People are still using SMS, and the numbers are increasing year on year. It is the simplest yet most effective way to communicate and engage. In last five years, world wide smart phone installed base has increased by 180% from 1.03 million to 2.89 billion (Statistica), with 98% of smartphone users using texting on regular basis (AT&T)

(Source: Statistica 2017)

Customers Are Open To Receiving Texts

People have an inherent need to connect with others, be it family or businesses. Based on IDC survey, the services that drive the highest levels of connectedness across the largest number of people are texting/messaging followed by talking on the phone, and direct messaging via Facebook.

(Source: IDC)

And They Prefer Business Texting Over Other Modes

Unlike other modes, texting has high open and response rate, based on report from Gartner, various sources report SMS open and response rates as high as 98% and 45%, respectively — in contrast to corresponding figures of 20% and 6% for email. Only 17% respondent of survey conducted by SAP & Loudhouse Research, consider SMS messages sent by companies to be intrusive.

Are You On-Board?

Based on Gartner research,  SMS, along with consumer messaging apps, will be a primary way for organizations to engage with their customers. However, even after knowing the benefits of texting, many businesses face ongoing challenges in adopting and integrating texting with their existing engagement model, citing technology as prime reason.

If you are thinking of adopting texting for your business, outdated solutions will not cut the mark. Having right tool to seamlessly integrate texting with your existing channel is the way to go. You should opt for a tool or platform like Braango that let you integrate texting with other modes like voice calling, allow customers as well as sales to switch modes effortlessly, record and analyze customer journey across multiple channels and last but not least is TCPA compliant.