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Texting vs Calling: Which will work best for your business?
To text or to call is the new ‘to be or not to be’! Both these sets of questions have been known to put people in a dilemma. For the purpose of this article, let’s delve into comparison to figure out which works better in which scenarios.
Remember when calling your favorite restaurant for an order was a nightmare?
That 10 minutes of preparation before the actual call, practicing and revising what to order only to forget and mess it up during the call. It’s okay, you are not the only one! Happens to the best of us.
This small example will help us understand how disruptive a call can be sometimes if not done at a time convenient to oneself. And to think, this is while ‘we’ were initiating the call, how about when a business tries to contact us at an inconvenient time? It can get very frustrating and we might not even give them our full attention.
So what does this mean to you as a business that is trying to get in touch with its customers? Which channel of communication should you use? Something that is less intrusive or something that is more personal?
The answer, you guessed it! It depends…
Let’s start by looking at the answers to the following questions:
- Texting vs Calling: What are the pros and cons of calling?
- Texting vs Calling: What are the pros and cons of texting?
- When to use calling and texting?
- Which platform should I use for calling?
- Which platform should I use for texting?
Texting vs Calling: Pros and Cons of Calling
Calling is the oldest means of customer communication. It is an important staple in all businesses. A business telephone number is mandatory to conduct business.
It is an established means of customer communication for businesses. Perhaps the biggest advantage of calling is the sense of human connection it is able to provide. Calling is an instant method of communication and is personal.
Recently, a study conducted by the University of Texas concluded that calling is way more effective in creating stronger bonds than text messaging.
While it said that people preferred to text over call, the main reason they did so is that they believed calling can be ‘awkward’. However, the sense of connectedness is more with calling. So does that mean that you as a business, should consider calling to create a more personal connection with your customers?
The thing for us to understand here is that this study was conducted keeping the purview of social connectedness in friends and family through calling. We could argue that this does not necessarily convert into the same for businesses looking to communicate with their customers. In fact, it might often come off as intrusive too.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Is Personal | Can be Intrusive |
| Is Instant | Can be Missed |
| Is Accessible (Everyone has a phone) | Converted to Voicemail when missed (Often skipped by receiver) |
As mentioned above, one of the advantages of calling is that it is instant. If you get hold of the customer then the message can be delivered instantly while on call. The ‘if’ can be a bit problematic though. If you do not get hold of the customer i.e they do not pick up the phone how will you get the message across? You might think of leaving a voicemail.
It might be beneficial to know however that Voicemail has a response rate of less than 5%. So there is a high chance that your message will get lost among the sea of other voicemail messages.
What can be a better solution to this problem then? It’s text messaging!
Texting vs Calling: Pros and Cons of Texting
Texting is an extremely engaging form of communication. The stats say so! Text messages have an open rate of 98%. This means that you can be as sure as possible that your message will be read by your customers. A huge demographic (read millennials) prefer texting over any other form of communication. To paint a picture, have a look at this statistic:
According to a MediaPost survey, 75 percent of millennials would rather lose their speaking abilities than lose their ability to send texts.
Suffice to say, texting is really loved! Some of the reasons that text messaging has such a big fan following are:
- It is not disruptive: people have the option of replying to a text message on their own time.
- It is accessible by all, regardless of whether you have a smartphone or not, text message capabilities come inbuilt into every mobile.
- It is permission-based: Simply put, it is illegal for businesses to send text messages to customers without their explicit permission. This step ensures that the customer isn’t receiving any unwanted messages.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| High Open Rates of upto 98% | Limited Characters |
| High Delivery Rate | Not suitable for conflict resolution |
| Non-Intrusive and Permission Based | Lacks Human Touch |
As discussed in the section above, one disadvantage of calling is that if the customer isn’t available to pick up the phone, the message could get lost. A better way to ensure that the customer is engaged would be to use text messages instead.
Let’s take a reverse example as well. It is very much possible that a customer calls and you are not available to pick up the phone. This again can convert to a lost message situation. Here as well, text messages can act as a savior.
Platforms like Emitrr, provide the option of converting a missed call into a text conversation. Essentially, what it does is that as and when a call is gone unattended, it is immediately followed up with a text message. So for example, for an unattended customer call a text like this would be sent:
“ Sorry you missed your call, we are currently {{reason}]. How can we help you today? You can simply reply with “book an appointment” for example.”
Texting vs Calling: When to call and when to text
Calling has the distinct advantage of the human touch. Certain situations require the intervention of humans to solve the problem.
Texting on the other hand offers freedom to customers to respond and also makes sure that your message doesn’t get lost.
So how can you decide which communication means is the perfect fit for you?
Consider these:-
- Is it urgent?
There could always be some messages that need to be delivered instantly to the customer. While one can argue that text messaging is an instant mode of communication it does not guarantee that the message will be read as soon as received. Customers could take their own sweet time to respond to the message.
This is where calling can be utilized. When you are able to connect with the customer one-on-one, the message can be delivered instantly and any doubts or follow-up questions can be cleared then and there.
What happens though when the customer does not attend the call? Do you risk not communicating the message? Of course not. Use text messaging instead.
Ideally, in both cases, you should try and use a combination of both Calling and Text messaging. In the first case when the call is attended by the customer, a follow-up text regarding the conversation can be sent to ensure maximum engagement.
In the latter case a text message followed by a call, later on, can help ensure the message doesn’t get lost.
- What is the purpose of the message?
The channel you choose for communication should also depend on the message you wish to send to the customer.
For example, if the message’s intent is promotional it might be counterproductive to call a customer about the same. There is a strong chance that the customer will get annoyed. Instead, using a less intrusive channel like Text messaging will fare better, that way the customer can check the message at their own leisure. They have the freedom to decide if it’s important and whether immediate action is required.
- What is the size of the message?
Some messages are structured such that they contain long bits of information. To convey the message effectively you will need to choose an appropriate medium.
SMS presents limited characters i.e 160 for messaging, this means that you are limited in the amount of information you can pass on. It has to be short and to the point.
Hence a better way would be to utilize those mediums which allow you to conveniently convey the message. Calling thus, would take precedence over texting in such a scenario. Another medium you could use is Email.Let’s look at some real life examples of which communication channel would work better in the following scenarios:
- To urgently confirm customer information:
Oftentimes you need instant clarification from your customer about certain details. These situations demand that any queries be resolved as soon as possible. To rely on the text convenience of the customer would not bode well in such a situation. Therefore the best option is to call the customer. - To send appointment reminders
Appointment reminders are important for engaging customers. They ensure the slot in your business does not go to waste if a customer doesn’t show up. To confirm if the customer will turn up, businesses usually send 2-3 appointment reminders leading up to the day of the appointment. You can start off by sending text appointment reminders 2-3 days prior to the appointment and a final appointment reminder call on the day of the appointment. - For Payment follow- ups
Payment reminders after the completion of a task can be sent using text messages as repetitive calls for payment can be intrusive and irritate the customer. You can create SMS workflows and schedule the needed number of text reminders.
4. For Missed calls
Suppose a customer calls and you weren’t able to attend the call. How do you get in touch with the customer then? If someone is there to connect back with the customer just as the call was missed a call would be helpful. But what if the call was missed during afterhours or on a off day? You still need to engage the customer in some way, and that way can be text messaging. A follow up text scheduled just as a call is missed can help engage the customer in text conversation and help ensure that you don’t lose the customer.5. For Collecting feedback and reviews
To understand a customer’s experience at your business you can send them a text message. This text message can contain a link to a short feedback survey or a platform to post their review. This way text messaging can also be used in your review management strategies.
Which platform should you use for calling?
This may seem a bit of an odd question, cause well everyone has a phone! What else do you need for calling right? Yes, but there is another method of calling that is taking over businesses these days. That method is VoIP or Voice over internet protocol.
VoIP allows for calls to be placed over the internet. One of the major advantages of VoIP is the mobility it allows. Business landline phones are tied to the office, but with VoIP, you can ensure that regardless of your geographic location you get to attend calls.
There are many platforms out there that provide VoIP services. You can check some of them out in our google voice alternative article.
Which platform should you use for text messaging?
Texting can be used for a variety of purposes ranging from promotional updates to appointment reminders. The thing about it though is that you might need to send some messages to all your customers or send multiple texts to a single customer. For example, with appointment reminders, it’s effective to send at least 2 reminders prior to the appointment. To achieve this you can try and schedule the reminder texts. Both the above-mentioned scenarios will require the help of a text marketing platform to help you optimize text message campaigns. Text marketing platforms come with a variety of advantages that you can leverage to your benefit. Check out our article on the best text marketing platforms to get a better understanding of why it’s a great investment.
Conclusion
Texting vs Calling: It might seem tricky to select the better out of the two because it largely depends on why you use both of these channels. Like discussed in the sections above, some communication works better through calls and others through texts.
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