SlickText Review

Why SlickText Is Best for Customer Loyalty

SlickText is our choice for the best text message marketing platform for building customer loyalty because it offers a ton of tools to provide targeted communications that make your customers feel appreciated and boost their engagement. We especially love that all of SlickText’s tools, including the unique loyalty program feature, are painless to use and unlike many competitors, are available with every plan for no extra charge.

From the Marketing Tools section of the platform, you get access to a ton of useful features to make your customers feel valued, such as text surveys, text voting and automated messages for birthdays or other important events. You can create text-to-win competitions or send unique promo codes and coupons easily as a thank-you to regular customers.

The unique loyalty program is a stand-out feature that lets you incentivize repeat visits with check-ins and automatic rewards. The program runs right from the SlickText dashboard and can be customized to fit the look of your company. Customers can keep track of their earned points from a link that SlickText sends automatically upon checking in. 

SlickText allows unlimited custom fields to collect relevant customer information and preferences when they opt in. You can use this data to segment your customers any way you want and with automated workflows, build custom journeys that always feel personalized and relevant. We love that SlickText makes it easy to keep your customers by showing them you know and care about who they are.

Usability

Among all the solutions we reviewed, SlickText is one of the easiest to use. The platform is simple to navigate, with everything you need only a click away. The top menu lets you access all features, manage your account and access customer support quickly. The visual dashboard shows you important account metrics and provides additional links to the features you’re most likely to use often. 

We especially love that a pop-up tutorial appears whenever you access a feature for the first time. A few text slides explain the feature and how to use it and there is an embedded explanation video. We found this feature incredibly useful, especially for small business owners new to text message marketing. 

While everything from setting up textwords (SlickText’s name for keywords) to running the loyalty program is painless, we were a bit disappointed with the unique promo code feature. You’ll have to first type out all the codes manually in a separate file that you upload to the system. Although we would have liked to see automatically generated codes, we still found the feature useful despite the tedious setup. 

SlickText’s external integrations are limited. You can connect the platform with HubSpot, Shopify and some of the best email marketing software solutions like Mailchimp, Constant Contact and ActiveCampaign. There is also a Zapier integration, which allows you to connect with thousands of other apps and application programming interface tools. However, you can’t add these integrations yourself. You’ll have to contact customer support to set them up. 

Using SlickText’s platform is a breeze, even to those new to text message marketing, thanks to its pop-up tutorials and videos. Source: SlickText

SlickText Features

Loyalty Program

SlickText’s simple yet effective customer loyalty program tool is unique among the text message marketing platforms we reviewed. The easy-to-use tool lets you set up a basic loyalty program to reward customers based on visits, purchases or dollars spent. You can add your logo and use menu options or cascading sheet styles to customize the look of check-in screens. Customers can view their points and unlock rewards from a mobile link. Managing the program, such as editing points or customer information manually, can be done right from the platform quickly. We especially love the loyalty program’s analytics that lets you leverage data to target marketing efforts.

SlickText helps you build customer loyalty by running a customer rewards program right from the platform. Source: SlickText

Customer Engagement

Beyond the loyalty program, SlickText has multiple tools to boost customer engagement and grow your subscriber lists. The text-to-win feature lets you set up automated text contests quickly. Once you put in the information the platform does everything else, including selecting winners. Text surveys and voting let you gather useful feedback from customers. It’s a great way to let them know you value their opinions and the information can be used for future customer segmentation. You can also create unique promo codes for each customer and customizable coupons with barcodes. We especially love that SlickText’s analytics provide engagement reports for every feature.

Workflows

The foolproof drag-and-drop visual workflow builder lets you build tailored journeys easily for your customers. While most platforms offer similar features, we found SlickText’s marketing automation tools to be among the easiest to use. SlickText provides many useful templates or you can build a workflow from scratch. With triggers, you can send out messages or promotions when a customer subscribes. Drip campaigns help you keep subscribers informed and interested in your business while automatic birthday texts show you prioritize your relationships with customers.

SlickText’s drag-and-drop visual workflow builder makes automating your text messages a breeze. Source: SlickText

Analytics 

From SlickText’s straightforward analytics dashboard, you can keep track of all of your SMS marketing campaigns. While most platforms offer opt-in, opt-out and link tracking reports, we love that SlickText includes analytics for all of its customer engagement tools and the loyalty program. You’ll be able to see which efforts are bringing customers in and which groups might need to be targeted in a different way. 

We appreciate that SlickText lets you use your messages flexibly. If you haven’t reached your monthly messaging limit, unused credits roll over automatically. While many competitors offer rollover messages, they usually expire within a month. SlickText is the only provider we reviewed that lets you keep unused message credits for up to three months. This is especially useful for businesses that run seasonal promotions as they can reach more customers from time to time without paying for a higher plan. 

Mobile App

A fully functional mobile app is a necessity for businesses looking for the ease and convenience of managing text message marketing campaigns and customer loyalty programs from anywhere. We love that SlickText lets you do it all from their app for iOS and Android, something not all competitors can say. The app also allows you to open a customer check-in screen for your rewards program right on your tablet.

Access all of SlickText’s features, including analytics and the loyalty program tool, from the palm of your hand. Source: SlickText

SlickText Costs

SlickText has a variety of plans based on how many messages you plan to send each month. All plans include unlimited incoming texts and contacts, rollover messages and live chat support. Starting with plans over 3,600 messages, you also get access to workflow features and one-on-one onboarding assistance. You can give the platform a test run with a 14-day free trial before signing up. 

• 500 messages: 2 textwords – $29 per month
• 1,000 messages: 4 textwords – $49 per month
• 2,000 messages: 6 textwords – $79 per month
• 3,600 messages: 8 textwords – $139 per month
• 5,000 messages: 14 textwords – $189 per month
• 10,000 messages: 16 textwords – $350 per month
• 25,000 messages: 20 textwords – $750 per month
• 50,000 messages:  30 textwords – $1,250 per month
• 100,000 messages: 40 textwords – $1,999 per month
• 100,000-plus messages: Custom pricing 

We were disappointed that you can’t buy extra messages when you’ve reached your monthly limit. Instead, you’ll have to switch to a higher plan, which can be expensive if you only need a few additional messages from time to time.

We do appreciate that SlickText’s rollover policy is more generous than the competition. While rollover messages normally expire after one month with most competitors, SlickText lets you hang on to unused credits for up to three months.

All plans come with a toll-free number. Local 10DLC numbers are available for $10 per month. You can also text-enable your current landline. Unlike some competitors, SlickText doesn’t charge extra for this service. Plans over 10,000 monthly messages can purchase a short code. Random short codes cost $500 per month plus a one-time set-up fee, which is one of the lowest prices we’ve come across. Vanity short code costs $1,000 per month. 

SlickText Setup

Getting started with SlickText’s web-based platform is quick and painless. Once you sign up, you’ll be guided through a setup checklist, which will show you how to create textwords, import contacts and send your first message. The guided setup will also walk you through all of SlickText’s features, so you know exactly what the platform is capable of. We especially love that video tutorials are linked to each tool, so you don’t have to search around for instructions on how to set up or use each feature.

Starting at plans with 3,600 monthly messages, SlickText provides personalized onboarding assistance. While we appreciate this feature, we think setting up the platform is straightforward enough that most small businesses will be able to do it on their own. The only downside is that some users have reported wait times of up to 10 days for 10 DLC number registration, which means you might have to wait longer than with other competitors to start sending messages. 

SlickText Customer Service

We love that SlickText makes it easy to reach out to support when needed. Right from the dashboard you have access to SlickText’s customer service number, in-app live chat, email and a searchable help center. Live phone and chat hours are Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern time. We appreciate that SlickText’s website also offers compliance and best text practices guides. 

In our experience, support, even by email, was prompt and helpful. However, we found the hours to be limited compared to other competitors who offer longer hours and weekend service. If your business operates evenings and weekends, we recommend checking out our review of Textedly, which provides live support seven days a week.

While most user reviews note that SlickText provides excellent customer support, a few reviews said that they can be slow when processing requests to cancel your account by email. 

SlickText Drawbacks

While we appreciate that SlickText offers so many plan options based on message limits, we found them to be more expensive than other competitors that offer a similar pricing structure, especially at high volumes. We were also disappointed that you don’t have the option to purchase additional numbers, textwords or message credits. If your business needs an affordable and versatile solution that lets you pay for add-ons when needed, consider reading our SimpleTexting review, our top choice for flexibility. 

We found that some customers complain about managing contacts on the SlickText platform. While it is easy to add contacts and edit information, such as personal data and custom fields, moving them from one textword to another is complicated. You’ll have to either delete the contact and manually create a new one under the textword or send a short message service opt-in request for the new keyword. Although this drawback is common among text messaging platforms, we would have liked to see an easier way to assign new textwords to keep customers on the lists most relevant to them. 

SlickText’s inbox is simple to use, but we think it is lacking some important features that could help your team provide better service to keep customers satisfied. We would have liked to see the ability to add team members, assign conversations, leave whispers or internal notes and see interaction history in the contact information section. Tools like these allow your team to understand your customer better and provide more personalized communications. For a platform with powerful inbox features, read our Textline review.

Methodology

To determine the best text message marketing platforms, we took a close look at over a dozen platforms. We sat down with company representatives for a product demo and tested the platforms for ourselves in free trials. We also spoke to customer support representatives and combed through online reviews to find out more about how real-world users’ experiences lined up with our research. When choosing the best service for building customer loyalty, we looked specifically at the availability, ease of use and cost of features to engage customers, create personalized communications and incentivize repeat visits or purchases.

Overall Value

We recommend SlickText for …

• Small businesses new to text message marketing that need step-by-step explanations.
• Small businesses looking for features to engage customers and build loyalty.
• Small businesses that want a foolproof workflow tool for building personalized communications.

We do not recommend SlickText for … 

• Businesses that need the flexibility to purchase extra messages or textwords.
• Businesses that want a robust inbox for managing customers over multiple phone numbers. 
• Businesses looking to keep costs down while messaging at high volumes.