Texting has become ubiquitous to almost all of us. Most Americans (95 percent) own a cellphone, with 77 percent owning a smartphone. Consumers and small business owners find value in two-way text messaging, and want to text each other more frequently, according to a survey by Seattle, WA-based cloud software platform Zipwhip[1].
It has released its The State of Two-Way Business Texting 2018 study. It asked over 500 consumers and 250 small business owners to discover attitudes and practices related to two-way texting.
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It is easy to see why text messaging is the most-used data service across the world. We send and receive five times as many texts compared with the number of phone calls each day, according to mobile intelligence firm Informate.
A huge 90 percent of the time, a text is read within the first three minutes of receiving. Customers who receive texts from businesses tend to have a 40 percent higher conversion rate than those who do not. Small businesses could benefit from this consumer behaviour.
There are over 200 million business phone numbers in the US. Most businesses are able to text-enable their existing landline, VoIP, or toll-free phone number, which allows customers to communicate with businesses and get rapid responses.
Texting is one of the best ways for small businesses to strengthen their relationships with their customers. According to Zipwhip, texting can drive customer engagement and loyalty across almost all consumer industries.
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It can also improve communication channels between businesses and consumers and give