Current research status
This page publishes the study design before results are analyzed. Business Rescue Tools has not yet published percentages, rankings, response-rate claims or payment-success claims from this study.
No findings yet: A planned sample is not a completed sample. Charts and data tables will be added only after real responses are collected, checked and counted.
Research question
How do small-business owners use WhatsApp, SMS and email for difficult customer conversations, and what reply or payment outcomes can they document after sending a follow-up message?
Planned sample
- Target: 50–100 owners or managers of independently operated small businesses.
- Geography: Liberia and other African markets first, with country reported for every response.
- Eligibility: the respondent must personally send or supervise customer messages.
- One response per business unless separate branches operate independently.
Survey questions
- What country and industry does your business operate in?
- How many people work in the business?
- Which channels do you use with customers: WhatsApp, SMS, email, Facebook Messenger, Instagram DM or another channel?
- Which channel do customers answer fastest?
- Which customer message is hardest to send: payment reminder, deposit request, quote follow-up, price increase, complaint response, booking confirmation or another message?
- Why is that message difficult?
- During the last 30 days, approximately how many payment or sales follow-ups did you send?
- How many received a reply? Enter a count, not a percentage.
- How many resulted in a documented payment, booking or agreed next step?
- What wording or next step did you use?
- Was the outcome confirmed by a message, receipt, booking record or payment record?
- May your response be quoted, and should the business be named or anonymized?
Planned reporting table
| Measure | How it will be reported | Minimum evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Channel use | Count and percentage using each channel | Completed eligible responses |
| Hardest message | Count by message category plus selected quotations | Respondent selection and quote permission |
| Reply outcome | Total replies divided by total documented follow-ups | Respondent counts; subgroup size shown |
| Payment or booking outcome | Descriptive count—not proof of causation | Reported record type and timeframe |
| Country or industry differences | Only when the subgroup is large enough to avoid misleading comparisons | Subgroup sample size displayed |
Methodology and limitations
- This will be an observational small-business survey, not a randomized experiment.
- Self-reported outcomes can contain recall errors. Where available, respondents will identify the record used to confirm an outcome.
- A reply or payment after a message does not prove that the wording alone caused the outcome.
- Results from Liberia or another specific market must not be presented as universal.
- Missing answers, exclusions and duplicate responses will be reported.
- No personally identifying response will be published without the permission selected by the respondent.
Publication rule: every chart will state the sample size, field dates, question wording and denominator. The anonymized aggregate table will be downloadable when findings are released.
Research ownership and corrections
The study is led and reviewed by Jackie McCauley, founder of Business Rescue Tools. Digital Echoes is the operating company. Methodology questions and correction requests can be sent through the contact page.
Last reviewed: August 4, 2026.