Sono Bello Increases Show Rates and Gains $1.5M in Monthly Revenue With Textel

Sono Bello Increases Show Rates and Gains $1.5M in Monthly Revenue With Textel

9% increase
in show rate

$1.5M in new incremental
monthly revenue

$250K in monthly revenue through text marketing campaigns

About Sono Bello
Patient experience is at the center of the Sono Bello brand. As an industry leader in cosmetic surgery, with 60+ locations across the United States, Sono Bello invests considerable resources into ensuring its prospects and patients receive the very best care, customer service, and treatment throughout the patient journey.

Industry: Cosmetic surgery specialists

Location: 60+ locations across the United States

Contact Center Size: 100+ seats

Use Case: Improve low contact rates, speed up agent response time, add text marketing for re-engagement & brand awareness

Problem

Every patient deals with the headache of appointments. Whether a prospective patient needs a consultation, or an existing patient needs to reschedule their check-up, the process of making appointments affects everyone.

In the past, the Sono Bello team relied on phone calls and emails to confirm appointments and to remind patients, make changes, or process cancellations.

Constant No-Shows

Despite sending confirmations and reminders, Sono Bello had an unacceptably high number of patient no-shows. Patients were simply not opening their emails or clicking portal or confirmation links.

With limited staff and time, each missed consultation was a lost opportunity to help someone in need of treatment. “Because our model is based on appointments, it’s critical to communicate easily,” says Tim Surowiecki, Chief Marketing Officer at Sono Bello. “Unfortunately, our patients weren’t picking up the phone or returning calls.”

Plus, phone calls lacked the privacy some patients needed. “Cosmetic surgery is a sensitive topic. Patients don’t want to say their age, weight, and body mass index out loud. They’re in meetings with coworkers. They’re out to lunch with friends. They want a more discreet way to provide this information. Text messages are perfect for that.”

Solution

  • Business texting enabled across all Sono Bello locations
  • Convenient, quick support over SMS, where patients can ask questions, reschedule, cancel, and follow up
  • Text-based marketing campaigns to engage new prospects
  • More efficient, empowering experiences for customer service agents

“We started getting inbound texts before even telling people about SMS support,” says Eric O’Brien, VP of Technology at Sono Bello. “As it turns out, our demographic is texting all the time.”

Today, customers receive appointment confirmations by text, and they can text back to confirm, reschedule, or cancel. Alongside other contact channels such as voice, Sono Bello customer service agents now text one-to-one with patients.

Before, Sono Bello staff could help only one patient at a time. Now, they support multiple customers at once by switching between text conversations. Plus, since SMS isn’t tied to Sono Bello’s open hours, patients can cancel, reschedule, or ask questions whenever they want.

Nothing falls through the cracks, and responsiveness is really great. We have two or three people available that can respond to patients quickly. If we leave our patients a voicemail, we might never hear back from them at all. Textel is a game-changer.

Eric O’Brien, Sono Bello

Result: More Patients & More Revenue

Many Sono Bello patients begin their journey by filling out a web form to get further information or schedule a consultation. From there, the Sono Bello team uses Textel to automatically initiate personalized drip campaigns via text that patients can respond to.

Sono Bello also launched a same-day text confirmation program for current patients. “We always had email reminders a couple of days out. But we felt like a simple day-of reminder would be helpful for patients,” says O’Brien.

As a result, show rates increased by a dramatic 9%, leading to 500 more “patient shows” per month and a $1.5 million increase in monthly incremental revenue. Similarly, Textel-enabled engagement campaigns generate $250K in incremental revenue per month.

“Nothing falls through the cracks, and responsiveness is really great. We have two or three people available that can respond to patients quickly. If we leave our patients a voicemail, we might never hear back from them at all. Textel is a game-changer,” says O’Brien.

About Sono Bello
Patient experience is at the center of the Sono Bello brand. As an industry leader in cosmetic surgery, with 60+ locations across the United States, Sono Bello invests considerable resources into ensuring its prospects and patients receive the very best care, customer service, and treatment throughout the patient journey.

Industry: Cosmetic surgery specialists

Location: 60+ locations across the United States

Contact Center Size: 100+ seats

Use Case: Improve low contact rates, speed up agent response time, add text marketing for re-engagement & brand awareness

HeartLine Spreads Awareness and Gains 20,000 Text Subscribers With Textel

HeartLine Spreads Awareness and Gains 20,000 Text Subscribers With Textel

Text subscribers gained

%

Text unsubscription rate

Streamlined operations and demographic data collection

About HeartLine
HeartLine is a non-profit service that connects Oklahomans to essential resources. With a database of 1,141 provider agencies representing 9,864 vetted services across 37 counties, HeartLine’s resource specialists connect community members in need to the help they need at any hour of the day. In the event of emergencies, like the COVID-19 pandemic, HeartLine is available 24/7, 365 days a year, to offer specialized triage and screening services. They also provide an online Community Needs Dashboard that serves as a tool for provider agencies and community leaders to identify trends, needs, and gaps in services.

Industry: Non-profit social services

Location: Tulsa, OK

Contact Center Size: 65-70 seats

Use Case: Increase brand awareness, streamline operations, compliant communications

Product: Textel Conversations integration with NICE CXone

The Problem: HeartLine Needed a Channel to Proactively Share Services and Resources With Their Community

In February of 2020, Eastern Oklahoma, still thawing from a debilitating winter storm that left thousands without water in Tulsa, faced mass shutdowns. Along with the rest of the country, Oklahoma was navigating the unknowns of the early COVID-19 pandemic and an ensuing uptick in unemployment.

More than 100,000 people reached out to HeartLine for help in those first few weeks. Some needed assistance with utilities, and others with rent. And still more needed help accessing medical care.

Michael Coonfield, Director of Strategic Operations, and Ashlie Casey, Program Director for HeartLine, knew they needed to be more proactive in supporting and educating residents about the services that were most relevant to them.

“It’s those instances where we want to notify them of disaster relief resources immediately,” Casey explained.

They needed a way to promote their brand and to get information out to their community through a channel that would actually reach them — via text. And ideally, they were looking for a texting solution that would be able to extend the functionality of their existing contact center platform NICE CXone. They needed to simply add to the workflow they had in their contact center. And as luck would have it, the Textel integration with NICE CXone came to the rescue.

The Solution: With Textel, HeartLine was Able to Spread Brand Recognition While Supporting Their Workflow

Once Textel was implemented, HeartLine began building a texting contact list. They promoted texting at every touchpoint with their customers — on their website, in video, in their IVR messages, and with every caller. They saw immediate results, adding over 20,000 users to their text subscription list and retaining nearly all of them.

“Out of the 20,000 subscribers we send text messages to, we may get 40-50 people unsubscribe each month,” Coonfield said. “That’s only a 0.2% unsubscribe rate, which is fantastic for us. And we still have a whole lot more people sign up to replace the customers we’ve lost.”

To measure the impact of their texts, HeartLine would include unique links for each text message. This helped them know which messages make a difference. Texting their customers was working. They found that anytime they sent out a text message, they would quickly see a spike in web traffic and an increase in call volume. The word was getting out!

“We gained a lot of brand recognition when we added texting,” Coonfield said. “We could send our logo and social media links within a message, so our customers always associated our texts with our logo.”

Textel has allowed us to reach people instantly with information that can positively change their lives.

Ashlie Casey, HeartLine

And with greater recognition, their customers were noticing the wealth of information that HeartLine offered.

“There are a lot of customers subscribing to texts and engaging with our agents more than ever before,” Casey added. “Textel has allowed us to reach people instantly with information that can positively change their lives.”

Textel Helped HeartLine Streamline Their Operations

With the Textel Text Bot integrated in NICE CXone, HeartLine could speed up their processes as agents managed inbound texts. When a customer texts in, the Text Bot gathers the necessary customer demographic information, then routes the text to an agent to help with referrals, making for a smoother, streamlined operation.

“With the integration between NICE CXone and Textel, our contact center agents can easily manage texts in the same window they use for chats,” Coonfield explained. “So, they see no difference between the two skills. It fits right into our workflow!”

According to Coonfield, this lets them also be more strategic with their texts. If agents are slammed with incoming calls, texts can help to drive incoming traffic to the website or relieve agents of the monotony on the phone.

Textel Helped HeartLine Communicate Freely and Stay Compliant

HeartLine found ways to strategize their SMS campaigns. With Textel, they worked out a calendar to send blast text notifications so they could strategically reach their users during the busiest seasons.

By segmenting lists for outbound Blast texts, they can target a specific segment of their users, like a specific county, to communicate needs that are relevant to that region.

Then, depending on the text’s importance, HeartLine coordinates their social media marketing (Facebook, Instagram, etc.), newspapers, and news channels to align with the text notification, ensuring customers get the same information on all fronts.

In the meantime, HeartLine could trust that they were staying within TCPA compliance using Textel’s opt-in/opt-out management tools. When a user unsubscribes, Textel automatically removes those customers from the master list, keeping HeartLine legally in the clear.

The Result: With Textel, HeartLine Expanded Brand Awareness and Text Adoption

Gained 20,000 text subscribers.

After they added texting, HeartLine saw their contact list grow exponentially, gaining 20,000 text subscribers. This let them expand their outreach, offering more essential resources and information to their community.

Lowered unsubscription rate to 0.2%.

HeartLine noticed the popularity of texting with their customers, seeing only a 0.2% unsubscription rate with their texting list. Using Textel, it was easier for them to offer value to their customers, reaching customers in their preferred channel of communication.

Streamlined operations and demographic data collection.

With the help of the Textel Text Bot integration in NICE CXone, HeartLine could rely on automations to gather essential customer data before routing the customer to a live agent. They were also able to stay compliant using opt-in/opt-out tools to manage their subscription list.

About HeartLine
HeartLine is a non-profit service that connects Oklahomans to essential resources. With a database of 1,141 provider agencies representing 9,864 vetted services across 37 counties, HeartLine’s resource specialists connect community members in need to the help they need at any hour of the day. In the event of emergencies, like the COVID-19 pandemic, HeartLine is available 24/7, 365 days a year, to offer specialized triage and screening services. They also provide an online Community Needs Dashboard that serves as a tool for provider agencies and community leaders to identify trends, needs, and gaps in services.

Industry: Non-profit social services

Location: Tulsa, OK

Contact Center Size: 65-70 seats

Use Case: Increase brand awareness, streamline operations, compliant communications

Product: Textel Conversations integration with NICE CXone

211 Virginia Sees a 400% Increase in Texting Adoption With Textel

211 Virginia Sees a 400% Increase in Texting Adoption With Textel

%

Increase in text adoption

Inbound SMS messages annually

#2 Channel (second only to voice)

About 211 Virginia
211 Virginia has served the Commonwealth for over 15 years, connecting the community with essential resources. 211 Virginia is a free and confidential service offering access to crisis and emergency counseling, disaster, food, health care, insurance, stable housing assistance, employment, veteran, family services, and more to a wide population. 211 Virginia is the Commonwealth’s largest information and referral network available for social services. With an easy-to-remember three-digit dialing code, 211 Virginia connects people with help, 24 hours a day, 365 days in the year.

Industry: Non-profit social services

Location: Roanoke, VA

Contact Center Size: 25-50 seats

Use Case: Reduce call volume, increase text adoption

Product: Textel Conversations integration with NICE CXone

The Problem: Overwhelmed by a Surging Call Volume, 211 Virginia Struggled to Keep Up

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, 211 Virginia was prepared to meet the inevitable increase in community needs. By June 2021, the state of emergency was lifted, but another variant of the virus was on the rise. And the team at 211 Virginia saw an unexpected and dramatic rise in inquiries again. Relief services and eviction and utility moratoriums were set to end, placing thousands of renters in Virginia in a crisis. Then, with COVID numbers continuing to rise with the delta and omicron variants, 211 Virginia was in over their heads.

Their contact center was setting records for the number of inquiries they were receiving; their call volume was escalating.

As a result, abandonment rates skyrocketed, community needs were unmet, and their agents had to ultimately suspend collecting demographic data to keep up. Overall, 211 Virginia saw an 18% increase in call volume and a 34% increase in unmet needs through 2020 and 2021. They needed to find a solution to juggle the intake.

The Solution: 211 Virginia Team Added Texting to Reduce Call Volume & Solve Operational Pains

With such a significant increase in inquiries, 211 Virginia needed to find a way to lower its call abandonment rate and provide its inquirers with an additional, more flexible communication channel. Meanwhile, their contact center specialists were overwhelmed, drained by the endless incoming calls.

They turned to Textel for help. In May of 2021, the 211 Virginia team went live with texting, adding Textel to their existing NICE CXone platform in their contact center. In the first year, they saw an increase from initial inbound texts averaging around 580 texts to receiving an average of nearly 14,000 incoming texts. That bump in volume made texting their second preferred communication channel in just one year.

Specialists think of text as a little bit like a break from being on the phone. They don’t have somebody in their ear, but they’re still doing their job.

Margaret Telsch-Williams, 211 Virginia

Texting Supported Internal Operations and Employee Engagement

Textel’s product integrated with 211 Virginia’s existing NICE CXone platform. This made implementation and adoption simple. The contact center staff, varied in its age demographic, took on the learning curve of the new technology and found texting to be a helpful break from the phone.

Because of the nature of calls 211 Virginia receives, it’s important that their employees are mentally prepared to support crisis and emergency situations. “Specialists think of text as a little bit like a break from being on the phone,” said contact center director Margaret Telsch-Williams. “They don’t have somebody in their ear, but they’re still doing their job.”

According to Telsch-Williams, the community resource specialists look forward to handling incoming texts, avoiding the “wear down” and mental burnout parts of helping customers through crisis moments. Texting gave employees a breather and variety in their day, breaking the monotony of talking non-stop or listening to callers who are upset and stressed themselves.

211 Virginia said their texting inquiries take almost twice as long as a call to resolve. This may sound like an issue operationally, but in reality, the interruptions in a texting conversation made it possible for 211 Virginia to help more people simultaneously. Once they found a workflow, specialists could handle multiple text threads at the same time. And, the 211 Virginia team was able to care for multiple inquirers and support their own employees in the process.

Texting also fixed the problem of collecting demographic data. “We have a series of demographic questions we have to ask incoming callers,” Telsch-Williams said. “But when we got our texting set up so that it automatically asks those questions for us via text, that helped us greatly in terms of the duration of time that an inquiry takes. By the time a caller connects with a specialist, we already have so much information on the caller, allowing us to get to the heart of their needs right away.”

With texting, 211 Virginia was able to relieve some of the stress from their overwhelming call volume and streamline operations, driving efficiency in their contact center.

Texting Met the Unique Needs of the Community

211 Virginia’s mission requires them to be available at all hours in the day, every day of the year, to support anyone who calls. Often, their callers are in distress, navigating homelessness, job loss, and/or
financial and emotional stress. Many of their inquirers are feeling ashamed and anxious when they reach out to 211 Virginia. By adding texting as a channel, 211 Virginia noticed how texting supported their community’s unique needs.

“A lot of our inquiries are personal and confidential in nature. And some people are not doing well when they reach out,” explained community engagement manager Amanda Holcomb. “Many are ashamed in their situations, so it’s hard to ask for help. But it’s a lot easier when your identity is a bit more distant than with a voice having to share that information. Some people are more likely to send a text or a chat or an email than they are to call because it feels a little less direct.”

Telsch-Williams added that texting is helping their most vulnerable community members navigate a scary and stressful time in their life.

“We had somebody who was texting us from the bathroom of a hotel room. She was actively homeless, but was staying in a hotel,” Telsch-Williams said. “Her kids were in the bedroom area and she was texting us from the bathroom. She was crying, needing help, but didn’t want to be vulnerable or fall apart in front of her kids.”

“With texting, though, she could reach out for help and could do so quietly with us,” she added. “We were able to give her information on how to find housing and how to fix her situation. She didn’t know what to do. She had never been through this before. But because she could reach out over text, she was able to have that moment away from her kids to breathe, problem solve, and still receive help.”

The Result: With Textel, 211 Virginia Cut Down Call Volume and Boosted Efficiency

Increased text adoption by 400%.

211 Virginia saw their texting skyrocket in just one year. The organization went from averaging 579 inbound SMS messages annually to 13,838 messages annually. Inquirers were eager for a channel that offered more flexibility than live chat or a phone call and more anonymity when navigating crisis situations.

Texting became the #2 preferred contact method, second only
to their phone line.

After one year of use, texting became the second preferred communication channel in 211 Virginia’s contact center. With overwhelming call volumes following the COVID-19 pandemic, inquirers could choose texting as a more flexible channel to reach out for help and resources.

Streamlined operations and demographic data collection.

Since Textel is fully integrated into NICE CXone, their existing contact center platform, 211 Virginia adopted the new texting process quickly and easily. And with an added channel relieving their phone lines, the team reduced call volume, giving agents a break from the phones. They also figured out how to streamline data collection, creating a faster and more personalized user experience.

About 211 Virginia
211 Virginia has served the Commonwealth for over 15 years, connecting the community with essential resources. 211 Virginia is a free and confidential service offering access to crisis and emergency counseling, disaster, food, health care, insurance, stable housing assistance, employment, veteran, family services, and more to a wide population.
211 Virginia is the Commonwealth’s largest information and referral network available for social services. With an easy-to-remember three-digit dialing code, 211 Virginia connects people with help, 24 hours a day, 365 days in the year.

Industry: Non-profit social services

Location: Roanoke, VA

Contact Center Size:
25-50 seats

Use Case: Reduce call volume, increase text adoption

Product: Textel Conversations integration with NICE CXone

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

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

%

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.

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