When it comes to A2P SMS messaging, testing matters. Why? Because every day, thousands of enterprises rely on the SMS channel to alert their customers – and a good chunk of those messages go undelivered. Either by mistake or on purpose.
So, how can you take control of the situation? Well, obviously, you can’t just hope for the best. Even if you have great confidence in your provider, you still need to prove to your customers that you’ve done a good job and routed their traffic as promised – not only by returning DLRs but also by sharing your quality assurance concepts.
As we explained in a previous blog, this is why we test. However, even if you have made this leap, you can still get things wrong. Here are three mistakes to avoid.
Your tests are not regular or measurable
You can’t rely on a supplier’s promise to do testing, you must do it yourself. You can test for the terminating SMS-C, the delivered sender ID, the delivered message content, and the delivery time. But the tests must be frequent to track service quality with accuracy.
You’re testing a small pool
Yes, you can send test messages to colleagues and friends. But can you rely on them to dedicate time to the activity? You must make sure your sample is large, simulates ‘real’ customers and is available at all times. Having a large pool allows you to mitigate the risk of test messages being ‘white-listed’ or handled incorrectly.
You’re only testing ‘normal’ parameters
Another problem with a small pool is that you cannot test for every potential issue. For example: how to test delivery to ported numbers? Or special character/datacoding support? Or message concatenation? Only a wide and varied test pool will give you the insights you need to improve your service.
Specialised SMS testing really matters. It’s the only way to ensure that routes work as promised. So don’t just hope for the best. Make testing an integrated part of your platform and routing decisions.
If you still have doubts, reach out to GTC. Let us help you do messaging better!
