Virtual Office Resource

A lot of people these days prefer texting over talking. Millennials were first to embrace texting in a big way. And now many of the rest of us are onboard as well.

But while many consumers of all ages text, not all businesses allow their customers to interact with them via this medium. And that can result in businesses missing opportunities to sell to prospects or serve their customers, which can build loyalty and lead to more sales in the future.

With that in mind, a Miami company called RingByName recently added text/SMS support to its business lines. The cloud-based communications service provider, which caters to small businesses, is offering this new feature at no added cost.

“Most businesses don't realize it but many are receiving text messages everyday,” said Silvano Girardi, CTO of RingByName, which serves hundreds of thousands of customers in 70 countries. “A surprisingly large number of our business customers receive text messages on their business phone numbers. Most are likely auto-responses like ‘Sorry, I can't talk now’, but others could contain important questions or complaints. Not responding is probably costing these businesses in missed connections and opportunities. By adding SMS support we are allowing our customers to make those connections and win those.”

Businesses who want to use their RingByName numbers to interact with customers can do so via the RingByName online interface or using mobile apps. And the service enables organizations to move the texts from one person to another within the business as needed.

As OpenMarket recently noted in a blog, text messages are less stressful than phone calls because they allow for a more organized experience in which the people involved control the timing.

Here are some statistics about texting:

• Seventy-five percent of millennials prefer texting over talking, according to OpenMarket (News - Alert).

• America’s wireless networks carried over 1.9 trillion text messages – that’s over 5 billion text messages every day – and 218 billion MMS messages in 2015. This is according to CTIA (News - Alert), the cellular industry association.

• More than 20 billon texts are sent daily around the globe, according to Adobe.

• Ninety-seven percent of American adults text weekly, according to the Pew (News - Alert) Research Center.