The Benefits of Texting; Communicate with Customers the Way They Want

It’s time to rethink how you communicate with your customers.  95% of adults own a cellphone of some sort and 77% of those phones are smartphones.  Texting makes sense.  It is popular, it is fast and it is convenient for your customers and for your service department.

Text messaging is the most used data service in the world

• Americans text twice as much as they call.
• 81% of Americans text regularly.
• 97% of American adults text weekly.
• Texting is 10 times quicker than phone calls.
• 33% of American adults prefer text to all other forms of communication.

However, few dealerships use texting.  J.D. Power Customer Service Index Study found that only 3% of more than 70,000 vehicle owners and lessees received text updates regarding service work.

The study also found that text messages are a more effective way of communicating and keeping in touch with customers.  While 55% of customers who received a phone call from their service provider would definitely return for service, a whopping 67% would definitely return if they received a text message.

Why aren’t you texting?

Many dealerships are reporting that texting provides big benefits in terms of customer satisfaction, as well as in their efficiency.

The J.D. Power study also found that customers want to communicate with their service advisers by text. In fact, 27% of customers with mass market brand vehicles and 42% of customers with premium brand vehicles would prefer texting.  And it’s now surprise that 41% of younger customers would prefer to text.

“It’s not surprising to see the preference for receiving updates through text messages continue to rise, but only 3% of customers indicate they receive text message updates. Correcting that disconnect by adding more text message capability should be a priority with a service operation.”

Chris Sutton, Vice President US Automotive Retail Practice, J.D. Power

It’s time to text

Poor communication remains a big obstacle for many service departments. Reluctance to communicate with service customers via text could end up costing a dealership money.

Texting has great value, it is likely that the majority of text messages will be read by the customer and there are those who will respond and most will respond positively.  In fact, text messages have a 45% average response rate.

Drive-Sure provides text messaging to make communication easy and efficient. Designed by dealership service personnel for dealerships, Drive-Sure® Text Messaging is the easiest and most affordable way to send and receive texts messages.