The Platform

SMS can be utilised in your business in one of two ways:

1. Via a secure web interface where you can set-up and execute your own campaign; and
2. Via systems integration with your existing systems infrastructure.

Possible Uses for SMS

SMS for marketing SMS for order management
SMS for appointment / patient management SMS for competitions
SMS for CRM and Customer retention SMS rules and regulations

SMS for Marketing
With over 80% of the UK population holding a mobile phone, using SMS to market your products and services means you can contact enormous potential markets at an instant and at a very small cost by comparison to other forms of more traditional marketing.

There are many opt-in databases available throughout the UK and the rest of the world with profiling ranging from just numbers to full detailed demographics.

Benefits of SMS Marketing

· Instant, large volume communication tool
· Competitively priced to market
· Can provide instant feedback
· Generally larger opening rates than most other forms of marketing
· Shortness of message generally means that most recipients will have actually read your full message
· Ability to generate revenue via SMS response

Ideal uses for SMS marketing

1 – Ring tones and logos
2 – Prizes and competitions
3 – Night club and venue attendances
4 – Pubs and clubs promotions

Pricing is dependant on volumes. Call and speak to one of our SMS specialists.

SMS for product and order management

You can use SMS to inform customers of and manage order shipments, shipment delays and product or order problems in a much more quickly and time critical method.

1 - Stock Management / Order Confirmation
2- Parcel Delivery
3 – Hire Vehicle return
4 – Video Hire
5 – Delay in product release

1 - If you check your stock availability during an overnight process you can process an immediate SMS to the customer to inform them of their shipment or stock problem and schedule it for delivery at a reasonable time, such as 8am. Thereby, negating the need for staff to call customers or receive calls chasing orders.

2 - SMS can also be used to confirm customer availability for delivery of parcels. For example, an SMS could be sent the day before deliveries are due to take place requesting a confirmation SMS in return to affirm availability of the customer for delivery of the parcel between a certain window of time. The response SMS could be automatically interpreted and forwarded back into the Sales Order Processing (SOP) to ratify proposed delivery schedules.

3 – When hire vehicles are due for return, reminder SMS’s can be sent at an appropriate time before return is expected to remind the hirer to return the vehicle and check fuel levels. Response SMS’s can also be logged and fed back into the system to confirm the hirers acknowledgement and confirmation of the return of the vehicle.

4 – Video stores can arrange to remind hirers that videos are due or overdue and take response SMS’s back into the system to confirm an extra nights hire so that they do not expect to receive the return of the hired DVD or game. Further SMS’s can then be offered to suggest further extensions to the hire period probably at cheaper rates in an attempt to encourage the take-up of the extended hire period sometimes in exchange for the inconvenience of having to return the DVD or game.

5 – Suppliers of goods ordered in advance for example, mobile phones, PC games, Albums, concert tickets and motor cars can manage their client bases expectations by keeping them informed of any delays in the expected release dates of their products.

SMS for appointment / patient management

SMS can be used to improve appointment attendance at Doctors, Dentists, Garages and anywhere a pre-booked attendance is arranged.

Example for Dentists
An SMS can be sent to the patient 24 hours before the appointment to remind them of the appointment date and time and provide the telephone number of the surgery in case of any problems.

This will help reduce patient non-attendances.

Example of corporate meeting
An SMS could be timed to be sent an hour before the morning meeting to remind staff of their required attendance, dress code and location.

SMS for competitions
If you have a competition or prize idea appropriate for distribution on SMS we can provide you with the data necessary for your campaign.

Remember though that there are strict guidelines for this kind of SMS project.

SMS for CRM and Customer retention
Whilst SMS’s to replace certain customer contact situations can save both time and money and increase efficiency, sometimes introducing additional contact situations can increase customer retention.

For example, you may not currently contact your customers to confirm that their goods are on their way, but wouldn’t it be nice to know if you’re waiting for your stationary (aren’t people always giving you grief about those pads you forgot to order!) or new computers to arrive to receive a confirmation SMS perhaps even with an estimated time of delivery? Now they can comfortably reassure staff internally that the delivery is en route!

Another example might be using SMS to advise customers of short shipments in product so they know not to expect full delivery when the goods arrive.

The possibilities to improve your customer satisfaction and retention through SMS are endless!

SMS rules and regulations
Contacting people by SMS is governed by a number of different pieces of legislation and governing bodies but the most important of these is the The Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 which is enforced by the Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services (ICSTIS).