy season is preferred.
3. Text customers for deliveries, dispatch, and updates.
Customers need reminders, or they forget. Sounds simple, but Bin There Dump That locations save numerous hours a day when customers are prepped for dumpsters to be delivered or returned. This also makes the customers’ overall experience smoother, which in turn leads to more positive word-of-mouth marketing.
Send SMS updates for dispatch, so customers know when you’re coming and can text you questions if they need assistance. This is also helpful if you’re running late, or a customer realizes they need to reschedule.
When communication is instant and easy like this, you’ll provide great customer service and experiences that lead to more positive reviews, too.
4. Funnel franchise leads to the right location with SMS Chat.
A byproduct of having so many franchise locations is needing to direct new customers to the one that is most convenient for them. Hancock does this by having an SMS Chat widget on the corporate Bin There Dump That website.
SMS Chat is a widget that prompts website visitors to start text message conversations with you. Your replies become texts to the potential customer’s phone, and their contact info is saved for future follow-ups.
When people chat into Bin There Dump That home office looking for service, Hancock’s team will ask what location the customer is in, and then connect them with the appropriate location. That's a great bit of customer service!
5. Gather insights from existing customers’ texts.
There’s a gold mine in your customer text conversations. They can tell you what your customers' actual needs are, so you can adjust your marketing, sales, and workflows accordingly.
That’s why Hancock advises franchisees to pay close attention to the kinds of texts their customers are sending. You're looking for certain questions customers are asking, problems they're experiencing, or other insights that help you better understand your market—and thus better serve your customers.
Text Request saves all your messages, so you can generate reports using message tags. A message tag is a label that you create and attach to your texts to categorize them based on thing like:
New pain points
Potential leads
Customer feedback
And more
Create as many tags you need for the types of conversations you’re seeing, and you’ll start to identify where there’s room for growth.
How Else Can Text Messaging Help Your Franchise Location Grow?
The above are just a few quick tips—but we have an entire in-depth franchise text messaging playbook for those who want to build their SMS strategies from the ground up.
Our business texting software has boosted hundreds of franchise locations’ and their corporate offices growth, and we’re ready to help yours next!
