Professional SMS - an adequate channel of communication?

The Web site head of undertaking (www.chefdentreprise.com) recently published an article underlining the use of the SMS by SME in particular.

Indeed, the sector of the transport by SMS records an excellent health. In testifies the Esendex company which recorded a growth of 100% between 2008 and 2009. Other service providers of sending SMS recorded similar growth rates.

Some will argue that technology SMS will be exceeded in the years to come by the new channels of communication such as: mobile emails on telephone, instant messaging or tools of social media like Twitter. Statistics show that, in spite of the encountered engineering problems, this service knew a growth of 500% compared to the same period last year.

Attention however with distinguishing well the passion generated by this service in the United States and the rest of the world. Using a model “SMS in PCV” where the recipient pays for the received SMS, the technology SMS forever really functioned in the USA, compensated by other channels having met more success.

This specificity of the US market, accompanied by a competitive culture where each one seeks to discover in first next technology, led to a clear domination of the American investments on the matter.

In spite of that, the SMS is well a total phenomenon: it is the application most used universally with a few 2,4 billion active users (cf article on wikipedia).
Of course that does not mean obligatorily that the SMS and its professional use in particular, will replace all the other means of communication. Rather let us regard it as the component of a whole of channels of communication.

In a mobile world evolving/moving permanently, the professionals need a range complementary to means of communication available to the good place to the good moment.

For this reason, a company wishing to receive communications detailed since the mobile of its engineers will choose a solution based on terminals Blackberry (http://fr.blackberry.com/) rather than an interactive service SMS.

The use of professional service SMS must thus be selected according to the circumstances. An effective use of professional service SMS then which can bring real advantages:

• Service SMS for brief communications: confirmations of reservation, recalls of appointment, update of projects, requests customer based on a reference number (produced codes, number of ticket of support, etc)
• The immediacy makes the SMS ideal for the important messages: emergency communications, recall of products, etc
• Many people regard their telephones as a personal tool. This type of communication will not have to thus be abusive and/or intrusive: SMS transmitted to the work hours, to avoid the recurring sendings…

Many potential customers with professional service SMS fear to quickly reach the capacities of such a system. However, by comparing the various uses which you could make of the service (confirmation of plane, train tickets, of taxis, recalls of appointment, confirmation of reception, delivery condition of a parcel) and the current uses, you will understand that the possibilities are still far from being reached.

And the growth of the services of sending SMS is not ready to stop. According to the last figures published by the ARCEP (www.arcep.fr), the number of SMS sent per quarter passed from 6,9 billion in the first quarter 2008 to 13,7 billion in the first quarter 2009.

Professional services SMS must thus belong to a good mix of communication, and this for any type of recipients: paid customers, prospective customers or. They do not constitute an ultimate solution but, used intelligently, they can appear terribly effective, ensuring a real benefit and a clear improvement of the customer service.