New OpenMarket Survey Reveals Millennials Would Rather Lose the Ability to Call than Text

SEATTLE, April 20, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- OpenMarket, a leader in enterprise mobile engagement, today announced the results of its nationwide survey[1], which polled 500 millennials on their communication preferences. Findings reveal millennials have an overwhelming affinity for texting. In fact, when given the choice between only being able to text or call on their mobile phones, a surprising 75 percent of millennials would rather lose the ability to talk versus text. Survey respondents say texts are "more convenient" and on their own schedule (76 percent), texts are "less disruptive than a voice call" (63 percent), they "prefer to text vs. call" in general (53 percent) and because they "never check voicemails" (19 percent). Full survey results and infographic can be found here.

With 77 million millennials in the U.S. – nearly a quarter of the U.S. population – OpenMarket sought to gain a deeper understanding of millennials' communication preferences to provide enterprises insight on how to best communicate and engage with this text-savvy audience. This is especially important as 75 percent of millennials surveyed find text reminders helpful, yet only 30 percent are receiving them from companies they do business with regularly.

"As the survey results reveal, companies have a massive opportunity to connect with millennials by communicating via text messaging," said Jay Emmet, General Manager for OpenMarket. "Whether it's sending them an alert that their package has arrived or offering customer support via texts instead of calls, using SMS allows companies to communicate exactly how and where millennials like. Nearly half of millennials are more interested in receiving texts from businesses now than they were two years ago, proving that SMS is becoming more essential for connecting with this growing segment of customers."

Other survey findings include:

• Of the 30 percent of millennials that receive texts from companies, the majority (75 percent) find text reminders for appointments, deliveries, payments, promotions, and surveys helpful.
• Specific types of alerts they receive are product offers and coupons (62 percent), account activity payment reminders and potential fraud alerts (59 percent), order alerts or delivery notifications (56 percent), general appointment reminders (51 percent), security authentication prompts (32 percent), and satisfaction surveys (22 percent).
• Millennials find text alerts helpful because they're "an effective way to be reminded on their own time" (60 percent), "one less thing to have to remember" (57 percent) and "the most convenient way to be reminded" (55 percent).

OpenMarket and its cloud-based mobile messaging solutions support over 400 enterprises globally, including four of the top 10 most respected global brands^[2]. Its Mobile Engagement Platform allows global enterprises to easily create and deploy smart, interactive mobile engagement services globally with connectivity to over 200 countries. Enterprises can access the platform via a web-based GUI or directly via service APIs. The platform supports features such as personalization, scheduling, logic and decisioning, list management, user segmentation, and reporting. By using OpenMarket's platform, enterprises are able to mobilize operational processes, optimize internal and external communications, improve customer experiences, drive brand awareness, and generate new revenue.

OpenMarket recently launched its global SMS API, which enables enterprises to streamline and expand their global SMS messaging programs. Enterprises can now create and easily manage multiple message originators, including short codes, text-enabled toll-free and local numbers, and alphanumeric codes via one trusted API. Bundled into this new API are powerful features that help reduce the technical complexity of sending SMS messages, increase the successful delivery of messages worldwide, and ultimately improve consumers' SMS experiences.

About OpenMarket
OpenMarket, a division of Amdocs, helps enterprises use mobile to transform their business. OpenMarket provides mobile engagement solutions for organizations to optimize their operations and enhance relationships with their customers and employees. Major enterprises choose OpenMarket for our domain expertise, service flexibility, demonstrated performance and reliability, global scale, and corporate maturity. We provide smart, interactive connectivity to more than 200 countries, enabling businesses to engage with nearly every mobile user around the world. Our clients trust us to power their mobile business. For more information, visit www.openmarket.com.

About Amdocs
Amdocs is the market leader in customer experience software solutions and services for the world's largest communications, entertainment and media service providers. Its portfolio powers The New World of Customer Experience™, where a wide array of innovative and personalized services is delivered seamlessly to end users, regardless of device or network. For more than 30 years, Amdocs solutions, which include BSS, OSS, network control and optimization, coupled with professional and managed services, have accelerated business value for its customers by streamlining complex operating environments, reducing costs and speeding time to market for new products and services.  Amdocs and its more than 24,000 employees serve customers in over 90 countries. Listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market, Amdocs had revenue of $3.6 billion in fiscal 2015.

Amdocs: Embrace Challenge, Experience Success.

For more information, visit Amdocs at www.amdocs.com.

Amdocs' Forward-Looking Statement
This press release includes information that constitutes forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements about Amdocs' growth and business results in future quarters. Although we believe the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, we can give no assurance that our expectations will be obtained or that any deviations will not be material. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ from those anticipated. These risks include, but are not limited to, the effects of general economic conditions, Amdocs' ability to grow in the business markets that it serves, Amdocs' ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses, adverse effects of market competition, rapid technological shifts that may render the Company's products and services obsolete, potential loss of a major customer, our ability to develop long-term relationships with our customers, and risks associated with operating businesses in the international market. Amdocs may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future; however, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These and other risks are discussed at greater length in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including in our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2015 filed on December 10, 2015 and our quarterly 6-K form furnished on February 16, 2016.

[1] Source: The survey was fielded by 500 US millennials via SurveyMonkey on behalf of OpenMarket.

[2] "The Harris Poll 2014 RQ Report: A Survey of the U.S. General Public Using the Reputation Quotient," Nielsen, April 2014.

SOURCE OpenMarket

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