According to recent studies*, teenagers (13 to 17) send and receive an average of 3,339 texts/month, while young adults (18 to 24) send and receive an average of 1,630 texts/month.  Among teenagers, texting is favored over most other forms of communications, including instant messaging, e-mail, calling, and face-to-face meetings.  Although these studies show that 75 percent of teenagers now have mobile phones, the calling function is not really a priority, with the average teenager making only about five voice calls per day.

This shift in the location and style of the way today’s younger generation communicates should be a clear signal to any organization offering mobile and customer services (e.g. Network Operators, Value Added Service Providers, Contact/Call Centers, Enterprises) that their younger generation customer base not only prefers, but will most likely demand, texting (not voice) as the primary method to interact with them, even when they become adults.

Interactive Text Response, or ITR, specifically addresses the inevitable need for text-based services.  By offering interactive texting to their younger users as an interface to various mobile and customer services, including self-services, organizations are better positioning themselves to minimize churn, while improving their potential for increasing average revenue per user (ARPU) through additional interactive text-based value added services.  With Interactive Text Response, organizations can rapidly steer “text conversations” to user-requested automated services.

By sending a predefined text message (e.g. recharge, balance, agent) to a specific short code, the Interactive Text Response System will respond by sending back a reply, enabling a two-way interactive text conversation.  By delivering text-based information through a series of back and forth interactions between a user’s handset and the Interactive Text Response System, organizations can offer a range of interactive text-based services through their self-service system.  The Interactive Text Response System’s intelligent design also allows it to reply to a text message that it does not recognize with a default message, which could be the content of the Menu option.

Some of the key benefits of Interactive Text Response include: 

•        Lower Operating Expenses (OPEX) as no Agents or IVR Ports are Required

•        Increase ARPU by Offering Various Interactive Text-Based Value Added Services

•        Reduce Churn by Addressing User Needs in their Preferred Method of Communication

•        Off-Load Routine Inquiries from Customer Service Representatives (CSRs)

•        Capture a Greater Share of the Teenager and Young Adult Market

•        Rapidly Steer Text Conversations to User-Requested Automated Services

In addition to customer service applications, a host of other interactive text-based services can be offered with the Interactive Text Response System, including the popular Interactive Mobile Coupon Service (IMCS).

*Nielsen Company; Pew Internet & American Life Project