SMS Text: A Customer's Most Preferred Communication Method - Altigen (2024)

According to an extensive study by Twilio that surveyed over 6,000 consumers in Asia, Europe, and the United States, 89% of customers would prefer to communicate with businesses via SMS text. Considering that texting has become the main method of communication in our everyday lives, especially for younger generations like Millennials and Generation Z, it’s no surprise that more people want to text with a business or brand. Just think about all the messaging apps people have downloaded to their phone: iMessage, Android Hangouts, WhatsApp, GroupMe, Facebook Messenger… just to name a few.

With such a strong preference towards messaging you’d think this would be adopted as a customer service and sales strategy, yet, many businesses worldwide don’t offer that option. SMS text is a largely untapped resource that can be used to improve the volume and quality of connections a business can create with customers. With all the different notifications and alerts we can opt-in or out of, most people choose to keep all of those turned on for text. That means any time your business texts a customer, their phone is going to give a sound alert, a notification badge, and maybe even secondary alerts should they wait to open the text. This vastly increases the likelihood of the customer opening the message, and also increases their willingness to read it.

Additionally, customers are looking for two-way communication with a business with the option to refine and customize the way they receive information. A customer who wakes up to 27 emails all from different brands is not going to open each email, let alone read them. With texting in the early stages of use for many companies, the option to message customers will help your business build more genuine connections and actually give the customer an opportunity to reciprocate communication.

This will become extremely helpful in providing personalized customer service solutions, as well as increasing the impactfulness of sales and marketing techniques. This holds true not only for the young connoisseurs of texting (aka Milennials and Gen Z), but for all age groups 18 to 55+. Referring back to Twilio’s report, people ages 18-44 are only 7.33% more likely to use texting compared to those 45 and older. In order to make better customer service and marketing connections with your entire audience, don’t be a part of the 52% of businesses that have yet to even consider SMS text.

For more information on the benefits of SMS text in a customer service capacity, read our previous blog.