Both channels work. They just work differently depending on your customers and your industry. Here's how to choose.
Response rates
SMS messages have open rates above 90% and are usually read within minutes. Email open rates vary widely by industry and can sit anywhere from 15% to 40%, with replies often coming hours or days later.
When SMS wins
For trades, home services, and anything where the customer is mobile or not sitting at a desk, SMS is hard to beat. A plumber, electrician, or cleaner finishing a job on-site benefits from a request the customer sees immediately on their phone.
When email works just as well
For salons, clinics, and businesses with longer-form communication already happening by email (booking confirmations, receipts, follow-ups), an email request fits naturally into a channel the customer already expects to hear from you on.
Combining both
The strongest setup uses both: SMS as the primary channel where available, with email as the fallback for contacts without a phone number or in regions where SMS isn't supported. Letting the system pick automatically based on what contact details you have removes the decision from your daily workflow entirely.