Twilio Says Customers Actually Prefer Bots

According to a new study, nine out of 10 potential consumers want to be able to use messaging to talk to retailers.

But part of the problem is that the technology is simply not there yet.

Twilio, the cloud communications company based out of San Francisco, recently published a study looking into how consumers want and like to use technology to talk to retailers and brands. The study was performed by market research firm Vanson Bourne and surveyed 6,000 customers in North America, Asia and Europe.

Based on the survey, 66 percent of consumers want to be able to communicate with retailers or brands through messaging apps. Overall, 47 percent of global consumers prefer text messaging as the primary means of communication, while Facebook Messenger comes in second at 21 percent, WhatsApp at 18 percent, LINE at 6 percent and Snapchat at 2 percent.

Also, according to the study, 85 percent of those surveyed want to be able to answer the messages that brands and retailers send to them via these channels.