Audited customer reactivation case study
Even after two years without a purchase, 65% of past customers replied by text.
That was 87 of 134 customers whose last purchase was at least 24 months earlier. Across the full campaign, 804 of 1,100 past customers replied by text.
9:41●⌁
MP
Master Picture FramersAnonymised real customer conversation
Text Message · SMS
Anonymised real customer conversation.The customer's reply is verbatim; identifying detail in the opening message has been generalised. The customer's name is a pseudonym.
The commercial problem
Your relationships exist. The follow-ups do not.
“The system runs itself in the background while I get on with the framing.”Glen, Owner, Master Picture Framers Myaree
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The commercial problem
Picture framing is an infrequent purchase. A customer may be happy with the work and still have no reason to return until the next artwork, canvas, repair or gift appears. That makes a large past-customer list valuable, but difficult to work manually.
The aim was not to blast a discount at everyone. It was to start a relevant conversation, let the customer respond when convenient and recognise the difference between a genuine need, future timing, a review, a wrong record and an opt-out.
The audited numbers
What the campaign records show.
Every figure below comes from a full message-level export of the campaign, measured on 18 August 2026, with its counting rule stated beneath it.
typed replies from 1,100 contacts.
73.1% of the contacted customer records replied in their own words.
View how this was measured
An SMS send was attempted to 1,100 past customers. 804 replied with a typed message. The denominator includes 28 contacts who received no delivered SMS. Tap-back reactions were excluded.
87 of 134 replied by text.
The SMS reply rate was 64.9% among customers whose last purchase was at least 24 months before their first SMS.
View how this was measured
The recorded last-purchase date was compared with each customer's actual first outbound SMS date. 134 customers were at least 24 calendar months from their last purchase and 87 replied with a typed message. Tap-back reactions were excluded. The sent-basis denominator retains attempted sends rather than removing undelivered messages.
asked not to hear from the business again.
While 804 of 1,100 past customers replied by text, 90 opted out by any route. Every opt-out was recorded and suppressed from further sending.
View the benchmark context
Ordinary SMS marketing benchmarks generally refer to people who have already subscribed to ongoing text marketing. This was different: a one-off reactivation of an aged past-customer database. ReviewProsper therefore does not present 8.2% as a like-for-like benchmark win. It reports both sides honestly: the SMS reply rate was 73.1%, 8.2% opted out, and the people who opted out were removed from future sending.
The booking pathway
Eight customers booked.
Others restarted a conversation, said they intended to return, agreed to leave a review or asked to stay on the list. Most repliers were never asked to book, because a framing customer returns when they next have a piece, so the eight must not be read against all 1,100 contacts. Seven of the eight still stood at measurement; one was cancelled. A booking is not a sale or recorded attendance.
Owner-reported commercial outcome, 24th August 2026
sales Glen estimates resulted specifically from the campaign.
“I would say over a dozen, like 12 to 20, something like that, that's been specifically as a result of that.”
Reported by the business owner
This is Glen's retrospective estimate, given during a recorded client call. It was not reconciled sale by sale against invoices or point-of-sale records. It is reported separately from the eight bookings, and no exact sales count or recovered revenue total is claimed.
Separate review-programme observation
From 66 Google reviews to 164.
Measured from the 25 May 2026 dashboard baseline to a check on 20 August 2026. The in-store ReviewProsper plaque pre-dated that window, and the plaque and the later SMS review links used the same review page, so this is a wider programme observation, not an SMS-only result. No review conversion rate is calculated.
66started with→164by 20th August
+98public Google reviews4.9-star rating
“Our Google reviews are up, the phone's ringing more.”Glen, Owner, Master Picture Framers Myaree
What customer language revealed
A reply was never automatically called an opportunity.
The ReviewProsper SMS Android separated practical customer needs from polite replies, future timing, reviews, data corrections and opt-outs, then recorded each outcome in one visible campaign funnel.
“Yes you have the right person. And I have a new piece for framing so I'll be down to see you next week with that.”A customer, 16 minutes after the first text
“Thankyou. Yes I have one to reframe as the glass got broken only 2 weeks ago!”A customer, three minutes after the first message
“Do you guys do memorabilia type things”A customer starting his own enquiry, unprompted
“Keep us on your contact list, your service was very good.”A customer two years since her last visit
Protecting the customer relationship
Released in controlled batches. Paused when the shop needed time.
Messages went out in controlled batches across an eight-week send window, never to the whole list at once. Early exchanges were checked before more contacts were released, and the next batch waited whenever the shop needed time to follow up or the message needed correcting.
Check the message, boundaries and escalation paths before a larger audience sees them.
Inspect the exchanges, customer questions, opt-outs and human handoffs before releasing more contacts.
Refine what the SMS Android says, what it must not say and when a person takes over.
If the SMS Android needs correcting or the business is already at capacity, the next batch waits. Volume never outranks the customer relationship or the team's ability to act.
What the ReviewProsper SMS system keeps visible
A conversation, an owner and a next action.
The ReviewProsper SMS system kept commercial progression and useful side outcomes in one campaign record, so a review request, future project, wrong record or opt-out did not get disguised as a sale.
Monitored campaign funnel
Recreated from the ReviewProsper operating model. No customer records shown.
Managed, not abandoned to software
The SMS Android handled scale. Wade remained accountable.
Wade configured the campaign framework, monitored the controlled rollout and worked with the client on batch timing and escalation. The ReviewProsper SMS Android handled routine back-and-forth inside approved rules. Sensitive, unclear or high-judgement conversations were for a human.
“Wade's SMS campaign reactivated dozens of past customers I hadn't heard from in months. Our Google reviews are up, the phone's ringing more, and the whole thing runs itself in the background. Honest work - recommend.”Glen, Owner, Master Picture Framers MyareeFollow Wade on LinkedIn
Evidence without the sales spin
What the records confirm, and where the line stops.
What the records confirm
- Who was actually sent a campaign message.
- Typed replies, with tap-back reactions excluded.
- The time between first send and first typed reply.
- Booking links sent and bookings recorded across appointment, stage and tag signals.
- Opt-outs captured through the audited suppression tags.
- The full conversation history for independent checking.
What we do not claim
- No audited sales or revenue total. The campaign records carried no completed-sale values. Glen later estimated that 12 to 20 sales resulted specifically from the campaign, but that estimate has not been reconciled sale by sale.
- No recorded attendance. A confirmed booking is not proof that the customer attended.
- A booking is not a sale. The campaign records confirm eight bookings. Glen later estimated that 12 to 20 sales resulted from the campaign. These are separate measures. We do not treat the eight bookings as proof of sales or use them to calculate recovered revenue.
- Google reviews are measured separately. The profile moved from 66 to 164 reviews and showed a 4.9-star rating on 20th August. The result covers the combined ReviewProsper review programme rather than SMS alone.
- One dated campaign. These results are not a forecast for another database, business or industry.
The next case study should be yours
What is sitting quietly in your customer database?
We'll diagnose your quiet customers and you'll try the demo yourself.
Book a 15-min coffee No payment or customer data moves before you and Wade agree it fits.