Using SMS Reminders to Connect With Donors

As a blood donor, I started in high school. What teenage kid doesn’t want to get out of one of the first periods of the school day, especially when it’s Algebra? I was so willing to get out of class that I had no problem donating blood to do it, so I didn’t need anything like a reminder call or a text message the day before. I didn’t really understand the importance of donating blood until I came to Incept, and I’m so glad I started giving at a young age.

There is a growing trend of mobile technology being more and more prevalent among not only young folks, but everyone! An astounding 98% of text messages are read, compared to 22% of emails, 29% of tweets, and 12% of Facebook posts. It’s even more impressive when you consider that 75% (roughly 4.5 billion) of the mobile phones worldwide are SMS enabled!

With this in mind, Incept has been an innovator over the last few years in pioneering the use of SMS reminders for our client’s blood donors.

How Does It Help Blood Donor Recruitment Efforts?

Naturally, with the decline of people who use landline telephones, we often find ourselves calling a blood donor’s cell phone. Once we set them up with an appointment to donate in their community, we have the ability to schedule an automated text message to be sent out to their phone.

Our SMS Reminders system really goes a long way towards personalizing the call too. If they feel apprehensive about scheduling, since they have no way to capture the appointment information, we can send them our reschedule line in a text message a whole 24 hours, as well as 2 hours, before their appointment. We can also input information, such as location names and websites that can guide them.

Overall, and across the workflows that we call at Incept, we have seen up to an 8% increase in donors who keep their appointments since introducing this ability. It has helped with recruitment efforts, resulting in more blood for the local communities in which the donors donate, more success in meeting unit per month goals for clients’ needs, and a win for us here at Incept.

How often do you check your cell phone as compared to your emails?