CONTACT CENTER | 10 MIN READ
15 Text Messaging Statistics Every Business Should Know
Written by Michael Wise
Text for business: A new era has begun.
There is an evolution taking place in communication. Businesses love to track their customers by requiring them to login with a username and password for even the simplest interaction. Anyone over the age of 25 probably knows what it feels like to have over 100 online accounts.
With consumers drowning in these accounts, forward-thinking businesses are starting to look at SMS messaging as a way to engage with their customers in a way that’s far more convenient and more comfortable.
For businesses, a few common misconceptions are that sending texts to their customers is intrusive or ineffective because their best customers don’t use text messaging. However, recent studies by Pew Research and Experian Marketing have confirmed business text messaging has incredible upside.
Texting is the most used function on a smartphone.
- Roughly 259 million people in the US (81% of the population) are texters. In fact, over 97% of all smartphone users have texted within the last week.
- It’s true, the frequency of text messaging is much greater for men and women under 40, but even those over 55 are sending or receiving an average of 16 texts per day.
Text messages are read more often and responded to more quickly.
- Incredibly, according a study by Singlepoint, texts have a 99% open rate. And Forbes reported that 95% of texts are read within three minutes.
- These statistics answer one of the most important questions involving your choice of communication channel—will your customer see your message!
- Text messaging is also off-the-chart when it comes to response rate. A study by Velocify reports 45% of text messages receive a response, compared to 6% of emails. This is why two-way text campaigns are so important.
Text messaging resolves common issues much faster than a telephone call.
- Today, your customers’ free time is measured in seconds and not minutes or hours. Sending and receiving a text is 10 times faster than placing a voice call. For the consumer, it takes less than five seconds to read most text messages.
- Businesses also benefit by receiving a response quickly—within 90 seconds on average. Email, on the other hand, takes 90 minutes on average.
Sure, there are times when only a phone call will do, but you would be amazed at how business interactions can be handled quickly and effectively through text messaging.
Texting is becoming the #1 communication preference in the US.
- A Pew study found that 33% of American adults prefer texts to all other forms of communication—regardless of who is sending that text or what the message is about.
- In fact, 78% of consumers polled wished they could text a business, but most businesses don’t have this option available. According to Twilio, only 48% of business are equipped to handle messaging.
- Texting used to be something you did with friends and relatives, but recent studies have shown most bosses (79%) approve of using text messaging for business purposes.
Examples of business SMS messaging
Contact centers, which can be anything from customer service departments to collection agencies, are quickly adding text (SMS) functionality. A recent study by Dimension Data reported 38% of contact centers currently offer SMS, and 23% plan on adding it within the next 12 months.
What kinds of business activities do consumers prefer to do by text?
A 2014 Harris Poll found that consumers actually preferred certain business interactions to be handled by text.
- Check order status (38%)
- Schedule or change an appointment (32%)
- Confirm reservations (31%)
Want to know more?
Want to leverage text messaging to engage customers and increase response rates?
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