2019 REPORT

STATE OF
TEXTING
Table of Contents

WHO IS ZIPWHIP?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

HOW TO USE THIS REPORT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

METHODOLOGY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Consumer Survey: Audience Breakdown. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Business Survey: Audience Breakdown. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

KEY INSIGHTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

2019 TRENDS & PREDICTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

HOW CONSUMERS USE TEXTING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Everyday Consumer Texting Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
How Consumers Prefer Texting with Businesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

HOW BUSINESSES USE TEXTING. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

The Types of Businesses Using Texting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
How These Businesses Use Texting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Businesses That Don’t Text: Understanding Why & Identifying Opportunities. . . . . . . . 19

CLOSING THOUGHTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

State of Texting Report 2

Who is Zipwhip?
Zipwhip empowers companies to communicate with
their customers in the most effective and preferred
way possible – text messaging. Today, more than
30,000 businesses rely on Zipwhip’s direct network
connections for secure high-volume traffic, unparalleled
features and consumer-focused innovation.

With deep expertise in the texting space since 2007,

Zipwhip pioneered texting-for-business technology in
2014 when it became the first company to text enable
an existing landline phone number. Zipwhip’s direct
network connectivity, intuitive cloud-based software
and an enterprise-grade API mean businesses can use
any computer or mobile device to securely and reliably
send and receive texts from their existing business
phone number.

Although texting is 25 years old, it’s a booming

technology that improves with age. Zipwhip remains
focused on innovation – continuously enhancing the
platform and network infrastructure to address the
requirements of customers well into the future.

State of Texting Report 3

How to Use
This Report
As the market leaders in texting for business, we
designed this report to be a comprehensive look at how
businesses and consumers use texting to communicate.
This report is ideal for any businesses interested in
bettering its customer communication. We’ve identified
key insights to help businesses better understand
consumer preferences for communication and ultimately
adopt text message strategies that work.

We encourage the re-publishing of text, data and graphics

in this report, as long as all uses appropriately cite and
link back to the original report.

If you’d like access to the raw data, please text our press
team at (206) 816-3605 or email press@zipwhip.com

State of Texting Report 4

Methodology
We examined two population categories: consumers and businesses. Each category consisted of 1,000 participants, resulting in 2,000
individuals total. We surveyed each participant individually and blind from a purchased panel sample through SurveyMonkey. All survey
respondents are from the United States and followed a census breakdown of gender and age. The survey was run in December 2018.

CONSUMER SURVEY: AUDIENCE BREAKDOWN

Our first survey examined consumer preferences and
behaviors for different communication channels including
30% 23%
have graduated college have completed graduate school
texting, email and voice call. The survey group represented

34%
the census population and could be any gender, age or from
any location within the United States. We collected education earn $100,000 or more annually (household)
level, income and regional location for each participant.

HIGHEST LEVEL OF EDUCATION HOUSEHOLD INCOME

1.48%

29.63% 6.89%
$0-$24,999
3.05%
$25,000-$49,999
24.02% 4.23% 13.29%
22.83% $50,000-$74,999
$75,000-$99,999
6.20%
$100,000-$124,999
20.37%
12.89% $125,000-$149,999
12.20%
$150,000-$174,999
7.28% 2.35% $175,000-$199,999
$200,000+ 15.06% 17.22%
COMPLETED SOME GRADUATED COMPLETED GRADUATED DID NOT $500,000+
GRADUATE GRADUATE COLLEGE 1-3 YEARS OF FROM HIGH COMPLETE
SCHOOL SCHOOL COLLEGE SCHOOL HIGH SCHOOL

State of Texting Report 5

BUSINESS SURVEY: AUDIENCE BREAKDOWN
In our second survey, we asked participants about how they communicate with customers in their workplace. All participants were required
to be employed and therefore acted as a representative for their own business or place of employment. We surveyed businesses within a
wide range of industry, size and location. Participants represented a wide range of roles within their companies and reported various levels of
buying power.

KEY STATS COMPANY SIZE

42% of businesses identified as business-to-consumer (B2C) 26.36%

20.93% 20.74%

15% The education industry had the highest representation (15%)

12.94%
10.75%
8.28%

26% identified as individual contributors to their business;

11% identified as owners or C-level executives
0-25 25-100 100- 1,000- 10,000- 50,000+
1,000 10,000 50,000

INDUSTRIES SURVEYED JOB ROLES

Individual Contributor 0.86%

1.05%
Other 1.33%
Manager 2.38%
4.09%
Team Lead
15.13% Education 3.33% Manufacturing Owner/C-Level
13.61% Healthcare/Pharmaceuticals 3.24% Advertising & Marketing 4.28%
C-Level 25.88%
8.37% Other 2.95% Transportation & Delivery Intern 5.04%
7.14% Telecom/Technology/Internet/ 2.66% Nonprofit Senior Manager
Electronics 2.57% Automotive
5.71%
Partner
7.04% Food & Beverages 2.47% Agriculture Vice President
6.76% Retail & Consumer 2.47% Business Support & Logistics 12.75%
Regional Manager
4.38% Entertainment & Leisure 1.52% Airlines & Aerospace 21.69%
Volunteer
4.09% Finance 1.43% Real Estate
14.94%
4.09% Government 1.43% Utilities, Energy & Extraction
4.00% Construction, Machinery & Homes 1.33% Insurance

State of Texting Report 6

Key Insights
Stay on trend with consumer preferences and improve your communication with these key takeaways from our 2019 State of Texting Report.
1. Businesses are swiftly adopting text messaging
as a communication tool.
Our research shows 39% of businesses use
some form of texting to communicate with their
customers today. Of the 61% that said they don’t
currently text, we predict many will adopt the
technology soon. Sixty-four percent of respondents
in that group said they see the value in business
texting, even though they haven’t adopted it yet.
Read more on page 15
2. The large majority of consumers are already
being texted by businesses.
76% of consumers said they’ve received some kind
of text message from a business.
Read more on page 11
3. Even as chatbots grow more sophisticated,
consumers prefer talking to a real person.
74% of consumers said they prefer to talk to a
real person rather than a chatbot when they need
something. Read more on page 12
State of Texting Report
4. One-way texting tools leave customers
frustrated.
Three out of four consumers said they feel
frustrated when they can’t reply back to a
company’s text message. Automated messaging
tools like short codes only allow for one-way
messaging, which means texts from customers go
unanswered. Thirteen percent of businesses that
currently text use short codes.
Read more on page 13
5. To avoid playing phone tag, consumers often
turn to texting.
58% of consumers said they’ve tried to reply to
a missed call via text. For businesses that aren’t
text enabled, those messages are never received,
and in turn, customers don’t get the response
they were hoping for. This finding underscores the
importance of text enabling your existing business
phone number. Read more on page 13
7
2019 Trends & Predictions
Texting for business is a necessary disruption in traditional
customer communication. As more businesses recognize the need
for something better and open to the idea of digital transformation,
we’re seeing a domino effect of text message adoption that will
only continue as 2019 progresses.
The future of customer communication isn’t messenger apps or
social media, but the native text messaging tool built into every
mobile device. Not only is business texting easy to implement and
integrate into existing workflows, it’s a proven way to communicate
faster.
Currently, 39 percent of companies use texting to communicate
with customers and we expect this number to grow dramatically
over the coming years as awareness of texting-for-business
solutions increases, and consumers continue pushing for the option
to text businesses. In a recent Zipwhip survey on generational
texting habits, 74% of consumers said they would like to receive
more text messages from businesses.
We believe the 61 percent of businesses that haven’t adopted
texting are either unaware of its benefits or worry about change
management when it comes to training and implementation of
new tools. We believe more businesses will adopt texting as
they discover just how easy texting-for-business software is to
implement into workflows and use daily.
State of Texting Report
Unfortunately, not all texting tools are created equal, and we do
expect to continue seeing adoption of one-way, automated text
messaging tools like short codes. As our research shows, this
strategy eliminates the best quality of texting: its conversational
nature. We hope this report will shed some light on why
conversational texting is key in the business-customer relationship.
Many businesses have looked to chatbot technology to provide that
conversational texting feel while maintaining efficiency and cutting
down on employee time. But the chatbot technology available
to most businesses today is not sophisticated enough to provide
a truly seamless and conversational experience for consumers
and often obstructs their ability to speak with a person. What
would ideally mimic real human interactions and prompt a natural
transition to a real person when a customer asks is instead often
a robotic exchange that doesn’t meet consumers’ expectations,
and in fact creates frustration, according to our research. Though
the technology isn’t mature enough today, we believe chatbots will
soon provide the kind of support customers want while managing a
seamless handoff to a real person when necessary.
Texting-for-business software will continue to improve this year with
new integrations and innovative artificial intelligence tools to make
businesses more productive, while still allowing for personalization.
8
 How Consumers Use Texting
The goal of this research is to better understand exactly how consumers use texting today
– both with their families and social circles and with businesses. We asked questions
regarding usage, response times, number of unread messages and more. We intend to
use this report as a benchmark to track year-over-year changes in communication trends
and consumer preferences as communication technologies evolve.

OUR RESEARCH CONFIRMS:

Texting is the highest priority form of communication and a highly
preferred one. Whether a person is texting their best friend or their hair
salon, inbox zero still exists in texting.

State of Texting Report 9

Everyday Consumer Texting Trends
As expected, we saw a close to even split in the number of TEXTING MEDIUM DEVICE
consumers using Android versus Apple, but respondents did
95.96%
50.69%
show a slight preference for Apple at 51 percent. Understanding 43.11%

customer device usage will be important in the future as Apple 22.15% 16.63%
6.20%
and Android introduce their own new texting features. CELL LAPTOP/ TABLET/ ANDROID APPLE OTHER
PHONE DESKTOP IPAD

SENT MESSAGE VOLUME UNREAD MESSAGES RESPONSE TIMES

Texting continues to be a major
form of communication. In fact,
people are now sending more texts
than emails. The average consumer
sends 15 texts per day compared
to 12 emails, or roughly 25 percent
more text messages. We believe
this is due to the immediacy of
text messaging and the brevity
compared to email.
Note: Many consumers use email in their
daily jobs, which likely contributes to the
total number of emails sent.
The avg. person sends 15
texts per day vs. 12 emails, or
25% more texts than emails
The average person has zero unread
text messages at a given time, yet report
they typically have more than four
unread emails. What this tells us is that
text messages are regarded as more
important than emails. The sense of
urgency consumers feel to respond to a
text doesn’t exist with email.
UNREAD TEXTS VS. EMAILS
74% of consumers report having
zero unread texts, and only 4% report
having 7 or more unread texts
17% of consumers report having
zero unread emails, and 50% report
having 7 or more unread emails
Our research proves that texting is a high-
priority medium. Seventy-four percent of
consumers said they respond to a text
message from a business within an hour and
85 percent said the same for texts from friends
and family. Compare this to email, where 41
percent will respond to a business within
an hour and 38 percent will respond within
an hour to friends and family. If you want a
response quickly from a customer, texting is
your best bet.
People who will respond to a text message
from a business within an hour:
74% via text vs. 41% via email
People who will respond to a text message
from friends or family within an hour:
85% via text vs. 38% via email

State of Texting Report 10

How Consumers Prefer to Text with Businesses
The majority of consumers – 76 percent – have received a text from a business. This tells us two
important things:
76%
At this point, the concept of Businesses that aren’t texting need to of consumers have
1 2
businesses texting consumers consider how text messaging fits into their received a text from
isn’t foreign. In fact, it’s communication strategy. Your competitors a business
becoming commonplace. may already be one step ahead of you.

We asked consumers what they prefer to text with
businesses about and found that, overwhelmingly,
people would rather text with a business about
appointments, reminders and scheduling than talk
on the phone or through email.
Fortunately for consumers, they’re getting the types of texts they want from
businesses. When asked what they currently text with businesses about,
the number one response was appointments and scheduling. Alerts and
notifications came in second, and customer service was a close third.
WHAT CONSUMERS TEXT WITH BUSINESSES ABOUT MOST FREQUENTLY

APPOINTMENTS/

67% SCHEDULING 60%

ALERTS/
NOTIFICATIONS 23%
of people would rather text with
CUSTOMER
a business about appointments/ SERVICE/ 21%
SUPPORT
reminders/scheduling than receive
them by email or phone call SALES/
INQUIRIES
13%
BILLING/
COLLECTIONS
11%
MARKETING/
PROMOTIONS 9%
EMPLOYMENT/
RECRUITING] 6%

State of Texting Report 11

As AI and automation tools like chatbots improve, we expect to
see a shift in consumer sentiment toward them. But our research
shows consumers aren’t ready to give up interactions with
real people just yet. When consumers need something from a
business, 74 percent prefer to talk to a real person rather than a
chatbot.
This reinforces the need for companies to invest in sophisticated,
high-quality AI. Ideally, consumers shouldn’t be able to
distinguish whether they’re speaking to a bot or a real person.
The advantage of using a 10-digit phone number over something
like a short code in these instances, is that a consumer can
easily dial the same number they’re texting and speak with a real
person. It’s a seamless transition from bot to human that is key to
a good customer experience.
74% When consumers need something 74%
prefer to talk to a real person rather
than a chatbot
State of Texting Report
One compelling finding from this survey is that the majority
of consumers will not install a new app to communicate with
a business. Over the years, we’ve seen more brands invest in
building their own apps with messaging functionality built in.
The fact of the matter is, people don’t want to download another
app. And if they do download it, it’s another thing they have to
check in addition to voicemail, email and texts. If you want to
reach consumers quickly and effectively, asking them to install
a new app is not the way to go. This is why SMS, MMS and Rich
Communication Services (RCS) are so valuable; they’re built right
into consumers’ phones.
61% 61% of consumers would not install
a new app to communicate with a
business
12
 RCS, an evolution of SMS and MMS, is the next progression of
texting technology, and even though it’s already enabled on more
than 5 million mobile devices, we’re not surprised consumers
haven’t heard of it. In the same way that consumers refer to MMS
messages as “picture messaging,” we expect them to think of RCS
as “text messaging.” We see the transition to RCS being so smooth
and seamless that consumers will just see it as the new-and-
improved texting. However, we do think it will be valuable to track
consumer awareness overtime.

10%
of consumers are familiar with RCS—the next evolution
of text messaging

WHAT IS RCS?
Rich Communications Services (RCS) is the protocol that
will eventually replace SMS (Short Message Service) and
MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service). With rich multimedia
functionality including the ability to send and receive GIFs,
hi-res photos, videos and audio messages, it will give
businesses a new opportunity to enhance the customer
experience through text messaging.

State of Texting Report 13

Imagine getting an appointment confirmation text from your dentist. They ask you to reply “C” to confirm. You had a last-minute meeting
come up at work, so you need to reschedule. You respond “Reschedule,” only to receive an error message in reply. Now, you have to stop
what you’re doing, search for your dentist’s phone number and call them. It’s a frustrating user experience. We’ll dive into business texting
trends in the following pages, but a notable statistic we found is that 13 percent of companies currently use short codes to text. In other words,
they’re still providing that irritating customer experience despite the fact that three out of four consumers report being frustrated when they
can’t reply back to a company’s message.

3 out of 4 customers are frustrated when they can’t reply back to a company’s text message

Your customers want to text you and they may already be trying to. When a consumer misses a call, or lets it go to voicemail because they
don’t recognize the number, they sometimes text it to try to get more information. But without a text option, those communications go unseen
and the customers never get a response. Zipwhip customers are always surprised when we text enable their phone numbers to see that
people are already texting them.

58% of consumers have tried to text reply back to a missed call via text

State of Texting Report 14

 How Businesses Use Texting
In the previous sections, we offered insight into texting’s popularity with consumers. Our data shows that
consumers not only text more than they email, but they read texts much faster than the messages in their email
inboxes. We also saw that consumers prefer texting over phone calls or emails for things like scheduling and
customer service.

As a business, this is where you come in. It’s important to look at your audience and understand their behaviors
so you can better serve their needs. It’s a good rule for any business, but here’s the takeaway: Customers
welcome texts from businesses. And as our report shows, many businesses are leveraging the opportunity to
reach them this way. Texting is the communication trend to adopt now if you haven’t already because more than
likely, your competition is beating you to it.

So, just how many businesses are texting customers? What do these companies look like and in what ways are
they texting? In this section, we’ll answer these questions and also examine businesses that don’t text and discuss
possible reasons why they’ve yet to adopt it.

State of Texting Report 15

The Types of Businesses Using Texting
Nearly 40 percent of businesses use texting to communicate with customers today. Usage
includes anything from texting a customer from a personal phone to sending an auto-reply
message using texting software. Regardless of the platform used, texting for business is a
39%
of companies use texting
popular method of communication and can be applied to organizations of any size, from small
for business
to enterprise, B2B or B2C.

Multiple industries have discovered the B2B VS B2C COMPANY

value of business texting, with the highest VS BOTH B2B SIZE Enterprise
Both 21% 18%
use among real estate (73%), agriculture 37%
Mid-Market SMB
(65%), entertainment and leisure (63%) and 20% 63%
construction, machinery and homes (57%). B2C
42%
Texting for business is not for a niche industry
– from selling homes to raising money for
campaigns, a variety of companies across
TOP 10 INDUSTRIES THAT REPORTED TEXTING WITH CUSTOMERS
multiple industries have found different (PERCENT OF INDUSTRY THAT TEXTS WITH CUSTOMERS)

ways to integrate texting into their practice,

including ways to benefit employees 73%
65% 63%
internally. Companies have found that it opens
57%
53%
communication channels across teams and 50% 50% 50% 48% 47%
helps streamline workflows. Texting is a low-
cost, easy-to-manage tool that can be adopted
quickly, so it’s no surprise that it’s welcomed
by such a diverse group of industries.
REAL ESTATE

AGRICULTURE

ENTERTAINMENT
& LEISURE

CONSTRUCTION,
MACHINERY &
HOMES

UTILITIES,
ENERGY &
EXTRACTION

AIRLINES &
AEROSPACE
(INCLUDING
DEFENSE

BUSINESS
SUPPORT &
LOGISTICS

NONPROFIT

AUTOMOTIVE

EDUCATION
State of Texting Report 16
How These Businesses Use Texting
USE CASES TOP 3 USE CASES PER INDUSTRY

Businesses are turning to texting because of its ease of use and convenience to
AGRICULTURE
accomplish time-consuming, administrative tasks. Scheduling (56%) is the most CS/Support Scheduling Marketing/Promotion
popular use case, with customer service and support (54%) closely following. 28% 25% 19%
Instead of calling clients to confirm an appointment, an employee can send a text AIRLINES & AEROSPACE (INCLUDING DEFENSE)
and remove the risk of playing phone tag. And if an employee needs to follow up Scheduling Sales/Inquiries CS/Support
25% 25% 25%
with a client about missing documents, a text is the perfect high-priority medium
to leverage. The response time for text messages is unrivaled. AUTOMOTIVE
Sales/Inquiries Scheduling Marketing/Promotion
27% 23% 23%
Use cases for texting can vary greatly between different industries, but we expect
usage among all functions to increase in the close future as businesses become BUSINESS SUPPORT & LOGISTICS
CS/Support Scheduling Sales/Inquiries Marketing/Promotion
more aware of how texting can be applied to ease team workflow and improve 21% 18% 18% 18%
customer communication.
EDUCATION
CS/Support Scheduling Marketing/Promotion
Scheduling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56% Marketing and Promotions. . . . . . . . 26% 27% 18% 13%
Customer Service/Support. . . . . . . . 54% Billing and Collection. . . . . . . . . . . . . 19%
ENTERTAINMENT & LEISURE
Sales and Inquiries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34% Recruiting and Staffing . . . . . . . . . . . 17% Scheduling CS/Support Sales/Inquiries
29% 20% 16%

NONPROFIT
CS/Support Scheduling Sales/Inquiries
DATA NOTE: Our results showed low use for recruiting and staffing, however we don’t find
this to be the case at Zipwhip. Staffing is among our most-served industries, which leads
31% 23% 15%
us to hypothesize that the percentage may be on the low side due to participants choosing
REAL ESTATE
“scheduling” instead of “recruiting and staffing” since setting up appointments is a major
Sales/Inquiries Scheduling CS/Support
part of the hiring process. It’s also important to point out that many companies rely on
27% 23% 20%
recruiting and staffing firms to fill their open roles, and we only had 26 respondents who
identified as working in Business Support & Logistics. UTILITIES, ENERGY & EXTRACTION
Scheduling Sales/Inquiries CS/Support
28% 20% 20%

State of Texting Report 17

PLATFORMS USED TO TEXT
Specialized software is the most popular way businesses text customers, with 68 percent of
businesses using texting functionality over CRM systems and customer databases, point of sale
(POS) software and other tools, such as a personal phone. The benefits of texting software over
alternative texting methods include better user experience, the opportunity for customers to
engage in conversation (two-way texting) and the ability to use your existing landline, toll-free or
VoIP number to text.
THE TOP TEXTING PLATFORMS USED TODAY
Texting Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68%
CRM/Data Base. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13%
POS Software. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6%
Other. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14%

The latter is especially important because regardless of whether your business number is text-
enabled or not, it’s highly likely that customers are already texting you. At Zipwhip, many of our
clients tell us that when launching our service, they’ve immediately received old texts that were
sent to their number but were never delivered because there was nowhere for them to go. Text-
enabling your business number lets you catch messages that wouldn’t have been seen otherwise.

SHORT CODE VS 10-DIGIT NUMBER

Sixty-five percent of businesses use a 10-digit number to text customers compared to only BUSINESSES TEXTING FROM SHORT CODES
13 percent that use a short code. Short codes are a long-used technology for high-volume VS. 10-DIGIT AND TOLL-FREE NUMBERS

marketing blasts, but they can be trickier to adopt and maintain. Dedicated short codes are
expensive to use and can take two months or more to begin working properly. They also Short Code. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.63%
don’t allow for conversational text, which can be incredibly frustrating for customers when 10 Digit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65.40%
they attempt to text back, as we saw in previous data. Toll-free Number. . . . . . . . . . . 4.29%
I don’t know. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.68%
Using a 10-digit number to text customers is more affordable and offers a level of brand
recognition that short codes don’t. Ten-digit numbers open a business to more use cases,
such as customer support, whereas short codes are far more restrictive. Adoption is much
faster and landline phone numbers can be instantly text enabled with the right texting
software service.

State of Texting Report 18

Businesses That Don’t Text:
Understanding Why & Identifying Opportunities

61% 64%
of companies surveyed do not use text messaging to of the companies that don’t text still see the value of texting
communicate with customers for business

A majority of businesses don’t text customers, but 64 percent of them say they “see the value of texting for business.” While we’re thrilled to
see that a large percentage understand why texting is an important component to a communication strategy, we want to dive into possible
reasons why the 61 percent have yet to adopt it into their own practice.

Zipwhip has seen the texting-for-business sales conversation change shape over the years. Several years ago, our sales team focused on
educating leads about why texting for business is so valuable. Today, however, we find that a number of our prospects already understand
how texting is beneficial to their business. Instead, we help them understand the best texting-for-business options for their company.

So perhaps the reason why 64 percent of businesses see the value of texting but haven’t adopted it is because they have trouble figuring out
where to get started, what platform they should be using or aren’t even aware that dedicated texting software is available to them. They may
also not see it as a high priority for their business at that point in time.

We believe the time to adopt texting is now, and we highly encourage businesses to do their homework and explore the best texting tools for
their organization. The longer a business waits, the faster they fall behind the competition. Not to mention all the hours focused on trying to
get responses from customers that could be better spent building customer relationships.

State of Texting Report 19

The last finding from our survey highlights a possible disconnect
between management and their employees when it comes to choosing
the right tools for their organization. Of the employees who said their
business doesn’t text but sees its value, 70 percent don’t have buying
or recommendation power for software. At work, employees understand
where roadblocks happen in their day, and more than likely, they have ideas
on how to improve them. But it’s hard to act on it when the resources they
need are out of reach because they don’t have the power to make those
changes.

We see this statistic as a great opportunity for management to reconnect

with their employees and ensure that teams have the software they need to
succeed at their jobs. Conversely, teams can take initiative and voice their
needs to those in higher positions of power. With texting for business being
low-cost and easy to integrate into such a wide range of companies, there
doesn’t have to a battle to convince leadership to adopt it.

70%
of employees whose companies do not text
but see the value in it, do not have buying or
recommendation power for software

State of Texting Report 20

Closing Thoughts
As you begin exploring texting-for-business tools to improve your customer communication, we recommend you keep the following findings
from this report in mind:

CONSUMERS LIKE THE EASE OF BEING ABLE TO TEXT THE SAME NUMBER THEY CALL.
Texting and voice call are like the double strand of a DNA helix—you can’t disconnect them. If a business makes an outbound call, it
should allow responses back via text, and if it sends an outbound text, it should allow responses via call.

PERSONALIZED COMMUNICATION HELPS BUILD HUMAN CONNECTION.

We love providing automation tools to save our customers time and make them more productive, but we also understand the impact
simple personalization tools can make when it comes to relationship building. Choose a tool that has built-in personalization features,
so your customers always feel like they’re talking to a real person, even when they’re not.

ONE-WAY TEXTING CAUSES CONSUMERS FRUSTRATION.

Tools like short codes are great for one-way marketing and promotion messages, but when your customers want to have a
conversation with you, they simply don’t work.

YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE PROBABLY ALREADY GETTING TEXTS FROM OTHER BUSINESSES.
If you’re concerned that your customers won’t respond well to text messaging, remember that they’re probably already getting them
from other businesses. Don’t miss the boat while your competitors move on to faster, more effective communication via text.

Ready to give Zipwhip’s

texting-for-business software a try?

State of Texting Report 21