[December 08, 2014]

Survey Highlights Major Discrepancy between Consumer and Business Perceptions of Customer Care

Mblox, the global leader in application-to-person (A2P) text messaging, today announced findings from a global survey of customers and businesses conducted by Millward Brown Digital, which explores the terrain of "care," and measures consumer satisfaction with brand engagement. The data revealed a dramatic "care gap" in business-to-consumer interactions: approximately three-fourths of businesses think they express care for consumers well, while only 36 percent of consumers feel cared for.

The gap highlights that businesses are lacking in an area critical to building strong relationships with consumers: care. It also reflects brands' blindness to consumers' preferred engagement methods. Businesses think they provide an optimal experience for consumers, while consumers rate their experiences differently.

Survey findings showed that text messages and email together dominate consumer preference for mobile communication with brands, with 41 and 57 percent of respondents choosing those channels, respectively. Phone (News - Alert) calls/voicemail messages fall into third place. Consumer preference for apps, social media/sponsored posts, push notifications and games trail far behind.

Survey respondents identified text messages as the best way to reach them for urgent or real-time communication, such as outage notifications, appointment reminders and balance alerts. By contrast, consumers prefer mail for marketing messages like deals, promotions and product sales.

"The disciplines of customer service, marketing and information technology are converging, and the more holistic concept of the customer experience has emerged," Mblox CEO Tom Cotney said. "Mobile messaging crosses all disciplines to ensure consumers feel cared for. A company's ability to demonstrate care in a way that resonates with its customers is essential to creating positive brand experiences, establishing healthy relationships and achieving long-term success."

In order to close the gap in care, businesses have an opportunity to use mobile channels to enhance customer service. First, begin with those mobile channels with small gaps and higher consumer preference - email and SMS. Second, businesses must make customer care a priority in its mobile strategy, thinking beyond marketing messages. Lastly, brands should combine the powers of behavioral data and logic for a multi-channel solution that offers consumers a positive experience that fits where they are and what they want in any moment.

The report also highlights industry-specific implications for the retail, healthcare, finance, insurance and telecom/cable/utility verticals.

Click here for the full report of findings.

Methodology

Millward Brown Digital surveyed a collective 1,650 mobile phone owners/users over the age of 18 in the following countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Within this group, 1,100 adults (18+) currently have an account or interact with a company in the retail, healthcare, financial services, insurance, and/or telecom/cable/utility industry. An additional 550 adults (25+) represented businesses, and work in a customer service/marketing role or higher within the accounting/finance, healthcare, human services, insurance, retail, telecom/cable/utility, and/or tourism/travel industries. The research was fielded between September 12, 2014, and September 16, 2014.

About Mblox

Mblox is the largest independent application-to-person (A2P) mobile messaging provider in the world, trusted by more companies to carry their mission-critical traffic than any other service. As the industry's most experienced Tier One SMS aggregator, Mblox specializes in the unique demands of large-scale mobile messaging programs and are known for providing reliable, uncompromising connections. By creating positive brand experiences, Mblox helps clients transform numbers into profitable relationships with their customers.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20141208005124/en/

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