What text messages do for a business.
A short series of well-timed texts gets more replies, more people showing up and more on-time payments than a single message. Here is the data, with sources.
Updated October 14, 2026. Every fact checked October 14, 2026 and linked to its source.
How well-known companies use text
The companies people deal with every day already run their customer messages by text, for the moments that need a quick answer. From their own pages:
- Airbnb
- Reservation reminders and alerts when a host or guest sends a message, so both sides answer in time.Airbnb Help Center
- Delta Air Lines
- Automatic texts about delays, cancellations and schedule changes, sent within set local hours.Delta Professional
- Air Canada
- Flight alerts on a fixed schedule: 24 hours before, 4 hours before, then updates and gate changes.Air Canada
- Chase
- Interactive fraud checks, payment reminders and application updates, each programme with its own consent.Chase
- Sephora
- Order and delivery updates, appointment reminders, back-in-stock alerts and cart reminders, in the US and Canada.Sephora Text Messaging Terms
- Shopify
- Built automated, well-timed texts into its merchant tools in May 2026, starting with abandoned carts and checkouts.Shopify Changelog
- Square
- Appointment confirmations and reminders by text; an unconfirmed booking gets the request again with the reminder.Square Support
- DoorDash
- Order status texts and direct texts from the courier when they need to find you.DoorDash Help
Listed to show how texting is used. These companies run their own systems and are not Textually customers.
Follow-ups get the replies
Most replies come after the first text. Large trials agree: a second, well-timed text still moves people.
Write the follow-ups once. Textually sends each one on time until the person replies.
on average before a sales lead replied, across 4.7 million text conversations.
missed visits with two reminders against one, in a randomised trial of 54,066 patients.
three days apart beat 21 other text programmes, tested on 689,693 Walmart pharmacy patients.
Existing customers: reminders, payments and updates
Your customers know you and gave you their number. Texts timed to what they did bring in an outsized share of results.
Onboarding, renewals, payments, reviews and win-backs: each is a short sequence you write once.
of SMS revenue came from texts triggered by what a customer did. They were 7.6% of texts sent, across 183,000+ brands.
fewer late fees after one text the day before the due date, in a 34,365-customer randomised test.
of people who sign up for business texts want appointment and reservation reminders.
Sales: buyers answer texts
Buyers would rather text, and teams lack the time to follow up by hand. A sequence does the follow-up. A person answers the replies.
of home buyers prefer to work with their agent by text or messaging, against 33% by phone.
of sales professionals say their team lacks time for outreach, in a survey of 4,050.
of insurance claimants say their insurer always answers texts and emails on time.
Trust: texting done with care
People expect to know who is texting and how to stop. They leave when a business texts too often.
Textually builds care in: registered numbers, a consent check on every text, the opt-out line, STOP that works at once, and sending hours you set.
of people who opt out of business texts say the business texted too often.
lost to scams that started with a text in 2024. Registered numbers set real senders apart.
Every figure on this page links to its source. Data from software vendors is marked as vendor data; we use only figures we could trace to a real measurement.
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