People are connected, if not addicted, to their phones.
A recent research report about Smartphone addiction finds that the average person checks their phone 80 times a day, which is approximately every 12 minutes. And age makes a difference. Gen-Z numbers are significantly higher than Baby Boomers’. The point is, people are connected, if not addicted, to their phones. With that in mind, when communicating with customers, why consider any other way than through their mobile phone?
According to David Baxter, CEO of Solutions by Text, the preferred communication channel is messaging. I had a chance to interview Baxter on an episode of Amazing Business Radio, and he described how messaging done well creates a better customer experience. Here are some of the main themes and ideas he shared in the interview:
The History of Text Messaging
Text messaging has come a long way. Originally, it was developed for person-to-person communication. It’s now a viable channel for businesses to communicate with their customers. While Baxter related the origin of his company, Solutions by Text, he noted that the real story is “solutions by mobile device,” moving from simple communications to transacting business in the modern era of smartphone technology.
The Power of Text Messaging
Baxter’s research finds that 95% of text messages are opened and read in under five minutes. Emails can go unanswered and are eventually deleted, having never been read. Direct mail pieces (postal mail) often end up in a trash can. Regarding the “open rate,” one of the main success measurements in advertising and marketing, messaging blows away these other forms of communication.
Texting for Business
While most people send text messages to friends and family, over the past few years, businesses have been connecting with customers via text. Traditional SMS (Short Message Service) messaging is evolving into more advanced communication with RCS (Rich Communication Services), which can send encrypted messages with embedded media content. Baxter’s company focuses on financial services and takes advantage of the RCS technology. Even in a heavily regulated industry with stringent compliance requirements, customers can make payments, qualify for loans and more using the device they carry with them every day. That’s easy and convenient—and customers love convenience. Imagine using messaging for industries in which compliance is much less stringent, making it convenient for both the company and the customer.
Don’t Break the Rules
While the financial services industry is regulated by banking-related laws, that doesn’t mean the average business doesn’t have any rules. There are strict rules from both the government and phone carriers to protect consumers from spam and unwanted messages. Break the rules and you get shut down. Phone carriers don’t want messaging to turn into a spam problem similar to email.
Trust Is in a Phone Number
When a customer gives a company their mobile number, it’s a strong sign of trust. Baxter emphasizes that a mobile number is a customer’s personal identity. It’s almost as personal as sharing a home address or Social Security number. Abuse the customer’s trust by sending irrelevant messages (similar to spam email), and they can block you forever with the tap of a button. The customer’s permission to text is a privilege. Protecting this privilege is the key to building trustworthy and loyal customer relationships. Once you lose the customer’s trust, they move on to your competition. Just as a phone carrier can “cancel” your ability to message, so can your customers.
Self-Service Customer Support
More and more, customers are embracing customer support channels that don’t include human-to-human phone calls, especially among younger generations (Gen-Z and Millennials), who value ways to solve problems without speaking to a person. My customer service research confirms that not offering alternatives to phone support can cause about one-third of your customers to leave.
The Customer Always Wins
Baxter’s final comment was simple: “The customer always wins.” That’s his mantra, and he shared it several times in our interview. We live in a mobile-first world. Winning and keeping customer loyalty means respecting customers’ preferences, guarding their trust and delivering seamless, real-time experiences directly into their hands (their mobile phones). Businesses of every type and size should ask, “What if we could meet our customers where they truly want to be met?” The answer defines the current and future customer experience.
