Tellwut Online Survey Finds 71% of Millennials Prefer Text Messages To Voice Mail
A Tellwut online survey of the Tellwut Panel Community found that 71% of Tellwutters born after 1983 would prefer to receive a text message over a voice mail message in the event of a missed phone call.
Baby Boomers on the other hand, would overwhelmingly choose to receive a voice mail message with only 34% of them preferring a text message. The majority of those born between 1968 and 1982 had a similar to opinion to Millennials, with 59% preferring to read the details of a missed call through a text as opposed to listening to them through voice mail.
On the other side of the line, Tellwut found that almost a quarter of Millennial respondents tallying at 24% never leave a voice mail message, while more than a third of Baby Boomers consider themselves very likely to leave a voice mail message.
Phone phobia is a condition that is a constant throughout generational segments given that 50% of Millennials, 50% of Generation Xers and 45% of Baby Boomers from Tellwut’s panel say that they make an effort to avoid talking on the phone. This matches another Tellwut online survey which found that a third of respondents have reduced the amount of phone calls and voicemails they made or left over the last few years. Another similar trend was the preference or lack thereof to speak personally with a receptionist when making and confirming medical appointments. Here as expected the desire to speak with a receptionist dramatically grew as the age brackets increased with 57% of Millennials, 65% of Generation X respondents and 79% of Baby Boomers saying they would prefer to speak with a receptionist.
Ordering takeout food remained consistent with the “no personal contact” theme, with the Millennial generation, as a collective at 59%, preferring to place an order through an online service as opposed to speaking with a live operator. As expected Baby Boomers overwhelmingly prefer a live operator and Gen Xers are almost equally divided as 48% prefer an online or text based ordering system while 52% would choose a live operator.
In the realm of romance, speaking over the phone is the favored option over sending messages through text with 88% of Boomers and 69% of Gen X’s feeling this way, while their Millennial counterparts were split down the middle with 50% preferring to speak on the phone and 50% preferring to pursue a courtship over text message. Could these findings all come down to technological comfort? It seems to be pointing that way. With Millennials having grown up in the digital age it is not a surprise that 52% of millennial respondents feel that they can communicate more effectively over text. Those numbers dwindle as the age brackets matured with 40% of those 35 to 49 feeling confident in their texting abilities while only 20% Baby Boomers felt adequate expressing themselves via text as opposed to talking. Want a quick response, one thing is for sure: Tellwutter’s under 50 are almost 60% likely to respond to their text messages within 5 minutes versus only 45% of the over 50 crowd responding that quickly. That’s still not bad.
About Tellwut® Tellwut is a North American community of individuals dedicated to expressing their opinions through online surveys based upon a wide variety of topics in exchange for rewards and the Tellwut community experience. The Tellwut community and proprietary survey and reward software application provide a platform for organizations to send surveys to their stakeholders or to crowdsource and conduct online market research quickly and at a competitive price point through the use of the Tellwut survey platform and the Tellwut Community; thus allowing businesses a clearer understanding and insight into their products or services, customer attitudes and potential business opportunities.