When it comes to how they want to be engaged, more than 80% of consumers said they prefer texting with an insurance company or agent, according to a survey by Hi Marley Inc., which reported 80% of consumers feel insurance companies that text build closer customer bonds.

Further, 84% of respondents said they would save an insurance company’s text number in their contacts. Speed of response was the most important expectation when texting with an insurance company, the survey revealed, followed by 24/7 availability.

The poll shows how personal text messaging is to people, according to Hi Marley, and reveals that they consider texting with a business to be an indicator of whether there exists a strong relationship.

“Most of us consider phones to be necessities for maintaining balance in our daily lives. They’re our immediate connection to friends, family, work, and the companies with which we do business. They allow us to project our personalities and communicate with the world,” Mike Greene, CEO and co-founder of Hi Marley, said in a release. “As consumers, we want the companies we trust to meet us on the channels we prefer, so we can easily maintain contact without disrupting our lives, and that leads to stronger relationships between people and those brands.”

Among consumers in favor of texting with their policy providers and agents, a majority said they would also be willing to engage in group chats with other companies in the insurance ecosystem, including auto repair shops, towing companies, glass replacement specialists and home repair contractors.

For businesses of any type that they already work with, 71% of people said they prefer text messages as the primary way to communicate.  When it comes to staying in contact with a current service provider, regardless of industry, email was the second most popular platform, followed by phone calls.

However, when it comes to being contacted by a business they aren’t currently involved with, most consumers (57%) would prefer an email as the initial form of contact. The first contact from a company via text was appreciated by 46% of consumers, while 34% would rather be telephoned.

It is not only Gen Z and millennials that prefer texting, as 72% of respondents aged 54 and older said they prefer to text with businesses, Hi Marley found. More than half said they would be interested in participating in group chats.

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