Progressive Leasing Doubles SMS Engagement Rate Using Vibes

Progressive Leasing saw the limitations of email, and wanted to reach more of their customers in real-time, and more effectively. They turned to Vibes for help.

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Key Results

2x

SMS message engagement rate

99%

retention of their SMS subscribers

Progressive Leasing works with some of the largest retailers in the USA to help millions of people get the things they need with ease. Their mission is to create a better today and unlock the possibilities of tomorrow through financial empowerment, and to that end, they have helped more than 30,000 retail stores drive increased revenue and improve customer satisfaction.

The Challenge

The company had traditionally been very email-focused when interacting with their customers, sending on the order of 150 million emails per year. Progressive Leasing wanted to reach more of these customers in real-time, and more effectively. They recognized, in the words of Senior Software Engineering Manager Adam Price, “There’s a level of engagement that is much more immediate with SMS than with email, and we really wanted to tap into that.”

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Progressive Leasing set about to find a solution that would allow them to move to a more omnichannel approach, and to start using SMS to deliver campaigns that could engage, delight, and convert customers more effectively than email. The company also had a charter of trying to consolidate their marketing services under as few partners as possible and turned to Vibes for help.

The Solution

Once Progressive Leasing made the decision to use Vibes’ mobile engagement platform, they quickly found that they had put a true partnership in place that was mutually beneficial. “We were up and running a lot faster than we had anticipated”, said Price, illuminating the benefit of working with a partner with over 25 years’ worth of experience and direct carrier connections to Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and 65 other mobile carriers across North America.

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The company also liked that Vibes was integrated with Salesforce Marketing Cloud, allowing them to run all campaigns in the tool they were already using.

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Finally, Progressive Leasing had been working with a major CPaaS provider for over 6 months, and hadn’t been getting any traction on their outstanding application for a short code. “Vibes came in quickly and made it happen”, said Price, and Progressive Leasing’s SMS program was quickly up and running.

"SMS engagement is much more immediate than email, and Vibes has helped us tap into that - now we can reach more people in real-time, and more efficiently. Vibes also really cared about helping us grow our business, not just giving us a platform to use, and we were up and running much faster than we had anticipated.”

Adam Price

Senior Software Engineering Manager, Progressive Leasing

The Results

Progressive Leasing saw over double the benchmark broadcast SMS engagement rate using Vibes, showing just how many of their customers are not just viewing, but are interacting with their messaging. Just as important, they’ve retained well over 99% of the customers who joined their SMS subscriber list – showing that the messages they’re sending are timely, relevant and engaging.

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Progressive Leasing is now looking to consolidate all SMS under Vibes – promotional messaging, transactional messages, leasing agreements, disclosure, and more. New short codes are being moved to Vibes, with campaigns planned for thousands of retailers around the United States, with promotional signage with these short codes to be placed in stores.

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Vibes’ customer service and partnership has been truly key to the success of Progressive Leasing in SMS. “Vibes truly cared about helping us grow our business, not just having a platform for us to use”, said Price. Now the company has combined its digital and mobile strategy, and is excited about the possibilities of using Vibes’ mobile wallet capabilities in the future.