It’s no secret that traditional customer service channels such as email and phone are in sharp decline.
Times have changed and so have user habits. With the technology in our pockets advancing at a rapid rate, mobile phones are being increasingly used in every part of our daily lives.
In the world of customer service, this translates to the fact that text-based services such as Live Chat and text messaging (and not just SMS) now dominate.
And here are some statistics to back this up.
The rise and rise of smartphones
- Text messaging is the most used data service in the world.
- 83.72 per cent of the world’s population owns a smartphone.
- There will be an estimated 7.52 billion mobile users in the world by 2026.
- By 2025, 72.6 per cent of internet users will only use mobile devices.
- 75 per cent of Millennials and Gen Zers use smartphones for online shopping.
An increasing preference for texting
- Those aged from 18 to 24 send, on average, 109.5 text messages a day.
- Boomers are also now twice as likely to text rather than call.
- Around85 per cent of mobile users prefer receiving text messages over a phone call or email.
- Text messages have a 98 per cent open rate compared to just 20 per cent in emails.
- 63 per cent of Millennials prefer texting because it is “less disruptive”.
- What’s more, 76 per cent of Millennials prefer texting because it means they can open messages in their own time.
- That said, the average person takes just 90 seconds to respond to a text message.
Text messaging services
- On average, consumers have three different messaging apps on the home screen of their phone.
- Whatsapp is the most popular text messaging service in the world, with approximately two billion active users per month.
- 18 billion messages are sent via SMS each day, dwarfed by 100 billion daily on Whatsapp.
- Whatsapp is the leader in key markets such as Latin America and Southern Europe, while Facebook Messenger dominates in North America, Australia and much of Scandinavia.
- Over 1.3 billion people use Facebook Messenger every month, sending around 20 billion messages.
Text-based customer service
- 64 per cent of consumers want businesses to contact them via text message more often.
- 60 per cent of retail customers choose to text rather than phoning a call centre.
- Almost two-thirds of consumers in the USA would switch to a company if it offered text messaging as a contact method.
- 72 per cent of customers would prefer to shop with a company that communicated with them in real-time via text.
- 60 per cent of consumers prefer to receive support through text rather than via email.
- 43 per cent of consumers will actively choose to text businesses with enquiries or to order or request services.
- 54 per cent of consumers are frustrated when they can’t text a business.
- Only 68 per cent of businesses have some type of text-based communication.
- Instead of attending one call or email at a time, with text-based channels, customer support agents canhandle up to six interactions at any one moment.
Customer satisfaction
- Figures show that 59 per cent of consumers feel that companies no longer offer a “human touch”.
- 90 per cent of customers say that an immediate response to a question (within 10 minutes) is “important” or “very important”.
- Up to 90 per cent of customers are much more likely to be satisfied if the service they receive is immediate and/or flexible.
- Around57 per cent of potential customers will abandon their purchases if they know they’re facing a long wait for an answer to a question.
The potential of text-based customer care
The numbers speak for themselves. All businesses looking to stay competitive need to get on the text messaging train.
The vast majority of your customers now, and practically all of them in the near future, will be on smartphones. And the majority of their interactions will be text-based.
As a result, traditional channels will no longer be relevant, and if you cannot respond to queries via text message, quickly and in real time, you will be left behind.
Superagent for your business
With Superagent, we’ve got you covered.
Bring together multiple text-based channels, including SMS and Whatsapp, into one efficient, easy-to-use customer service helpdesk.
With all your interactions in one place, respond quickly to customers on the channel of their choice and never drop a chat again.
Download the program here - for desktop or mobile - and stay ahead of the competition.