The Preferred Sequence of Channels for Initial Prospect Contact
By: Michael Alston for Franchise Insights
July 30, 2025 – According to a 2020 study by Pew Research, only 19% of Americans will take a call from a number they are unfamiliar with. In April 2021, Apple launched its “block unknown callers” feature, followed by “live voice mail” in September 2023, which allows recipients to screen unknown calls without picking up.
Like most people, franchise prospects want to know who is calling before accepting a call. More than thirty-seven percent (37.5%) of respondents indicated that they preferred to be emailed first as an initial contact by a franchise they have expressed interest in, according to the recent July 2025 Franchise Insights Mystery Shopping survey.
The most likely productive sequence for initial contact is an introductory email, a follow-up text, and then a phone call.
After email, another 34.4% of respondents indicated the desire for a phone call for an initial contact from the franchise. This order of first preference is consistent with our five prior years of monthly “mystery shopping” surveys.
Further, in the vast majority of the monthly surveys by FranchiseInsights.com over the last six years, email was the clear preference for initial contact. In the remainder, email either tied with text messaging, or text messaging was slightly ahead.
In the most recent data, receiving a text tied with phone contact as the second most preferred choice for initial contact about a franchise they are interested in learning more about.
Getting a text was least preferred as first contact at 21.9%. Given these preferences, the most likely productive sequence is an introductory email, a follow-up text, and then a phone call.
Oddly this month, email was the third choice for initial contact for half of the respondents. It is likely that there are multiple segments with different preferences – some who desire immediacy, and others who want time for consideration.
Almost 44% of respondents said they were “unlikely or very unlikely to accept a phone call from a franchise” if they had “not previously received an email or text message from that company with more information.”
Also in the same August 2025, 43.75% of respondents said they were “unlikely or very unlikely to accept a phone call from a franchise” if they had “not previously received a text message or email from that company with more information.”
So email remains the most preferred and likely most effective channel for initial contact, followed up by a text to confirm a voice call, if not accomplished in a personalized email up front.
See our resource on best practices for initial response to a franchise informational inquiry for more detail.
The Franchise Insights “mystery shopping” survey is conducted monthly among aspiring business buyers inquiring about franchises at the brands of Franchise Ventures.
Franchise Ventures is the leading franchise lead-generation platform for potential franchisees to thousands of growing franchise systems in the United States and Canada. Its franchise lead generation brands include Franchise.com, Franchise Solutions, Franchise Gator, Franchise Opportunities, Franchise For Sale, SmallBusinessStartup.com and BusinessBroker.net, and together they provide the largest aggregation of prospective franchise buyers in the U.S.
Interested in more insights from our proprietary data set? Subscribe here to make sure you hear about them first.
Contact Franchise Ventures to get your share of today’s aspiring franchise owners.
Published on Tuesday, July 29th, 2025.