SkioSMS

Outline

• Overview
• SkioSMS setup and toll-free verification
• Analytics and history 
• Settings and customization

Overview

SkioSMS is our free, in-house SMS notification and subscription management system. It encompasses a wide range of features:

• 1-Way SMS notifications to send updates to your subscribers that are triggered based on certain events such as billing reminders or order confirmations.
• 2-Way SMS subscription management tool, which allows customers to take a wide array of actions (customizable) directly via SMS without needing to login to the online customer portal.
• A dedicated analytics and history page detailing your SMS notifications and customer interaction (if 2-way management is enabled). 
• Testing utilities which allow you to easily view copy changes and test the management tool as any customer via the dashboard. 

Why should I use it? 

SMS is the next evolution in customer engagement. With email open rates falling each year, on average, SMS opens up the door to ensuring your notifications are read by your subscribers. Email open rates tend to hover around 20-35% whereas texting open rates can reach 95%+ with opt-out rates typically less than 5%. 

Skio is focused on empowering our merchants to provide a frictionless subscription experience to their customers. Passwordless login is a great example of a feature that removes a common pain point for subscribers and our 2-Way subscription management tool is a great addition to your tool belt. 

Subscription management should be easy and the fewer pain points a subscriber has to manage their subscription, the more revenue that subscriber will bring in over time. Overall, the more a subscriber interacts with their subscription through edits and adjustments, the higher their LTV tends to be while also reducing their churn risk.

SkioSMS setup and toll-free verification

Our SMS services use Twilio toll-free numbers. When enabling SkioSMS, you'll be met with a popup detailing the setup process which details this process: 

This survey includes business and regulatory information required to obtain a toll-free number from Twilio. You can read more about Twilio toll-free number verification here.

Please note: Until this is done, the Twilio number will not be able to send any messages to customers. The status of this verification, once submitted, will be visible in the Settings tab on the SkioSMS page.

Analytics and history

1-Way SMS notifications 

In the notification section of the analytics, you'll be able to view an overview of the number of notifications being sent, as well as a breakdown by notification type and day. You can filter the notifications included in the daily breakdown using the dropdown on the right hand side of the page. 

2-Way subscription management

The 2-Way subscription management analytics detail an overview of the actions taken by customers using the subscription management tool. This is a great way to gauge usage of the tool and which management tools are most important/useful to your customers. Like the notification section, you'll be able to view breakdowns by both action type and day. You can also filter the actions in the daily breakdown using the dropdown on the right hand side of the page. 

Messaging history

You can view the messaging history (both notifications and customer messages sent while using the 2-way subscription management tool) at the bottom of the page. You can search for customers by phone number, email, or name. 

Note: If the customer has multiple subscriptions, the history viewer will not differentiate between those subscriptions so notifications will include those sent for all the customer's subscriptions. 

Settings and customization

SMS quiet hours 

To limit the window when notifications can be sent out to customers, you can configure SMS quiet hours.