Copyright: korionov / 123RF Stock Photo
It’s easy to describe how our world is becoming more and more mobile. Today’s smartphones let us keep track of our lives in so many interesting and exciting ways, from organizing appointments to ordering food. We use our phones to watch movies; play games; exercise; take, edit and send photos and videos; vote on our favorite singers on TV shows; and sometimes even talk to others, whether it’s texting, video chatting or voice-to-voice. There’s now even ways to send text to landline owners.

While desktop use has slowly grown, mobile use has rocketed ahead at warp speed – a comScore report shows that there were less than 400 million mobile users in 2007, a figure that is quickly approaching 2 billion. The same measurement showed desktops have been growing at a much slower rate, from around 1.1 billion users in 2007 to about 1.7 billion by 2015.

Active mobile users provide some amazing data, including that 44 percent of people sleep with their phones within reach so they don’t miss any text that might come in during the night. The same study showed that the younger the age, the more likely they’ll have a cell phone, starting with the 18-29 age group, where 98 percent of them are phone owners, then 97 percent of the 30-49 group, then 88 percent of the 50-64 group. Even the age 65-plus group has a decent 74 percent ownership rate.

But with all the momentum of smart phones, there are currently some big exceptions: not everyone has a smartphone, and some people don’t even have flip phones. Sometimes it’s by personal choice, sometimes by budget, and no matter how archaic tech fans find the practice, some homes and businesses “still” have landlines.

Actually, for a business with a physical location, a hardware-based phone system pretty much comes standard, unless they want to equip everyone with mobile phones and do all their work entirely in the cloud.

So can people living and working in the landline world partake of texting, one of the favorite features of mobile phones? Yes!

Trumpia, an automated text software provider, offers a variety of options for businesses that want to invite their customers to easily send them texts to landline systems.

Here’s why it’s a smart idea to offer this option to customers:

1. Texting is becoming more preferred, especially among Millennials. More than 64 percent of text-capable consumers choose texting over other options. Frustrations also increase when people have to wait for service on a computer or a phone, something that doesn’t seem to be as common with a text-based interaction. A pattern of slow service at one company can also test loyalty. Millennials, generally considered those between age 15 and 30, are especially attached to their devices and prefer texting over other forms of interaction. One 2014 study even showed that 40 percent of those who took part in a survey would prefer to lose their car instead of lose their phone. Losing their phone would also be much worse than losing their TV or desktop computer. In comparison, only 16 percent of those over age 35 would feel worse about losing their phone than other property losses. From this, we can conclude that younger customers want and expect a texting option. This age group is also becoming powerful spenders, so companies that want to attract millennial customers now and keep them around in the future should make sure a texting option provided, even if it’s through text to landline.
   
   
2. Companies only need to offer one number. Instead of requiring separate numbers for “text us” and “call us,” companies can provide one general “contact us” number and a central point of contact that can be included on business cards, advertising and other promotions. Customers can use the same number for an initial text, and then follow up with a voice call later if they want to seek more details.
   
   
3. Improved record-keeping. If customers only sent texts to individual employees, or left voice mail messages on individual phones, it would be hard to keep track of their activity. However, a text to landline system can automatically gather all the text conversation threads from a particular customer, and provide an easy reference to review past discussions.
   
   
4. Multiple conversations. It’s good form, when you’re in a voice-to-voice conversation, to only focus on that only. But when texting is involved, or even text to landline, it’s much easier to multitask and have several conversations taking place at once. Companies could be helping or interacting with several customers at once. It’s good for the customers, who can receive personalized service without waiting long, and for customer service staff, who can help several people at once. Companies can also respond back via text. Much of this discussion is how companies can accept texts. But the reverse is true. The text to landline process involves incoming text messages to a company being turned into emails that can be read by employees. These messages can be forwarded to other email boxes or mobile numbers. They also can be replied to like emails, and then hitting “send” can turn it into a text. Plus, you can also attach photos or video, making it a MMS that most wireless plans will accept.
   
   
5. Protect privacy and security. Employees who have personal mobile phones may not necessarily want customers who are interested in sending texts to know their personal phone numbers. Instead, customers can send a text to one main company number. Or they can send to an individual’s business number, and the text message can be sorted and placed into an in-box for that particular employee rather than a master box for everyone to peruse. Employees also don’t have to worry about cluttering up their personal mailboxes with personal and work texts. Customer privacy also can be protected by sending texts rather than having phone conversations being overheard. More companies are exploring Bring Your Own Device philosophies, which allow employees to use their personal devices for work reasons. However, security continues to be the highest concern of why companies aren’t adopting this approach. Losing a phone or having it be hacked could give unauthorized people access to potentially sensitive company information. A main text to landline will approach will let the customer contact the company directly.
   
   

The text to landline process can offer companies – and their customers – the best of both worlds. It allows companies to offer interactions with their customers with and without smartphones, including those who prefer texting.

For more information on how you can take landline texting one step further from you CRM's lead record, try Trumpia Connect today!

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