How a Meal Preparation Franchise Used SMS Coupons to Boost Profits

Ready-to-eat refrigerated entrees formed a potentially lucrative section of market sales. Many customers also pre-ordered frozen meals to keep home freezers stocked, but they required 24 hours to thaw before serving.

Shumas wanted to sell more of both meal options, but, with limited storage space, he couldn’t afford to prepare more than customers ordered. Nor did he want to lose out on sales by lacking inventory.

While Shumas wanted to actively engage with customers, calling his entire customer base every day was unrealistic. And emails only have a 20% open rate, often taking hours, days, or even longer to be read.

Statistics overwhelmingly favor mass texting, with an almost-immediate 98% open rate — 90% are read within the first three minutes of receipt. Shumas quickly initiated a Text-to-Join campaign, emailing customers to text “LETSEAT” to 3131** to get a trackable promotion code for a 5% discount.

Opted-in subscribers began receiving daily alerts Tuesday through Saturday at 4 p.m. about available menu items — providing them with an easy, readily-made answer to “what’s for dinner.”

By texting menu options in advance, Shumas eliminated the guesswork of customers’ orders and availability concerns. Daily text reminders influenced patrons’ nightly dinner plans, which dramatically boosted sales of the refrigerated entrees — encouraging Shumas to prepare more.

Plus, the franchise owner was able to track all bumps in sales, including frozen meals, via redeemed coupon codes from the promotional texts he sent, proving the ROI he was getting from using EZ Texting.