A majority of businesses that use texting to engage with customers do so for scheduling purposes, with about half using the messaging tool for customer service and support. Companies’ preference for these and other use cases for texting generally aligns with how consumers prefer to be contacted via text, according to a report [download page] from Zipwhip.
More than half (56%) of the 1,600 US businesses surveyed report that they use texting for scheduling. Other common use cases are customer support (48%), alerts and reminders (43%) and sales inquiries (30%). Businesses are also texting internally, with around 4 in 10 (37%) claiming they use it for internal communications.
This is largely in alignment with the types of texts from businesses consumers themselves find valuable. Scheduling-related texts were largely considered the most valuable, with 68% of the 1,000 consumers surveyed saying a reminder of an important appointment was the most valuable text they’ve received from a business. Customer service-related texts and alerts are also considered valuable by some, including updates on the status of a delivery or shipment (30%), booking confirmations/changes/cancellations (20%), a discount on a product or service (14%), an alert to refill a prescription (12%) and a quick resolution to a question (11%).
Text communication isn’t always one way. Although the vast majority (91%) of consumers say they have received a text message from a business, more than two-fifths (43%) of those surveyed say they have proactively texted a business, with one-third (32%) reporting that they have texted a business and not gotten a response back.
For those companies that have not incorporated texting into their customer communications, 17% cite concern about customers’ perception of texting as spam as a reason. This may not be far off the mark, as 3 in 10 customers say they have unsubscribed to a business’ texts because they were spam (31%) or because they were too frequent (30%) – which is also a common complaint when it comes to email.
Separately, two-thirds (64%) of consumers surveyed say they are not likely to install a company’s branded app in order to communicate with the brand. Furthermore, 6 in 10 (61%) say they have downloaded a branded app and then deleted it shortly after.
Read the full report here.
About the Data: Based on a January 2020 survey of 1,600 businesses and 1,000 consumers in the US.
