The lack of any customer care interaction at all via mobile on a weekly basis between brands and consumers is disturbingly high. According to MEF’s Annual Consumer Survey, almost a fifth of consumers globally – 19% on average – said they received zero customer care messages via mobile per week.

It seems consumers are quite literally failing to get the customer care message on either SMS or mobile messaging apps – two key communications channels for customer engagement.

This is likely due to the limitations of the text-based SMS as a channel for resolving potentially complex inquiries, combined with the nascent use of the richer media messaging apps for customer care globally.

More iOS users than Android experience the customer care communications drought, with 22% vs. 18% receiving zero messages per week; this proportion may well rise with Apple’s introduction of Screen Uknown Senders in iOS26. Meanwhile, over half the consumers surveyed (56% on average globally) received between 1-10 messages weekly.

The full report, and all survey data from over 11,000 respondents across 17 countries, is now available to download from MEF Data.