In today’s world, customer service is no longer restricted to a simple phone call. A recent report from Dimension Data found that digital interactions account for 35% of all contact center interactions.

In fact, customers are so vested in the idea of emerging channels that contact centers have ranked it their number one priority. As digital use climbs, nearly 75% of contact centers predict an increase in non-voice interactions within two years. Over 40% expect a decrease in voice traffic in that same time period.

Some of this digital dominance can be attributed to smartphones, which have exploded in popularity over the past few years. According to Pew Research, over 64% of American adults now own a smartphone, up from 35% in 2011. But it’s not just limited to the U.S.—one in five people across the globe own a smartphone.

Global smartphone users typically spend 2 hours and 30 minutes a day on their phone, trumping tablets, computers and even television for the most time spent in front of a screen. Smartphones are also dominating the connected device market, and are predicted to surpass 1.7 billion units in global sales by 2017.

And customers are certainly app happy—there are 224 million active app users in the U.S, a little over 70% of the population. And over 85% of time spent on a smartphone is spent in apps.

But let’s break this down a little bit.

Why Your Mobile Strategy Can’t Rely on Apps Alone

Of the 85% of time spent in apps, 32% of this is games and 18% is Facebook. The rest of the time is broken up between news, productivity, and other apps (see below). And while it’s true that 91% of top brands have an app, unless you’re a big hitter like Facebook or Amazon, you’re going to have a hard time getting a customer’s attention.

Part of this is because 42% of all app time spent on smartphones takes place within an individual’s most-used app, and 75% of time is spent in their top 4 apps. For the average person, those are most likely going to be social networking apps and games. Think about it–what are the most commonly used apps on your phone?

In addition, apps aren’t exactly a high-earning channel for companies. Gartner predicted that 93% of mobile apps will be free by 2016, and for those apps that do generate revenue Apple and Google also take a 30% cut. Granted, most enterprise apps are free for existing customers, but creating these apps can be a time-consuming process that cost an average of $270,000 to develop and deploy Creating apps for different platforms (iOS, Android, even Blackberry) and deploying regular updates can significantly increase costs.

For companies that do develop an app, there’s no guarantee that customers will use them. Four out of five customers spend most of their time in their top five apps, meaning a service app may be overlooked altogether. Customers may have 30-40 apps installed on their phone, but Google research found customers only use about 12 of those apps within a 30-day period.

And apps aren’t always guaranteed to work—according to Pew Research, over 50% of consumers have experienced a problem with a mobile app. But, perhaps the most worrisome fact for businesses is that 79% of consumers will only retry an app once or twice before abandoning it. Despite the fact that every day over 50 million mobile apps are downloaded, 95% are abandoned within a month.

The good news is that you don’t have to rely on an app to provide great customer service or self-service.

Why Texting Needs to Be Part of Your Mobile Strategy

A recent study by Pew Research found that text messaging is “the most widely-used smartphone feature.” Not only do 97% of American smartphone owners use text messaging, but they use it more frequently than any other channel. On a global scale, 90% of people text at least once a day, sending over 11 billion texts daily. With usage like this, why haven’t more businesses picked it up?

To their credit, some businesses have. Over 37% of contact centers offer SMS, with 23% planning to add it in the coming year.

Your company can begin adopting text messaging using these following steps:

1. Guide agents on proper use.
2. Integrate it with other channels. 
3. Decide between long codes and short codes.
4. Find a balance between automation and live agents. 
5. Identify text support targets.
6. Create text support discovery mechanisms. 
7. Identify what success looks like. 
8. Recognize customer problems. 
9. Have a customer experience plan. 
10. Create a text support rollout plan. 

Companies that have adopted texting have received an overwhelmingly positive response from customers. Customers shipping packages with UPS or FedEx can opt-in to receive automated texts that track their shipment and medical organizations can send patients reminders about when they should take their medication. Contact centers can send customers personalized texts based on service history and past interactions, increasing customer satisfaction.

Conclusion

Apps are a highly-used communication channel, but for most businesses, the upfront cost and predominant use of gaming/social apps don’t justify the investment. That’s why texting is such an essential part of your mobile strategy–it can do almost anything apps can do. It’s fast, it can be professional but personal, it’s easy to use, it’s in real-time, it picks up where you left off, it connects to the Internet, etc. There are some situations where an app will work better, and that’s okay. But before you move ahead with a mobile app, ask yourself one question:

Can I use text for that?

To learn more about why texting is an essential part of your mobile strategy, download the whitepaper here. 

Image from Pixshark. Edited. Labeled for reuse with modification.