Fast growing retailer TISSINI uses NetSuite SMS integration
A fast growing retail business needs reliable communication, and TISSINI achieved this with SMS integrated with NetSuite.
Securing tenth place for retail in the Inc. 500 Most Successful Companies in America list is a great achievement. However, it’s even more significant for TISSINI, a for-profit social enterprise that assists US Hispanic women. TISSINI’s clients, ‘Emprendedoras’ (meaning entrepreneurs), buy women’s clothing at wholesale prices and sell at retail. The earnings have helped thousands of Hispanic women work towards financial independence.
Effective communication with both Emprendedoras and end-customers is an important part of the business model at TISSINI.
“My personal mission is empowering women which, in turn, advances their families and improves society as a whole. We are always looking for better ways to help Hispanic women achieve financial independence through a single level direct sales model of quality products.”
“A part of achieving this is using an effective and reliable communication system with the women who join our business as Emprendedoras, and also for their end-customers. We find text messaging from the NetSuite platform is a great means of communication because it’s so reliable and the automation saves so much time.“ Sion Tesone, Founder and CEO, TISSINI
Challenges
Recognising that SMS was critical to client and end-customer communication, TISSINI originally had an alternate system in place to send text messages from within the NetSuite platform, however, it proved highly unreliable.
“Sometimes we thought we’d sent 1,000 messages but only 100 actually went out, or a customer sent a response to a message that we didn’t receive,” says Fernando Delgado, Software Development Engineer at TISSINI.
TISSINI decided to integrate MessageMedia SMS messaging into the existing NetSuite platform and, as a result, was able to send messages for a number of use cases with complete reliability.
By setting up automation within NetSuite, almost all text messages are automated. TISSINI staff no longer have to spend time and effort worrying about ensuring that messages reach Emprendedoras and end-customers as intended.
Use Cases
TISSINI uses SMS to send a range of notifications and communications to Emprendedoras and end-customers.
- When an end-customer makes a purchase, they receive an automated SMS to thank them for their purchase.
- The end-customer receives an SMS when their item is shipped, and they can track the item from the link within the SMS.
- A promotional SMS is automatically sent on the end-customer’s birthday.
Benefits
Reliability: Reliability is critically important to TISSINI, especially given the unreliability of the previous system. “With MessageMedia, if I send you a message, I know you’ve received it. Reliability is important,” says Mr. Delgado.
Automation: Automated messaging not only provides a huge saving in time and resources, but also improves TISSINI’s communications to customers. There is no need for TISSINI staff to manually manage notifications, such as delivery tracking, birthday promotions or other communications, instead relying on the system to create and dispatch these messages when required. “We automate many things, which saves a good deal of time. Can you imagine checking every day for customers’ birthdays and sending a message? We prefer automation so virtually everything is seamless and immediate,” says Mr. Delgado.
Better customer experience: Tracking notifications gives end-customers clarity of the progress of their items, as they can check their shipment at any time, which improves the customer experience.
Metadata for two-way messaging: Message metadata is particularly useful for TISSINI’s two-way messaging. When a customer replies to a TISSINI message, such as a voucher or promotion, all replies have the metadata of the outbound message attached to them. The customer may take a week to respond to a particular message, but the metadata indicates to which message the customer is replying.
“MessageMedia has a great feature we use – metadata. When we send the message, we attach metadata. If TISSINI sends you a coupon today and you respond a week later, we have the context of the message from the metadata, which is very useful. When you have the right information, you know what the customer is messaging about and can respond faster,” says Mr. Fernando.
One single interface: With SMS integrated into the NetSuite platform, any interaction with SMS (if it is not already automated) is performed within the NetSuite desktop, without the need to leave the platform to send and receive text messages.
Bulk messages: One of MessageMedia’s features used to great effect is bulk messages, which TISSINI reports is easy to use by simply loading a CSV file or the ID of a saved search, thereby sending bulk message to all required recipients.
Scheduled messages: TISSINI particularly likes the capability to schedule messages. For example, messages that need to go out on a Saturday are scheduled on a Friday with complete confidence that they will be dispatched as required.
Mr. Delgado concludes: “I enjoy working with MessageMedia. When we send a message it’s really fast, easy to send out, and we can send bulk messages. The metadata is really good, because we can attach it to a message, and when we receive it back, it tells us the context of the message.”
