The most successful companies today are doing everything they can to satisfy their customers. So, the global consulting management firm, Bain & Company, did a study on how those top companies were REALLY doing in satisfying their customers. They found out 80% of the companies thought their service level set them apart from their competition. But when Bain & Company queried their customers, they found an alarming fact … only 8% of the customers believed the company actually exhibited a higher level of service than their competitor. OUCH!

If you want to satisfy your customers, here is a statistic you need to pay attention to:

76% of US consumers said that speed is the most important feature
that will positively impact customer satisfaction.

If speedy, fast, quick, rapid, briskly, swiftly or the old expression … Lickety-split … is what is important to customers, what are you doing to make that happen? Amazon understands that statistic and then takes it one step further. Their strategy can be summed up in one word: FRICTIONLESS. They have strived to design a FLAWLESS system to make buying your product as SEAMLESS as possible; they want to make the transaction as EFFORTLESS as possible. And, on top of all that, pay NO shipping charges and get it in 2 days. Their goal is to make it a FRICTIONLESS transaction and their goal is working; “less” really is “more” for Amazon. More sales, more profits and more happy customers.

So, if FAST is the necessary speed to make your customer happy, you need to take advantage of anything that can speed things up for you. One place I suggest you start is in the way you communicate with your customers, suppliers, vendors and employees; what you don’t know about texting could be hurting you. Texting is widely acceptable means of communication with Gen Z and Millennials and is becoming more widely accepted with Boomers. Here are some facts you need to know:

• Texting has increased by more than 7,700% in the last decade
• 89% of people always have their smartphone easily accessible
• Texting is the most widely used smartphone activity
• 80% of Americans text
• The average adult spends on average 23 hours per week texting
• Texting is the #1 way to communicate among Americans younger than 50
• 78% of US consumers say texting is the fastest way to reach them
• Text messaging has a 98% open rate – emails 20%
• Text messaging has a 45% response rate – emails 6%
• 90% of text messages are read in under 3 minutes – most in under 5 seconds
• On average it takes 90 minutes to respond to an email
• Consumers only open 1 in 4 emails they receive

And for Millennials… they prefer texting over voice, on average they exchange 67 text messages per day, 83% said they text more than they talk on their smartphones and 77% of college students want relevant information via text. Adults 18-24 years old send and receive 3,853 texts a month, so they want, expect and like texts.

Companies have found that if they want a quick response from an employee, they text them. They are also staying in touch with their customers better by texting updates, shipping info status, and sales info. This all leads to one simple message: If you want to get the word out – the FRICTIONLESS way to do it is - TEXT IT!