Think about your latest text message interactions with companies. Maybe you received a text from your delivery driver notifying you they were approaching your apartment, your dentist sharing details for an upcoming cleaning, or even your plumber saying they’ll be arriving in the next ten minutes. These convenient and welcome reminders enhance your level of service and overall experience.
Today, text-based communication is not a nice-to-have for brands — it’s a necessity. Every touchpoint is critical, and brands that offer relevant, timely, and convenient text-based personalized communication with customers will drive engagement and increase loyalty over the long term.
By 2024, businesses are projected to spend $40 billion on application-to-peer SMS messaging. Our own data shows that the percentage of customers contacted by contractors via SMS is rapidly increasing, growing from 59% in 2019 to 69% of all customers in 2021. The introduction of the 10-digit long code (10DLC) last year represents the increasing demand to meet consumers where they are (their phones), and how they prefer to communicate (via text).
The A2P 10DLC update is one we’ve worked closely with our customers at ServiceTitan to roll out, and many of them have shared positive feedback about their customer’s reactions so far. There are a few key reasons businesses are leaning into text-based communication to connect with their customers.
It increases trust. A2P 10DLC filters out spam and fraud and uses a local number instead of code — resulting in a more human, personalized, and relevant interaction that consumers trust. This update is part of a broader trend toward helping millennial and Gen Z consumers trust brands. Studies show that 42% of Gen Z tends not to trust the average American company. And trust is critical for business overall – 90% of consumers are more likely to recommend brands they trust to family and friends, and 82% always choose trustworthy brands over alternatives.
It allows for more messages, faster. The A2P update enables a higher throughput of messages so businesses can interact with more customers at once. While this primarily benefits large enterprise-sized companies with a higher volume of messages to send, the ability to send more texts faster frees up critical time for smaller operations as well, giving them the opportunity to focus on increasing operational efficiencies and delivering superior customer service.
It provides the convenience today’s consumers expect. Most millennial and Gen Z consumers prefer speedy and immediate customer service options. Surrounded by the convenience of apps like Uber, Instacart, TaskRabbit, and others, they want the ability to communicate and get updates in real-time. A recent survey confirmed consumers are more responsive to text messages from businesses, and almost three-quarters of them prefer it.
Although the A2P 10DLC update last year has required organizations to complete a new registration and pay a small monthly fee, the investment is worth it for brands wanting to optimize their customer service, increase trust, and build longer-lasting relationships with their customers.
