7 Reasons Why YourCustomers Want to Text You

The way to engage with yourconnected customers today

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What’s more, CIO Today shares that 64% of people prefer text messaging versus callingfor customer service and another 44% would rather send a text than stay on hold.

It is also fairly intuitive, if not well-known, that the value of a great customer experience—when we are a customer engaging with a company—is extremely high. But did you knowthat we are willing to pay more for a great customer service experience? According toAmerican Express, 70% of Americans are willing to spend more with companies theybelieve provide excellent customer service.

We’d like to take this opportunity to give customers a voice andgive companies insight into why customers want to message youand are ready to do so now.

It’s a commonly-known fact: SMS/text messaging, Facebook Messenger, and web chatare pervasive and the popularity of messaging today is undisputed. Fully 97% ofsmartphone owners regularly use text messaging, making it the most widely-used basicfeature or app as reported by Pew Research.

So, this begs a question: if we text message or Facebook messageall day, every day, then why are so few companies giving us, theircustomers, the option to message their customer service teamwhen we need help or have questions?

Text messageshave a 

open rate.Highest

engagement ofany channel

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2. We won't wait 

1. We are busy. Like, really busy

2

Time Is Of The Essence

We try to jam in hundreds of tasks every day and we value our free time more than ever.We don’t want to drop what we’re doing to call you (let alone wait on hold!), and wedon’t have time to wait for a response to an email. Phone and email support is disruptive to the flow ofgetting everything we are trying to get done. It’sharder to multitask while focusing on a phoneconversation, and email support is stilted, makingsolving our problems take longer than necessary.Forrester has found that 77% of US online adults saythat valuing their time is the most important thing acompany can do to provide them with good service(Forrester). So, please make it easy on us.  Let us reach out to you how and when we want to – onour terms, not yours.  Text messaging or messaging your customer service team viaFacebook Messenger is so much less disruptive to our days and is just plain easier.

77%US online adults say that

valuing their time is the mostimportant thing a companycan do to provide them with

good service.

Giving us your member service phone number or customer support email address mayseem like a fine solution, but it’s not enough. We don’t really need or want to talk toyou on the phone or with email. Remember, we are busy and in a hurry. We can’t be tiedto our computer screens or have our phones glued to our ears. In fact, 81% of usconsumers agree that it is frustrating to be tied to a phone or a computer to wait forcustomer service help (ATT).

Just give us a button to click on your website for us to textmessage you or a button on your credit union Facebook page.Then we can quickly message you our problem from ourphone or computer, and while you’re trying to help, we cancontinue getting all our other tasks done. Efficiency is key forus just as it is for you—taking care of a problem or answeringa question as soon as possible, or seamlessly communicatingwhen we have time throughout the day, means we’ll be moreproductive and feel more confident in the companies wechoose to do business with.

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Often we just want to ask a super easy question.  Doyou hear a lot of ‘When will this be back in stock?’ or‘Where’s my order?’ or ‘How do I return this?’ from us? We realize many of our questions can be answeredquickly.  We don’t need to chit-chat.  We just want aquick answer in return. Give your customer service agents the ability to textmessage us back with an answer.  This quick back andforth is so much easier on both of us – it saves us bothtime and even better, it saves you money.

4. Not just for millenials

3. Hey, just a quick question

You may be thinking that this mobile messaging phenomenon doesn’t apply to yourcompany.  Believe us, it does apply. Messaging customer service isn’t just a young kidsgame.   It only takes a few minutes around any young person to know that mobile adoption ishigh within that demographic. But millennials (ages 18-34) aren’t the only ones thatprefer messaging. Text messaging is the most used form of communication forAmerican adults under 50 (Gallup), and even adults over 55 send and receive anaverage of nearly 500 texts a month (Experian Marketing Services). So, don’t think that if we aren’t a millennial that we won’t message you.  We will andwe want to.  Also, we don’t have to be tech-savvy to message our family and friends,so we don’t have to be tech-savvy to message you.  Remember what we said before:We all prefer to contact customer service via messaging over any other channel.

3

Composing an email takes time and sending it into the ether with no idea when we willhear back from you doesn’t fit our need for instant-gratification. We prefer to message aquestion during any waking (or sleeping!) hour, and to start solving the issue right thenand there.

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As customers, we prefer sending you a messagebecause we are always on the go, surrounded by otherpeople, and simply can’t talk. According to Pew, if we’renot at home, we are probably in the car or public transit(82%), at work (69%), or waiting in line (53%). Most of usfind it socially inappropriate to make or take personalcalls while at work or in public spaces.

6. Actually, we just don't want to talk

5. Sorry, can't talk now

We are all guilty of it: sending our family, our friends, and unknown numbers to voicemail.So, why would we want to talk to customer support? More and more consumers perceive aphone call as invasive and disrespectful to their time, which is why we text over twice asmuch as we call (Nielsen). Why do so many of us dread phone calls? Because we find them unpredictable – it couldtake a few minutes or half an hour to reach someone in customer service that can actuallyhelp us. Messaging is not only quick and efficient, but really convenient.

4

Despite that, we still have a problem that we need you to help us with.  Justbecause we can’t call you during your set phone hours, doesn’t mean we don’t needand want help. This is the perfect time for us to send you a message and morediscretely resolve our issue on our terms. Even better, messaging allows us tocontrol the cadence of the conversation instead of customer service. Maybe that iswhy we like messaging so much.

Per CCW Digital’s customer experience special report on messaging,  70% of customerswant resolution on the first contact. 69% view speed as a top priority. 66% value friendly,personable agents, while 65% utterly oppose waiting on hold. 

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When we are given the option to text for customer service, we’re likely to show yourcustomer service team the love. In fact, 77% of us between the ages of 18-34 are likely tohave a positive perception of a company that offers text messaging capability. (CIO Today).Not only that, but we give significantly higher customer satisfaction scores for mobilemessaging than any other channel.

Customers are knocking - let us in!

7. We will like you more

5

What are you waiting for?  We are ready and excited to connect with your customer serviceteam over messaging.  Text messaging is so convenient. It gives us the control we love andwe get to direct the conversation’s cadence. Take our word for it—give us the choice to textyou and see for yourself!

In a study conducted by MarketStrategies International, researchshowed  availability of a mobilemessaging channel is sufficientmotivation to influence theirdecision-making, with nearly halfindicating that it would cause themto choose one product or serviceover another, and more than halfstating that it would raise their brandperceptions. 

Quiq Messaging is a multi-channel business messsagingplatform that allows your customers to connect with youvia SMS/text messaging, web chat, social, or even withinyour existing app. Plus, Quiq Messaging can help you take the conversationfurther by opening rich messaging as a channel. Richmessaging through Apple Business Chat and Google RichBusiness Messaging, allows agents to send product picklists, appointment availability, and work seamlessly withyour app. 

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Seamlessly Manage EveryContact

Agents can easily manage multipleasynchronous conversations viaSMS/text messaging, rich messaging,live chat, and social messagingthrough the Quiq dashboard with ourproprietary Automatic Response Timer(ART) that automatically prioritizesconversations.

Quiq Integrations:

Text us at 646-887-8398

How to get started with Google RCS

Valuable Insights At Your Fingertips

Understand your current load and wait times in real-time,across all of your messaging channels. Managers have thedata they need to manage agent performance, observe,collaborate, or even take over customer conversations. Gain easy access to past and current performance trendswith detailed reporting.

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