Dive Brief:

• Many people are moving away from texting in favor of mobile messaging services like Snapchat and Whatsapp. But when it comes to complaining, 31% of mobile phone users would like to text, according to the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project. 

• In a poll of more than 700 shoppers, business messaging services company HeyWire Business found that 52% of shoppers would like the option of texting a customer service representative. 

• While social media facilitates public complaints and complaint resolution, 75% of consumers would rather privately text with customer service than reach out on social media sites like Twitter.

Dive Insight:

We’ve all seen the way disgruntled customers can rattle a retailer and get results by publicly complaining on Twitter and other social media platforms. And the telephone may still reign supreme when a customer wants to resolve an issue about an order or a shipping snafu.

But this research shows that, as with product research, purchasing, and payments, consumers increasingly want options on multiple channels to resolve their complaints.