Research shows 1 in 4 young consumers are ditching brands over outdated communications
Latest report from MBA Group highlights a severe gap between corporate email habits and Gen Z’s preference for real-time messaging.
MBA Group's report finds 25% of young consumers switch brands due to outdated communications, as 70% of businesses still rely on email while Gen Z favors messaging apps.
LONDON - MBA Group, a leading UK customer communications partner, has released its latest report, “The Five Forces Shaping CX”. In it, research conducted by Aspire CSS has shown a major disconnect between modern customer expectations and current corporate communication strategies, with a quarter of young people abandoning brands due to an outdated communication approach.
According to the global consumer insights platform GWI, data shows that only 16% of Gen Z customers read an email from a brand in the past month, compared to 32% using a messaging service. Despite this, almost 70% of businesses in 2026 still rely on email as their leading digital channel for communication. Furthermore, 60% are relying heavily on static documentation such as PDFs. However, Gen Z are no longer engaging; brands can no longer continue on this path.
67% of Gen Z consumers are also more likely than average to encounter difficulties with complex experiences, and 17% indicate that improvements would make them more inclined to engage. Consequently, 1 in 4 young users are actively switching providers to find better experiences.
Younger consumers aren't comparing your brand to your direct competitors; they’re comparing you to their best digital experience. Raised on real-time tracking, hyper-personalised feeds, and instinctive app experiences, Gen Z expects that same immediacy from every interaction. Relevance isn't a luxury perk anymore; it's the bare minimum required to keep them from walking away.
Leilah Aintaoui, Digital Growth Director at MBA Group
To address the gap, MBA Group has accelerated its multi-channel messaging capability in order to appeal to a wide range of customers. Earlier this year, they acquired a proven SMS and mobile messaging solution called Textplode, enhancing the capability of their mobile messaging with Rich Communication Services (RCS). According to data from Google and the Mobile Ecosystem Forum, RCS messages are 35 times more likely to be read than traditional email and also have a 7 times higher click-through rate. However, the rate of adoption among many businesses is slow, which shows up in Gen Z’s frustration with the current state of communications.
With access to real-time feedback from major household names and over 40 years of experience in customer communications, MBA Group’s Pulse platform helps address the challenging, multi-faceted world of communications in 2026 and beyond. Pulse is a fully integrated customer communication platform, giving teams the ability to serve multichannel campaigns in under 10 minutes, eliminating siloed teams and tools.
We built Pulse to give complex businesses the agility to communicate in real time, reacting instantaneously to live customer data. Gen Z have rewritten the rules; they expect brands to meet them on their preferred channels with messages tailored to the exact context of that moment. Pulse bridges the gap between marketing and servicing in a single platform, eliminating siloed tools. It represents MBA Group’s evolution from an execution partner to the underlying technology powering how modern brands engage every generation.
Sami Aintaoui, CEO of MBA Group
Unlike many platforms in this space, which require businesses to rip out and rebuild their existing technology stack, Pulse integrates directly with what's already there via API, allowing complete flexibility. It’s able to connect to existing systems, data sources and communication tools rather than replacing them, allowing businesses to modernise their communications without disrupting the infrastructure they already rely on. It unifies fragmented data and siloed channels into a single, reliable customer view.
To demonstrate the flexibility of the platform, businesses can manage the full platform themselves, hand it over entirely to Pulse to run on their behalf, or take a hybrid approach.
MBA’s ‘Pulse’ technology was recently ranked second on the Aspire CCS Leaderboard Grid for Communications Experience Platforms (CXP).
In our assessment, MBA Group represents a genuine combination of proprietary technology and in-house delivery capability, rather than a platform business layering on services or vice versa.
Kaspar Roos, Founder & CEO, Aspire CCS
The Five Forces Shaping CX is available for download here.
MBA Group is a UK-based communications partner, trusted by some of the UK's top brands to turn disconnected communications into powerful conversations that grow their business.