How SMS helped OneMRI turbo-charge growth

The search for a scalable SMS solution

OneMRI is a healthcare provider with a difference. Launched just a year ago, the business provides Whole Body MRI services by leveraging underutilised MRI machines in clinics all over Australia. Once a scan is complete, OneMRI’s team of specialists assesses the results and communicates them to the customer. In twelve months, the business has partnered with 21 clinics across 5 states, had hundreds of customers with a 9.7/10 customer rating, and built a wait list of around 10000.

How has its ten-strong team handled this rapid expansion? SMS automation is a big piece of the puzzle. After working with another provider early on, the business switched to Sinch MessageMedia to manage SMS communication, complete with automated workflows, templates and personalisation.

“Where Sinch MessageMedia has helped is in giving our team leverage to be able to tackle this at scale,” explains CEO and co-founder Gopi Sara. “To be able to communicate often and in an automated way that allows us to personalise.”

Quick, reliable, personal messaging

OneMRI uses Sinch MessageMedia’s SMS services through an integration with HubSpot, enabling keyword-triggered auto-responses, templates and automated messaging flows. Because it’s integrated, OneMRI can create multi-channel customer journeys using email and SMS, and manage all its customer communications via a single, user-friendly platform. It’s a setup that aligns with the need for flexibility and scale.

“I’m a big fan of the user interface,” says Gopi. “The ability to duplicate and automate replies, to have multiple people tap into templates and workflows, that’s where the high leverage comes in.”

He and his team use Sinch MessageMedia to manage both marketing campaigns and functional messaging, helping them connect with thousands of existing and prospective customers.

What does this look like in practice? Gopi explains what happens when a potential customer books an initial consultation online.

“With Sinch MessageMedia, we’re able to message them back and say: ‘Hey, thank you, the team is looking forward to talking to you.’ If someone cancels their consult, we’re able to message back and say: ‘We noticed you cancelled your consult, can we help reschedule for another time?’ It’s all these automated sequences. And we are able to do multi-touch with SMS and email through Sinch MessageMedia. That’s great.”

Fuelling growth with time savings and support

SMS automation has allowed the team to communicate with customers effectively, without an unmanageable amount of manual work – in fact, Gopi says that they are saving roughly three days a week in admin time.

Even with a high volume of SMS – 30,000 each month – messages are timely and reliable, and personalised to each customer. The result: from the very first interaction, potential customers get a consistent, personal experience with the OneMRI brand. For a healthcare-based business looking to develop a strong following and build trust with customers, this is essential.

“Because of the variance we can get from Sinch MessageMedia, they have a feeling it’s personal,” Gopi explains. “It’s very hyper-personalised to them because of where they are in the journey.”

Support also played a big role. A fast-growing customer base meant OneMRI needed to scale up its messaging quickly – and having a responsive partner made all the difference. Gopi has nothing but praise for the support they received, explaining that they went above and beyond to help out. This was a real benefit during the switch from its previous provider.

“We switched over without any customers being lost or any messages being lost,” he explains. “And they were just amazing.”

Even a year on, the team can still call on Sinch MessageMedia for help when they need it.

“They jump on the phone with us all the time,” he says. “They want to do their best for their customers, and that just kind of resonates throughout the company.”

Key takeaways:

• Cut admin time by 3 days a week
• 30,000 messages sent monthly
• Achieved consistently high deliverability rates

What’s next for OneMRI?

In a single year, OneMRI has gone from fledgling startup to thriving company – with a chunky wait list and satisfied customers to prove it. That growth is likely to continue as Gopi and his team partner with more clinics, move into new parts of Australia, and provide MRI services for even more customers. It’s all part of the mission to enable longevity through accessible whole-body imaging.

As it grows, OneMRI is looking at new ways to leverage the Sinch MessageMedia platform for customer communication – including messaging through social platforms like WhatsApp.

One thing that’s not likely to change? The enthusiasm for SMS with Sinch MessageMedia.

“Sinch MessageMedia has strong integration capabilities, a great platform and even better team. It’s like, if you’re going to partner with someone around this, they’re the best to go to. They’re super responsive and are always going above and beyond.“ 

Gopi Sara, CEO, OneMRI

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Foundr is using SMS to build connections with their students

“We’re saving up to about two to three hours a week. Before, we were just trying to find the information that Sinch MessageMedia readily provides in the form of two clicks.“

Jesse Song, Tech and Automations Lead, Foundr

Foundr is familiar with rapid change – in just over a decade, they went from an online magazine that interviewed well-known founders (hence the name) to a world-leading online education provider that helps fledgling business owners navigate growth. 

Now a global leader in the online education space for entrepreneurship, Foundr offers subscription-based online courses, one-on-one coaching and mentoring to an audience of entrepreneurs and start-up owners across Australia, New Zealand, North America, Europe and Asia. 

Of course, that growth came with challenges. Supporting students all over the world requires strong communication, and Foundr’s tools couldn’t keep up. As it adapted and scaled, they found themselves using two competing communication tools that didn’t work with their CRM – or deliver the insights it needed. 

“The key problem that we had was a lack of data, analytics and insights into how our campaigns were going,” explains Tech and Automation Lead Jesse Song. “So, you know, while it did perform quite well in terms of being able to send SMS, we were missing a lot of the insights.” 

Jesse and his team wanted a solution that could manage SMS more easily and give them a central source of information.   

“We were looking for a tool that could help connect with our CRM and make it a single point of truth about our students, for our potential students as well, so we can better serve them.”

That search led to Sinch MessageMedia. 

From disjointed to connected

For Foundr, communication with students is an essential part of the job. As an online education platform, it needed to send students notifications and updates, along with support messages and information about new campaigns. 

“We try to maintain really strong communication with our students,” says Jesse. 

After realising that its SMS systems weren’t connecting as needed, Foundr partnered with Sinch MessageMedia, replacing a disjointed tech stack with a unified platform. This meant dedicated Sinch numbers for key markets, SMS and bulk delivery through Sinch MessageMedia’s web portal, and a HubSpot integration to ensure seamless, consistent communication. 

The team is now using Sinch MessageMedia to send transactional messages – like reminders about upcoming events, course completion notifications and other updates – along with marketing communications, like information about upcoming sales and promotions. 

Delivery rates and deeper insights

Although Jesse and his team have only been working with Sinch MessageMedia since the beginning of the year, they’re finding it simpler to use, with higher delivery rates and better reporting. They’ve already sent around 30,000 SMS, with minimal issues so far. 

“So, with what we’ve seen so far, we’re very happy with the delivery rate of Sinch. It blows the previous platform’s delivery rate by a mile,” explains Jesse. By the numbers, he thinks Sinch MessageMedia’s SMS platform has increased the delivery rate by around 65% – a huge increase in just a few months. This means that Foundr can rely on SMS for communication, and that students get a consistent experience with the business. 

Campaign and messaging analytics are another benefit. The previous platform offered very little insight into message performance – according to Jesse, all the team could see was the student’s name, number and status. With Sinch MessageMedia, they get detailed information about delivery rates, open rates and timing, broken down across regions and subscriber types.

“So it really comes down to end-to-end, like just the reporting at Sinch MessageMedia, how many are being sent, how many are actually being delivered, and then breaking it down into opens and just seeing exactly what’s going on within the campaign,” says Jesse. 

These insights help the team understand their audience and refine their messaging strategy, so they can communicate more effectively. 

Jesse explains that the simplicity of the system and accessibility of reporting are saving significant time for his team. 

“We’re saving up to about two to three hours a week. Before, we were just trying to find the information that Sinch MessageMedia readily provides in the form of two clicks,” he says. 

What’s next for Foundr?

Foundr is taking a focused approach to growth, prioritising strong foundations and optimising its current SMS setup.“I think our main goal is just to make sure that we optimise our SMS marketing with what we have right now,” says Jesse. “So, we’re really just making sure that we get that part nailed down before we explore other components.”

Still, he and his team have some big plans for the future, with AI a key focus. For an education platform with a global audience and extensive online resources, Jesse can see the potential of AI chatbots and other AI-powered technology for student communication. 

“The unfortunate thing about us as humans is that we can’t be online 24/7,” he laughs. “So, really just making sure that we are able to capitalise on AI to the point where it can answer students’ questions in real time. So, that’s kind of like the next phase we’re approaching as we continue to scale.”

It will be another big step forward for a fast-moving, ambitious business – and Sinch MessageMedia will be there to help.

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Clothing The Gaps builds stronger customer connections with Sinch MessageMedia

“The reason that we decided to go with Sinch MessageMedia was the relationship that we built with the team. It was new for us, and we wanted to be supported. We wanted the technical help to send an SMS, but we also wanted some strategies for the best ways to reach our audience.“

Laura Thompson, CEO and co-founder of Clothing The Gaps

Clothing The Gaps is an Aboriginal social enterprise and certified B Corp with roots in Wurundjeri Country, Australia. Offering everything from t-shirts to tote bags, they encourage their customers to “wear their values on their tee” and spark conversations that support First Nations justice.

But while Clothing The Gaps had built a strong community of supporters, they struggled to reach people effectively. Relying on email newsletters and daily social media posts wasn’t delivering the engagement they needed.

“We’d been using email marketing for a long time, and we were posting to social every day, but we weren’t seeing those cut-through and open rates that we were looking for,” said Laura Thompson, Gunditjmara woman and CEO at Clothing The Gaps.

That’s when Laura started looking at SMS to connect instantly with their community. Inspired by her own engagement with her favorite brands, she needed a solution that would support new paths of communication with customers.

Working with Sinch MessageMedia for smart campaigns

Clothing The Gaps wanted more than just a digital customer communications platform. They needed support and strategy from a partner who could help them get it right the first time. They knew that with Sinch Engage, they’d get more than just technical support to send SMS messages — they’d get insight on the best ways to reach their audience.

That support came from Cameron Kellaghan-Tasker from Sinch MessageMedia, who worked closely with Laura and her team to make SMS a core part of their communications.

“We were able to work with Laura and Clothing The Gaps to implement a strategy that made sense for their customer base — being able to target them at the source using SMS,” Cameron said.

With Sinch MessageMedia’s help, Clothing The Gaps started developing smart, segmented campaigns that complemented email and social. For Black Friday, instead of sending messages to their entire list, they targeted their most engaged customers first and rolled out messages in phases.

“I remember thinking for Black Friday that we were just going to send a blast text message to everyone,” Laura said. “But with the support of Cam, we actually targeted our highly engaged audience first…and it paid off.”

They saw the results immediately. Campaign ROI reached an astounding 2,000%, with traffic to their Shopify site spiking the moment messages went out. Thousands of people were flocking to the website — something they had never seen with email marketing alone.

Support every step of the way

After seeing the boost in Black Friday sales, Clothing The Gaps and Sinch MessageMedia quickly developed a broader communications strategy and trusted partnership. Sinch MessageMedia even supports Clothing The Gaps by looking over text message drafts before they’re sent out, which gives the company plenty of peace of mind that what they’re sending will resonate.

Beyond retail campaigns, Clothing The Gaps has started using SMS to power their advocacy work. In addition to using SMS to talk about sales, they send messages around National Aboriginal and Islanders Day Observance Committee (NAIDOC) Week and during other points of the year when they’re campaigning for different actions or petitions that need to be signed.

The team is already planning for the holidays, with Sinch MessageMedia helping them strategize for Black Friday promotions and exploring how SMS can support their advocacy campaigns around January 26 and other key dates.

For both Clothing The Gaps and Sinch MessageMedia, the relationship goes beyond technology, thanks to a shared purpose and a vision of long-term growth.

As Cameron said, “Not only is it about generating really positive returns in the campaign sense, but it’s also about spreading a really important message.”

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How Everlab boosted appointment attendance by 40% with Sinch MessageMedia + HubSpot

“For us, the HubSpot integration has been one of the most powerful things we’ve leveraged with Sinch MessageMedia. When you look at the available options, Sinch MessageMedia is an absolute no-brainer.” 

Sam Kothari, Co-founder and COO at Everlab

Everlab, a Melbourne-based health startup, is on a mission to make personalized preventative care more accessible. Their platform combines cutting-edge diagnostics with expert guidance to help members understand their health and lower their risk of chronic disease.

As demand surged across Australia, Everlab co-founder and chief operations officer Sam Kothari felt this rapid growth personally. He answered prospects’ questions, onboarded new members, and sent appointment reminders from his personal cell phone.

“I knew we needed to switch when a member called me at 7:00 PM on a Friday,” Sam said. “We needed to scale this personalized level of communication to thousands of people around the country.”

Finding an SMS partner with the same vision

While searching for an SMS solution, Sam connected with Damien Brennan, APAC Partner Manager at Sinch MessageMedia. Sinch’s direct integration with HubSpot — Everlab’s CRM — made it a clear contender, but Damien’s belief in Everlab made the partnership feel right.

“I know we were a tiny account,” Sam said, “but he had faith that the business would grow and the volume would come. We’ve been lucky to grow that contract together.”

Reducing no-show rates with SMS

Right away, Everlab used Sinch’s HubSpot integration to automate SMS appointment confirmations and reminders. Missed appointments create expensive gaps in medical provider schedules and can strain Everlab’s clinical partner relationships, so reducing no-shows became a top priority.

They tried email reminders previously but only saw 15–20% open rates. With SMS, which has an average open rate of 98%, missed appointment rates dropped by 40%.

Increasing engagement and trust with two-way conversations

Sinch’s Hubspot integration is also a powerful tool for Everlab’s sales team. They can respond to prospects’ questions faster by adding SMS to their email workflows.

“Sending personalized text messages through HubSpot lets us deliver the experience we want at a scale we couldn’t manage before,” Sam said. “People can respond and have a genuine conversation. The two-way messaging has been really a good trust builder for us, especially being in healthcare.”

And because conversations are recorded in HubSpot, Everlab’s support team can identify and resolve issues quickly, without members having to repeat themselves.

Growing into new markets with a strategic communications partner

Everlab is preparing to launch in New Zealand and is eyeing new opportunities across Asia, Europe, and North America. As they enter new markets with new regulations and messaging preferences, Sinch MessageMedia – with it’s powerful HubSpot text messaging integration – will help them localize their strategy and integrate the right channels to keep members engaged and informed.

For Sam, that global support is essential. “We’ve been global since day one,” he said. “It’s just one more reason that the partnership with Sinch MessageMedia works so well.”

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How SMS automation helped FreshClaim get its work-life balance back

“It’s definitely made a massive impact on the workflow and our ability. We’re extremely happy with the time efficiency, but I think more happy with the separation from work life that we’re able to implement.“ 

Courtney Walker, Operations Manager, FreshClaim

Melbourne-based FreshClaim handles the administrative side of medical billing. Medical clinics and doctors’ offices supply patient information, and the FreshClaim team communicate with the patient and the insurance company, sending billing information, invoicing patients for care that isn’t covered, and following up on late payments. They send many of these messages via SMS because it’s quick and accessible, with higher response rates than email.

However, as FreshClaim grew, SMS became harder to handle. Team members originally messaged patients from their personal phones, which caused several issues. Writing messages and pasting in patient details was slow and fiddly, and using personal phones made it hard to separate work and home life. Dedicated team members would see a response from a patient and feel obliged to respond – even late at night or on weekends.

“We started off just with the mobiles,” explains Operations Manager Courtney Walker. “Quite quickly we realised that you don’t have any off time when it’s coming to your own personal mobile.”

When FreshClaim merged with another billing business, taking on more patients and providers, the pressure increased. The other business did have a separate SMS system, but it was clunky and difficult, with no ability to change or personalise messages.

FreshClaim needed a way to send messages to patients that didn’t rely on personal phones, acted as a central reference point for patient information, and kept patient data safe and secure. Sinch SMS automation was the answer.

“We really did need a system,” says Courtney. “One, to have evidence of what we were doing, but two, just to separate that work and personal life that we’d started to blur.”

From blurred lines to clear boundaries

FreshClaim approached Sinch MessageMedia just a few months ago, looking for an SMS solution that could move SMS off personal phones and give the team more visibility over patient messages. Courtney planned to integrate Sinch MessageMedia with the FreshClaim CRM system early in 2026, but started using the web portal as an interim solution. As Courtney explains, it’s already working better than expected.

“I love the web portal. You can see exactly what the SMS looks like before you send it,” she says. “It’s very handy for our workflow.”

Instead of copying and pasting messages to patients – risking errors every time – staff can now use templates and send messages straight from the portal. This makes mistakes less likely and gives the whole team visibility of all patients. Before, each team member took responsibility for separate patients, which could make it difficult to see what had been sent and whether a patient had responded.

“Recently, we had a situation where one of the girls was off on leave. When she was doing messaging herself, I had no idea where she was up to or which patients had responded,” Courtney explains. “This way, it means that I can jump in and help her out.”

Speed, time savings and separation

While the team has only been using the Sinch MessageMedia platform for a few months, Courtney says they’re already seeing some clear benefits. Team members can now send messages in seconds through the web portal, which adds up to significant time savings.

“Per text message we’re sending, it is easily 75% quicker than doing it on the phones,” she explains.

It’s had a positive effect on response times. Team members can see questions from patients in the portal and respond immediately. For example, if a patient sends a question about their out-of-pocket amount or whether their invoice has been paid, a staff member can jump in and reply. In a business dealing with health services and time-sensitive queries, this is a major upside.

FreshClaim now has a dedicated SMS number, so all messages come from the same source. In a world of scam messages, this is a plus, helping patients feel that they’re communicating with a known, trusted provider.

“We’ve set up the option to have the permanent number for the same continuity,” explains Courtney. “It looks a lot better than getting three different messages from different mobile numbers.”

While every business welcomes time savings and security features, the biggest benefit for FreshClaim is the ability to separate work life and personal time. With SMS off personal phones, staff aren’t tempted to respond to patients after hours or over weekends, which helps them switch off from work and avoid burnout.

“We’re extremely happy with the time efficiency, but more happy with the separation from work life that we’ve been able to implement.”

What’s next for FreshClaim?

As new Sinch MessageMedia users, the FreshClaim team are still finding their way around the system. While the web portal is working well, they’re planning to use the Sinch API to integrate with their CRM in the new year. This will show SMS information alongside other patient history, for a full, accessible record of each patient. They’ll also be able to include invoice links in messages, so patients can simply click through to pay.

Next, Courtney is considering using Sinch MessageMedia to contact FreshClaim’s other group of customers – medical clinics and doctors. The team uses HubSpot to communicate with doctors at the moment, but messages can get lost or ignored in the inbox. By integrating with HubSpot, they could add SMS for sales campaigns and reminder messages.

“There’s definitely going to be potential next year for a lot of growth,” says Courtney. “Like integrating our system and HubSpot to help automate and get information out to doctors or patients.”

It’s about finding more ways to make life easier for FreshClaim’s people and patients.

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SMS automation helps Constant Supply cut through the noise

For printing company Constant Supply, MessageMedia SMS is a crucial tool for connection and customer engagement, helping them manage multiple brands and high-speed orders.

Queensland-based Constant Supply is a complicated business, providing print-on-demand services direct to consumers and supplying branded products for business clients. With multiple online brands and a wide range of services, they needed a quick, reliable way to communicate with all their customers.

The answer: MessageMedia SMS services. Thanks to SMS automation, the Constant Supply team can make direct contact with customers, share product news or order updates, and cut through the noise to make real connections.

“In a world where it’s so noisy and there’s so much competition, you really want to have that clear communication and strong messaging.” Adam Blackburn, Director, Constant Supply.

Supporting direct service with direct messaging

Constant Supply’s ethos is based on speed and flexibility. The team is proud of their ability to keep up with market changes, pivot quickly, and deliver the products and services customers want. A company that cuts out the middleman to deal directly with their customers is also all about clear communication and building strong relationships with customers. This meant, when Adam went looking for a comms solution, he wanted something equally quick, flexible and direct.

Enter MessageMedia. After struggling with a more manual platform, Constant Supply switched to MessageMedia, using the platform to manage the majority of their comms.

“We use MessageMedia for our messaging to our direct customers. We have multiple online brands, and one of the key parts around that is connecting to those customers through messaging,” says Adam.

From day-to-day communication to marketing activations

For Constant Supply, the switch to MessageMedia has boosted efficiency and given them new ways to connect with customers.

“Obviously, email is great, but being able to message people directly is such an easier way of communicating with those customers,” says Adam.

They’re now using SMS automation to get messages straight to their customers, from order confirmations and shipping updates to product news and marketing campaigns. That aligns with their quick turnaround times and personalised service – for example, they can send an SMS to let a business customer know that their order is going into production, or to ask a one-off customer for feedback.

The team also uses MessageMedia for marketing campaigns and live activations. At a recent Retail Fest event, they used the platform to manage a live T-shirt giveaway, with SMS to share QR codes, which the customer could then use to upload a piece of art for printing. They sent a final SMS when the print job was ready, making life easier for the customers. For Adam, it was a perfect example of the simplicity of the MessageMedia platform.

“The customers are loving the fact that they don’t have to stand around and wait in line,” he explains.

What’s next for Constant Supply?

Next on the list for Constant Supply is rich text messaging. Adam and his team are excited about the potential of features like in-text links, images and video, and plan to implement rich messaging by the end of the year. Adam hopes that it will be a way to boost conversions, and it’s another example of how MessageMedia aligns with Constant Supply’s customer-focused, results-driven approach.

Using the platform and being able to deal directly with people, that’s super powerful for us, and it works really, really well.

Adam Blackburn, Director, Constant Supply

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How SMS automation saves time and boosts service for Swimming Pool Kits Direct

Discover how an Australian pool supplier streamlined customer updates, reduced admin work, and built stronger relationships with MessageMedia.

For Swimming Pool Kits Direct, a shift to MessageMedia led to seamless customer communication, a jump in campaign engagement, and some serious time-savings for employees.

New South Wales-based Swimming Pool Kits Direct supplies fibreglass swimming pools to customers all over Australia. Led by owner Colm Walsh, the small business aims to deliver the ‘Australian dream’ of pool ownership in an affordable, customer-centric way.

The business was using an outdated system that made it difficult for the sales team to track customer communications or create consistent customer journeys, which sparked a successful shift to MessageMedia SMS.

The search for a much-needed system update

When Colm Walsh bought Swimming Pool Kits Direct in 2022, he promised himself he wouldn’t make changes for the first year. That plan went out the window when he saw opportunities for real improvement, just by digitising and automating communications.

The previous system saw individual sales reps sending messages to customers on their personal phones, which meant there was no record of communications or customer responses.

Worse, the lack of connection between the sales system and communications meant double-handling, lost messages and missed sales opportunities.

“It was a really antiquated system that delivered a lot of headaches in terms of inefficiencies, double-handling and separate, non-connected systems,” explains Colm. “Basically, our reps had their own phones with their own messages on them. There wasn’t team visibility around how communications were happening, or where or when, and there was no automation, either.”

A cleaner, simpler, quicker way of working

Colm set about ripping out Swimming Pool Kits Direct’s old systems and looking for a  better solution – for customers and employees.

“I definitely had a vision of a much cleaner, simpler, more straightforward way of doing things,” he says. “Ultimately, we always wanted to find ways to free up people’s time so they can have better, high-quality conversations with customers, rather than having to do manual tasks.”

That goal led the business to MessageMedia, thanks to its fully-featured platform, local support, domain expertise and ability to integrate with existing software.

The business uses MessageMedia for:

• End-to-end customer communication throughout the pool-buying journey
• Triggered SMS for confirmations, follow-ups and service alerts
• Seasonal promotions and time-sensitive marketing campaigns
• Streamlining internal workflows with HubSpot-integrated templates

SMS-powered communication, top-rated customer service

It didn’t take long for the Swimming Pool Kits Direct team to see results after the MessageMedia implementation.

Automating SMS workflows through the new platform helps streamline customer communication and saves real time. The sales team – just three people – reaches out to roughly 100 customers, new and existing, each week. With the old system, this meant a lot of manual work and copy-paste messages.

With MessageMedia, sales reps create triggered message workflows, set up to send personalised SMS messages at specific points in the sales cycle. This saves each rep up to three hours a week – and gives customers a consistent experience with the brand. For a business with a long sales cycle, this kind of consistency is crucial.

“Being able to communicate things and keep them informed and on track is super important, and that’s the experience that we want to deliver,” says Colm.

MessageMedia also changed the way Colm and his team manage marketing campaigns. Instead of relying only on email, they use SMS to send information about sales and offers. This approach has been a game-changer – a recent split-tested campaign showed a 55% increase in engagement and conversions when SMS was used alongside email.

After three years, the MessageMedia platform has made a significant difference in both time savings and service improvement. And Swimming Pool Kits Direct customers seem to agree – the business has 100% five-star reviews on Google, with customer service the top-rated area.

And Colm explains that the MessageMedia experience has been a positive for his team as well.

“Just having that cut-through and trust, and having a platform that knows how to handle these things has really helped us,” he says. “So it’s been an awesome experience for our business, working with MessageMedia and having a seamless experience there.”

What’s next for Swimming Pool Kits Direct?

The business is more than happy with the results so far, but it’s always looking for ways to improve customer service and operations.

“I always look for opportunities to do things differently,” says Colm, “and where we can have the opportunity to be a leader in the space, where it makes sense and our customers like it.”

Two possible future changes – both supported by MessageMedia – are implementing WhatsApp as an alternative messaging channel and using an AI chatbot to handle customer enquiries on the website.

Whatever the function, Colm is confident that MessageMedia will be able to deliver.

“MessageMedia delivers a ton of value for us. It just works, and it keeps getting better,” he explains.

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How Oz Hair and Beauty achieved a 38x ROI with personalized SMS

Discover how Australia’s premium beauty retailer uses personalized SMS campaigns and two-way messaging to increase sales.

Overview

Challenge: Create personalized shopping experiences at scale across online and retail channels

Solution: Implement targeted SMS campaigns and two-way messaging for higher customer engagement

Results: Improved customer engagement and conversion rates

But Michela Bracich, RTA Store’s Marketing Operations and Zoho CRM Manager, knows that selling cabinetry isn’t just about the product—it’s about guiding customers through a complex journey from design to installation.

“By using SMS as an engagement and conversational tool, we can add more value for our customers. And Sinch is the easiest-to-use platform to have those conversations.”

– Chris Haddad
CRM and E-Commerce Manager at Oz Hair and Beauty

Oz Hair and Beauty doesn’t just sell premium products. It’s a place where customers can get personalized recommendations for everything from the best dry hair shampoo to the right skincare routine for acne-prone skin. 

“We want to have conversations with our customers about their hair and skin, so we can guide them to the right products,” said Chris Haddad, CRM and E-Commerce Manager at Oz Hair and Beauty. 

But as the retailer tripled in size over the last few years, maintaining customer relationships in store and online became a challenge. This time, Chris and his team needed some personalized recommendations of their own.

Testing a new way to connect with customers

Chris reached out to Sinch to learn about cost-effective ways to reach customers. Together, they landed on SMS marketing.  

To test the idea, Chris sent a simple campaign with an offer from a major brand. The response was immediate and overwhelming. The warehouse saw a surge in orders, and customer service channels lit up with inquiries. 

“That’s when we knew we needed to get more strategic with SMS. We’d had our fun, sent out a blast, and got a great result, but we wanted to expand on that,” Chris said. 

Creating personalized, conversational experiences with SMS

Now, Oz Hair and Beauty uses SMS to increase customer engagement and sales through: 

1. Targeted promotional campaigns

For major sales events, like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Chris segments contacts based on past purchases, interests, and behavior. For even higher engagement, he personalizes messages with custom fields like the customer’s name, location, and product preferences. 

“With Sinch’s help, we’ve figured out what works,” Chris said. “We know we can smash out a 160-character SMS in a matter of minutes – and people will respond to it.” 

Oz Hair and Beauty’s targeted, conversational approach has led to impressive results. For instance, their 2022 Black Friday/Cyber Monday campaign generated:

• 12% click-through rate
• 15% response rate
• 100% delivery rate 

Since then, every promotional SMS campaign has achieved a click-through rate of 10.32% or higher. 

“By using SMS as an engagement and conversational tool, we can add more value for our customers,” Chris said. “And Sinch is the easiest-to-use platform to have those conversations.” 

2. Abandoned cart messages

They also integrated Sinch’s SMS services with Shopify to trigger messages based on customer behavior. For instance, if a customer abandons items in their cart, they’ll receive a text inviting them to complete their purchase. 

“We have seen a 13% conversion rate for that, which is amazing,” said Annaliese Evans, Oz’s CRM and Loyalty Specialist. 

Even better, they’ve generated up to 38x ROI on their abandoned cart messages. 

3. Two-way messaging

Customers can text product questions to Oz’s SMS hotline and receive personalized recommendations from beauty experts.  

Beauty experts can provide advice while sharing relevant promotions to encourage sales. 

“We know what our customers want, and with Sinch, we can send them offers for the products they love using the channel we know they prefer,” Chris said. 

Unlocking omnichannel success

Building on this success, Oz Hair and Beauty has implemented an omnichannel strategy that connects online and in-store experiences. 

For example, if a customer receives a promotional SMS for a product not stocked in their local store, staff can immediately facilitate an online order with direct shipping. 

Integrated retail experiences like this, powered by Sinch’s SMS capabilities, will help Oz Hair and Beauty stay connected with customers as they grow. 

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How OzMobiles uses SMS to drive ROI higher and keep spend low

Learn how a leading mobile phone refurbisher used SMS to save thousands each year while maximizing the impact of its campaigns.

Overview

Challenge: Improve oversight and efficacy of marketing tools and campaigns.

Solution: Use Sinch’s powerful features to boost marketing ROI and unlock oversight.

Results: Deliver $10-15k per year savings – one campaign delivered 3000% ROI.

“It’s been great working with Sinch – it just made the whole process so much simpler. Happy days.”

-Tim Duggal
CEO at OzMobiles

OzMobiles started like many Australian businesses do – with a lot of hard work and boots on the ground. The company is now one of the country’s most respected specialist retailers of refurbished mobile phones. They procure old models locally, refurbish them in-house and then sell them online.

Tim Duggal wears many different hats as the company’s founder, owner and CEO. He knew SMS had the potential to improve marketing, but didn’t know where to start. That’s when Sinch got in touch.

Tightening up marketing, better ROI

A growing and ambitious business, OzMobiles was already performing well with its existing marketing and advertising activities, but Tim suspected it could be doing better.

OzMobiles was collecting customer data and Tim wanted to do more with it. He also suspected he was paying for unnecessary tools and services. But with little oversight, he wasn’t sure which activities were delivering results and if there were more cost effective and efficient ways to deliver them.

“As a busy business owner who is doing a lot of the marketing, there’re so many different things that you need to understand, and they just go over your head.

You’re doing the best you can to collect information from customers, and you, of course, want another medium that you can get some more revenue in.”

Seamless connectivity, instant transparency

Sinch’s seamless SMS platform was the solution Tim had been looking for. It added enhanced functionality and transparency to OzMobile’s existing technology stack, maximising SMS efficacy while integrating smoothly with his primary CRM system

The team can put together a message for one or more of their lists, select the sender ID, and add branded links and text. Based on character counts, the system delivers a rough cost estimate so the team can reduce the text and the cost if necessary.

Once each campaign is sent, the platform delivers a comprehensive report. Thanks to a native integration, Sinch pulls OzMobile’s Shopify reporting to precisely quantify the results and ROI. 

“It helps me understand all SMS campaigns, what I’m spending money on and where I’m getting the best return on investment. It just makes my life so much easier to understand it from a higher level.”

When OzMobiles collects more customer information, the platform is updated instantly – it’s connected to Kaviyo CRM, another of Sinch’s native integrations. 

The support from the Sinch team is just as efficient, says Tim.

“Every time we send out a campaign, we log into the platform and create the SMS,” he says. “Then I get my account manager to jump in there and to help me optimise it with the links.”

$10-15k a year savings, 3,000% ROI

With the efficacy of OzMobiles’ campaigns tracked through to dollars in the till, it’s easy for Tim to see the impact Sinch has had on the company’s bottom-line.

The results he’s seeing from SMS alone have blown him away. He points to a recent campaign around Valentine’s Day, which directly led to around 100 sales and a “dramatic” ROI of approximately 3,000%.

“Once I started doing some campaigns, I was happily surprised at how much extra revenue I could get in through SMS, which was awesome.”

At the same time, OzMobiles is also spending $10-15K less a year on marketing and advertising – savings that Tim also credits to Sinch.

“It definitely helps me to understand where my budgets are going and how my advertising dollars are being spent, which is super cool,” says Tim. “It’s been great working with Sinch – it just made the whole process so much simpler. Happy days.”

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Wesley Mission Queensland serves better with Sinch MessageMedia

Wesley Mission Queensland (WMQ) is a not-for-profit organisation serving people and communities all over the state. Its 3000 staff deliver more than 80 services. These include caring for people and families in their homes, the community and dedicated residential facilities.

With many team members spending their days away from a computer, SMS has played a critical role in the organisation. The company has used SMS for years, from rostering arrangements to communicating with clients and their families.

But, these SMS communications were managed differently from service to service, says Justin Toon, WMQ Team Leader for Digital CX.

“That decentralised approach had become more challenging with WMQ’s growth. It wasn’t working well for us. We needed to see holistically who was sending what and be able to reach the whole organisation quickly if we needed to.”

WMQ needed reorganised SMS messaging, consolidated into one flexible, easy-to-use system. That’s where Sinch MessageMedia came in.

Messaging challenges

As a complex and diverse organisation, WMQ looks for the most efficient way to reach as many people as possible. While SMS would remain a crucial part of the organisation, the existing de-centralised approach needed streamlining.

Staff at some services had separate accounts with WMQ’s legacy messaging system, directSMS.

directSMS had worked for WMQ in the past. However, a more integrated system would deliver the oversight functionality and governance the organisation needed to boost efficiency and better serve its communities.

“We’re a large organisation with separate locations, so we need to be able to coordinate communications under one roof,” explains Justin.

With conversations coordinated through a shared system, WMQ could improve communication and service delivery. For example, if one staff member were covering another, they would simply review previous interactions with the client. An integrated system would also make it easier for each service to communicate with their clients.

Moving its internal and external SMS into Sinch MessageMedia would save time and money while improving efficiency, security and quality of service.

Consolidating 20+ accounts

Asking already very busy care teams to move from one platform to another is no small task. But WMQ knew it would be worth it, especially as they wouldn’t be doing it alone.

“Our account manager went above and beyond to get us where we are,” says Justin.

Working collaboratively with the team at Sinch, the WMQ team began by documenting the organisation’s current status.

“We analysed the number of accounts and active users, what was being sent, and why.”

They then transitioned active accounts from directSMS to Sinch MessageMedia, deleting obsolete accounts and implementing single sign-on. They also reviewed and set correct permission levels in line with updated security standards. This process immediately made everything more organised and consistent.

“Each sub-account has its own code. I love the tidiness of it – we can drill down to service areas or individuals.”

The shift felt seamless for WMQ staff.

“We’ve had great feedback – the interfaces are similar, so users were comfortable with the transition,” says Justin. “We could support people signing in for the first time – that has been smooth.”

Services that weren’t using directSMS still need to be added to a subaccount – and demand is high.

“I have a wait list of services wanting to be added,” says Justin.

Want to take SMS for a spin?

Try it for free

52% cost savings, immeasurable efficiency improvement

Consolidating WMQ’s 20 messaging accounts into one delivered immediate benefits to the organisation – a 52% cost reduction and security improvements with single-sign-on functionality.

“We got a better rate, but a big draw card was also improving on information security practices.”

Fast, efficient internal comms

Justin says that even though these benefits would have made the shift worthwhile, the organisation is also seeing significant improvements in efficiency, communication and service delivery.

The new system is especially useful when WMQ needs to pass on urgent and critical information. Without Sinch MessageMedia, these communications would be much more difficult.

“Without a central source, we just wouldn’t have been able to get communications out to our people. We would have had to rely on managers, so a percentage of the services wouldn’t have been informed.”

In the ordinary running of things, Sinch MessageMedia streamlines internal communications – from covering shifts at the last minute to updating care workers who are already out and about.

“If a client goes into the hospital at the last minute, we have to cancel a home visit appointment. How else could we let the care worker know? The real-time response is essential.”

Delivering better service

Much of WMQ’s work is with people at their most vulnerable, whether experiencing poverty or homelessness, needing support as they age, struggling to manage chronic illness, caring for sick loved ones and more. Even something as simple as a rescheduled appointment or a change in care provider can be highly disruptive emotionally and logistically.

Sinch MessageMedia lets WMQ services minimise the impacts with more efficient, timely and personal communication.

“Being able to update people alleviates so much stress,” says Justin.

“Because we can segment and personalise the messages, we’re helping clients trust our messages and service overall”

Justin Toon, WMQ Team Leader for Digital CX

Speed of communication is also crucial.

“We have to be able to update family members if there’s a COVID outbreak at a care facility,” he adds.

Sinch MessageMedia also makes it easier to confirm appointment times and gives clients more details about what to expect.

Boosting marketing and sales efforts

The new SMS system makes sales and marketing more efficient and effective – they can send SMS reminders and updates depending on how the prospect interacts with the initial email.

“If one of our retirement villages has a vacant property, we can use SMS to follow up with the leads who have shown interest in a property before,” Justin explains.

There is also an opportunity to integrate this platform with other enterprise systems.

Doing more together

The heart of everything WMQ does is the people, families and communities it cares for. While Sinch MessageMedia’s practical benefits are all about efficiency, transparency and governance, the most valuable outcome for WMQ is that it lets staff work together to deliver more for customers.

“I would highly recommend Sinch MessageMedia. It gives people the tools they need to do their job well.”

Justin Toon, WMQ Team Leader for Digital CX

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