US & UK consumers wish more sms interaction with the companies they engage with

More than half of global digital users would prefer to receive sms messages by companies they bouht from, but research by OpenMarkets shows that most of the consumers don’t receive text messages. Over 67% of retail customers say that sms interaction with companies seems ‘very useful’ to them.

The research claims that, there’s a vast opportunity for businesses to enhance customer satisfaction and ultimately evoke better overall customer loyalty. The findings discovered that financial services is the top industry in which consumers would like to see better customer experiences and engagement opportunities via SMS (49 percent), followed by retail (27 percent) and travel and hospitality (24 percent).

When asked why consumers found it useful to text for business services over other communication channels, nearly half (45 percent) of respondents pointed to “not getting put on hold,” “doing it on my own time,” and “taking my time to respond” as the top three factors for choosing text messaging.

The company, after polling 1500 mobile users in the US & UK, suggests using automated chatbots can help seizing this wasted opportunity of improving customer interaction. An example is shown in the infographic below.