Customer Experience Programs Are Increasingly Adding SMS

December 12, 2025 Marketing
cx-programs-increasingly-adding-sms

SMS marketing isn’t a fad in 2025 — it’s central to modern customer experience strategies. Across industries, brands are shifting from email-heavy tactics to mobile-first messaging that meets customers where they already live: their phones. Forward-looking CX programs are embedding SMS into survey delivery, post-interaction follow-ups, retention workflows, and conversational touchpoints because no other channel reliably matches its immediacy and engagement in today’s landscape.

SMS engagement is unmatched among direct channels

Data converges around a few consistent trends for SMS engagement:

  • Open rates hold at exceptionally high levels — typically around high-90s percent — far above email averages. Studies repeatedly place SMS open rates near ~98%, with the vast majority of messages read within minutes of delivery.
  • Click-through rates for SMS links in 2025 regularly span roughly 19–29% on average, with even higher figures in targeted or segmented campaigns.
  • Response rates also dwarf email’s — often reported in the 40–45% range versus ~6% for email — making SMS ideal for surveys, confirmations, and quick feedback loops.

These numbers reflect real attention and action, not just superficial visibility. The immediacy of SMS — most people check texts within minutes — translates into faster responses and more reliable interaction timing for CX teams.

Why CX programs are layering SMS into their workflows

In 2025, customer experience is measured not just by satisfaction scores, but by the speed, relevance, and personalization of interactions across the entire journey. Broad research on CX trends shows that personalization and timely engagement are strategic priorities for loyalty and retention.

SMS fits each of these priorities:

Instant feedback collection
Traditional post-interaction surveys delivered via email often suffer from low participation and slow responses. By contrast, SMS survey prompts leverage high open and response rates, delivering feedback while the experience is still top-of-mind.

Real-time transactional follow-ups
Whether confirming appointments, acknowledging service completions, or validating purchases, SMS follow-ups capture attention in a way most emails do not. Read rates within minutes mean businesses can close feedback loops and reduce friction quickly.

Retention and lifecycle messaging
Automated SMS flows for churn prevention, re-engagement, loyalty reminders, and milestone triggers help brands maintain presence without overwhelming customers. Data indicates consumer opt-in levels are high — estimates suggest most customers (often reported above ~80%) have agreed to receive business texts — which supports ongoing value exchange.

Practical roles SMS plays in CX programs

1. Post-service and post-purchase follow-ups
Customers appreciate quick acknowledgment after service or buying experiences. SMS minimizes gap time between action and outreach, which protects satisfaction and reduces escalations.

2. Interactive surveys and NPS collection
Sending a short survey via SMS eliminates friction between request and response. Rather than expect customers to open email days later, brands get representative feedback quickly and drive meaningful improvements.

3. Retention nudges and churn alerts
SMS does not replace deeper surveys or account touchpoints, but it does add an agile layer of retention triggers: “We noticed you haven’t engaged — here’s what we can help with,” or re-offer messages sent at the right moment.

4. Loyalty and lifecycle messaging
SMS becomes a persistent channel for delivering loyalty perks, renewals, and VIP offers that feel less intrusive than email and more direct than push notifications.

Integration with modern CX technology

The most impactful CX frameworks in 2025 don’t treat SMS as a silo; they integrate it into omnichannel automation and intelligence platforms. Modern CX stacks combine real-time analytics, triggers from behavioral data, and automated decisioning:

  • Triggered flows tie SMS sends to specific customer actions.
  • Two-way messaging enables conversational experiences that funnel feedback and intent back into CRM systems.
  • Segmentation and personalization driven by AI ensures messages are relevant, reducing opt-outs and improving lifetime value.

Automation and AI aren’t just buzzwords — CX leaders rank real-time data and testing as essential components of personalization strategy today.

SMS engagement vs. email benchmarks (2025)

MetricSMS (2025)Email (2025)
Open rate~98%~20%
Read within 3 minutes~90%~10–15%
Response rate~40–45%~6%
Average CTR~19–29%~3–5%

(Range estimates based on multiple industry sources.)

This kind of side-by-side illustrates why CX teams increasingly prioritize SMS as a core channel, not an afterthought.

What this means for CX programs

If you build or evolve a modern customer experience framework, SMS should not be a “nice-to-have.” It belongs in these four key places:

  • Surveys immediately after key interactions
  • Automated follow-ups tied to lifecycle events
  • Retention and re-engagement flows
  • Conversational feedback loops

Ignoring SMS leaves a measurable gap in your omnichannel strategy — especially as consumer expectations tilt toward immediacy and convenient responses. In a competitive landscape where customers vote with both time and money, responsiveness becomes a strategic differentiator.

SMS is not a silver bullet, but in 2025 it’s one of the few channels that consistently delivers measurable engagement when speed, simplicity, and relevance matter most.

Consider embedding SMS as a foundation of your experience stack and streamlining your engagement with Betwext.com — our platform is designed to help you operationalize texts across surveys, follow-ups, and retention workflows without complexity or friction.

Sources cited