Direct Response

The majority of people associate the term “reverse billed SMS” with premium SMS services, where more often than not consumers pay a fairly hefty price to receive alerts about the weather, football, other sports results or general informational updates.

This type of application is really useful if you want to promote easy- to- access services to your customer base but, unfortunately, the principle of reversed billed SMS has been widely abused over the years, with consumers being charged for messages they didn’t want to receive in the first place.

We want to tell you about our version of the application. We have turned the basic concept reverse billed SMS on its head because, with our version of the service, it is the original message sender who is charged for any replies they receive and not the receiver.

Why would the sender be willing to pay to receive these messages? Well, if we take the example of text notifications for emails (when you are out of the office) you don’t really want your customer to have to pay for replying to your message because it is not their fault you are not at your desk.

By combining our reversed billed SMS application with Microsoft Outlook email forwarding rules, you can be sure that you will always receive certain types of messages– a particularly useful feature if you need to monitor stock control or support messages, for example.

How does it work? Well, our bespoke messaging software will deduct the cost of each received message from your account (which is the same cost as for sending a message), even if the sender’s details are not logged on our database.

This neat application will complement a number of other email –to-SMS based services, appointment reminders, marketing promotions or job interviews for example, where you want to encourage consumers to reply but without necessarily incurring any costs.

If your customer is unable to keep their appointment, they can quickly reply to your message (at no charge to them) to rearrange or cancel.

If you are running a mobile-based marketing campaign (Christmas promotions, for example), SMS is a great response mechanism, but again, you might not want your customers to pay. If you combine our reversed billed SMS application with your marketing campaign, they won’t have to because you will be charged for each received reply.

Our reversed billed SMS service can also be used in conjunction with our personalised SMS application, which means that all message replies will be delivered directly to the original sender and not to an email inbox or central holding number, allowing you to build up a rapport with
your customer.

Follow this link to find out more about the different products and services we offer.

LeagueRepublic, a leading provider of online administration systems for managing sports websites, fixture scheduling and results systems, has integrated Slepe Communications’ inbound SMS application (online SMS technology) into its overall system management software.

Their software has been used to manage over 2000 professional and amateur leagues, since 2002. Up until last year, all match information and results could only be updated via the web, so if team secretaries had no access to the Internet or could not get a 3G signal (as is often the case), this information was often not available to the public until much later.

In order to enable clubs to update their results more quickly, LeagueRepublic decided to upgrade its administration software by incorporating SMS functionality into its overall system at no extra cost to its customers. Even the most basic handsets support SMS and this enhancement meant that results could be published within minutes of a game finishing.

The service has been available for just over 12 months and so far more than 15% of all UK leagues are using SMS to update their team’s results.

The service works as follows: fifteen minutes after the start of a game, team secretaries receive an SMS from Slepe Communications’ administration software reminding them to text in their result at the end of the match.

As soon as the match is over, team secretaries simply text a reply to the original message with the final score e.g. 3 2. The virtual numbers used to deliver the service are provided by Slepe Communications as part of the application. Its bespoke management software determines which results belong to which team using the virtual numbers, converts the SMS messages into HTML and delivers them directly to LeagueRepublic’s servers, where they can then be published and posted immediately.

Not only are results made available to the public almost instantaneously, there is also no charge to the end user for the reminder and the reply is the same cost as any standard UK text message and often falls within their contract package. LeagueRepublic has just signed a deal with Timpson.co.uk Trophies who will fund the SMS system and a 10% website discount code will be included within the reminder message.

Comments Dave Hathaway, Managing Director from LeagueRepublic: “when we decided to investigate the possibility of adding SMS to our system we looked at many different providers. We finally chose Slepe because they were competitively priced and took time to listen and understand our exact requirements.

We are pleased to be able to offer the SMS results system with our free service with funding from our SMS sponsor – Timpson.co.uk Trophies.”

Ranjit Singh, a landlord from Willenhall, who has been using LeagueRepublic’s software to manage his pool league for the last three years, decided to add SMS to his website at the end of last season. Now all 18 teams in the league update their results via SMS.

“It’s absolutely brilliant”, he explained. “When running a league like this you have to be able to provide results quickly so you don’t lose the interest of the teams. The administrators text their results as soon as the game is over and once I’ve had a chance to check them, I make them live, usually within 24 hours.

There were a few minor issues in the beginning, with results being posted the wrong way around, but now that everyone is familiar with it, it works really well and saves me a lot of time because I only have to verify the information.”

Comments Rob Jagger from Slepe Communications: “we are really pleased to know that our software is working well and is helping LeagueRepublic better engage with its customers. This type of market is very competitive and our software ensures that teams do not lose interest because results are updated automatically and made available to the public almost immediately.”

The service is proving to be very popular with pub darts and pool leagues and so far this year more than 111 leagues have decided add SMS as an option for updating their results.

Ends

About Slepe Communications

Slepe Communications is a dynamic, growing company based in Cambridge UK. Its staff has many years’ experience in the Internet and telecommunications industries, and are experts in designing, building and operating mobile Internet applications based on text messaging, web and Wi-Fi technologies.

About LeagueRepublic

LeagueRepublic are based in Wolverhampton and provide online sports administration systems to 2000 sports leagues worldwide, their clients include The Football Association Ltd.

All businesses strive to provide their clients with good after sales-service, but providing consistently good customer service on a regular basis can be both expensive and time-consuming. During economic downturns existing customers often experience less than adequate customer service; sales personnel are so busy trying to secure new business they often forget about existing customers, believing they are too busy or lethargic to find alternative suppliers.

Not only that, there are so many different communications methods available to us – phone, post, email, social media – selecting the most appropriate method for different client groups is becoming increasingly challenging.

1. The phone is time consuming – especially if you are constantly connected to voicemail
2. Regular mail is too slow, very expensive and not very eco-friendly
3. Social media can be damaging to your brand if sensitive issues such as complaints are not managed appropriately

In our digital age, however, it is fairly safe to assume that our customers own at least one mobile phone and that most offices use email for the majority of written correspondence. So why not combine the two and use email to SMS applications to give your customer service team an efficient and cost-effective way of keeping in contact with your customers using technology they are already familiar with?

Messages are written as normal emails and then converted into an SMS format so they can be delivered. Not only is it practical to use email to SMS to communicate with your clients from a time-management point of view, it is also extremely cost-effective.

All replies are delivered to the sender’s email inbox, so your staff can manage all their correspondence from a single centralised point.

Below is our top 10 list of email to SMS applications:

1. Financial information – SMS is a great way to keep clients updated about stocks and shares, giving them time to sell or reinvest

2. Sports results – Loyal fans instantly know the results of important matches. What’s more, they are often willing to pay a premium to receive this information

3. Invoice reminders – Credit control departments can quickly send SMS alerts to all overdue accounts. What’s more, these types of messages can be personalised to include your client’s name and the exact amount owed

4. Insurance reminders – Postal reminders are often overlooked due to the amount of junk mail we receive. SMS reminders will also help your organisation reduce its overall carbon footprint

5. Delivery notices – Advising your clients in advance of expected delivery times mean they are more likely to be in to receive them and your drivers do not need to make multiple delivery attempts

6. Traffic updates – People can make alternative arrangements if they are aware in advance of traffic problems

7. Birthday reminders – Automated text alerts will prevent you from missing important birthdays -nephews nieces, in-laws etc

8. Email forwarding – By forwarding emails to mobile phones remote staff will always receive important messages, even if there is no 3G signal

9. Appointment reminders – No-show appointments are expensive and can be reduced by as much as 70% using SMS alerts

10. Voicemail notification – A simple text alert means you will never miss out on a business opportunity

All of the above services can be carried out using email to SMS. No plug-ins are needed, there is no need to download any special software.

In addition if you send in excess of 25,000 SMS messages on a monthly basis you’ll also benefit from wholesale SMS prices.

Organisations across the UK are using our email to SMS application to provide their clients with better customer service. Why not sign up to a FREE trial and find out how email to SMS can benefit your organisation?

SMS continues to be one of the most popular and cost-effective ways of keeping customers updated.  All mobile phones support SMS functionality and, unlike many Smartphone apps, it is not reliant on a 3G signal and, unlike other forms of e-communication, people do read their text messages.

With more than 50 million mobile phones in circulation in the UK alone and with mobile penetration exceeding 130% in Western Europe, the marketing reach for SMS based promotional campaigns is enormous.

While most business mobile contracts include “unlimited texts” as standard, in reality this means a fair-use policy of around 300 messages per month. If you frequently send more than 100 SMS messages per day, it is more economical and reliable to send your messages in bulk using an SMS aggregator.

Not only that, it is more cost-effective and efficient to keep in contact with customers and colleagues by SMS than by phone. By taking advantage of bulk SMS applications you can significantly cut back on the number of routine phone calls you make on a daily basis, reduce the number of queries you receive and free up staff time so they so they can undertake more fulfilling tasks.

Because it is so easy to setup and manage bulk SMS services using readily available online applications, we thought we’d share with you our top ten bulk SMS applications.

1. Promotional campaigns – Mobile phones are very personal, allowing you to build an accurate profile of your customers. Using this information, you can then carry out targeted campaigns to particular demographic groups – e.g. a special promotion on wedding dresses for unmarried females or information about holiday clubs for parents with young children.  Targeted campaigns result in higher conversion rates.

2. Payment reminders –Free up resource by reducing the number of phone calls you make to customers reminding them an invoice is overdue or that their rent is in arrears by setting up an online SMS reminder service.

3. Delivery information – SMS is a great way of informing customers of an expected delivery time. By including a “reply” facility (allowing customers to requesting an alternative delivery time, for example) you will cut back on the number of wasted journeys.

4. Appointment reminders – the NHS loses millions as a result of people failing to turn up to appointments. SMS is an effective way to remind people of routine appointments. By embedding reply facilities, you can give customers the option to cancel if they no longer need the appointment.

5. Time-sensitive alerts – SMS is the quickest and easiest way to inform a large group of people – parents, for example, that school will be closed due to bad weather.

6. SMS broadcast – This is the quickest way to communicate general information to a particular group of people – sports teams, for example, telling them a match has been cancelled or rescheduled.

7. Calendar reminders – Not everyone has a Smartphone with a synchronised calendar.  Sending employees SMS reminders of their daily meetings or appointments will improve your organisation’s efficiency.

8. Machine to machine alerts – SMS is a highly efficient way of alerting support engineers of a server or storage problem.

9. Business continuity – In the event of an incident occurring, how long would it take you to implement business continuity facilities? Using SMS to facilitate your business continuity
procedures will help minimise downtime and loss of revenue.

10. Voicemail notifications – Integrating SMS functionality into your overall communications infrastructure means you will never miss out on a business opportunity.

We provide bulk SMS facilities to a wide range of different industries and unlike our competitors we also provide personalised a replies facility with all our services at no extra cost. This means you can add a personal touch to campaigns because replies to received messages are delivered directly to the original sender and not a central mailbox or holding account, allowing you develop a rapport with your clients.

Click here to find out more about who we are and what we do.

Missed NHS appointments cost the Government and ultimately the taxpayer in excess of £6million per annum, according to industry statistics. Patients believe the blame lies with the NHS – letters not being sent out in time, not being able to cancel or change the appointment because phone lines are busy or never answered, or stuck in an automated loop. The NHS on the other hand believes the blame lies with the general public because they never bother to cancel or reschedule their appointments.

Significant cost savings could be made and time wasting could be avoided if doctors’ surgeries, outpatient departments, dentists and specialist clinics made more use of SMS, as recent trials have demonstrated.

Barts and the London NHS Trust have recently deployed an automated online SMS service in their outpatients department, to remind patients about their forthcoming appointments because reports showed that over 94, 000 appointments were missed in 2009. The first reminder message is sent two weeks in advance and the second reminder is sent three days before the scheduled appointment.

If the appointment is no longer needed or convenient, patients can cancel or reschedule simply by sending a reply to the text.

Aberdeen City Council has also recently adopted a text messaging alert service to remind its social housing tenants about maintenance or repairs due to be carried out on their properties. The Council sends its tenants an SMS the day before so they do not forget and if there is a problem they are requested to get in touch by replying to the message.

Considering that more than 98% of 20 – 29 year olds and 89% of all men in the UK own at least one mobile phone, you would think that more public sector organisations would be making use of automated SMS services.

Health visitors could remind mums about their childrens’ vaccinations, community nurses could remind the over 60s about their flu jabs, housing officers could remind tenants that their rent is due, maintenance staff could remind tenants that their meters need to be read – the possibilities are endless.

The cost of sending an SMS message is significantly cheaper than the cost of a first class stamp or a phone call made during the day, particularly to a mobile number.
Text messages are delivered almost immediately and, unlike other forms of communications, the majority of people do respond to their texts straight away. Not only that, sending a reply essentially costs nothing because most phone contracts include a certain number of free texts as standard.

Automated SMS reminders can also benefit other industries – informing drivers their car is due for a service or MOT, for example. It’s good customer service as far as the owner is concerned and it’s  cost effective for the garage because  they can keep their contact list up to date with minimum effort or resource.

Our online SMS facilities are really easy to set up and, by deploying one of our services, you would benefit from significant cost savings almost immediately. There is no software to download because you manage your account online and no training is required.

You can upload your appointment spreadsheet onto our servers quickly and easily and schedule single or multiple reminder messages to be sent on specific days and times.

Unlike other providers we also offer a “personalised replies” facility as part of our standard package. This service ensures all your replies are delivered directly to the original sender, allowing them to immediately begin private conversations and start building relationships.

Many organisations in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors are saving themselves money by deploying out online texting services.

Click here to find out more about who we are and what we do.

Using SMS in emergency situations has always carried a certain element of risk, primarily because mobile operators always give priority to voice, but changes to EU regulations with regards to telecommunications in May this year will mean that access to the emergency services must be made as flexible and as inclusive as possible. This means making 999 accessible to the hearing and speech impaired who have struggled until now.
A UK-wide emergency SMS pilot, championed by the RNID, was launched in 2009 and ran until the summer of last year. The service allows pre-registered users to send an SMS to a 999 number. Once delivered it is converted into a voice message and forwarded to the fire service, ambulance or police, depending on its nature.
At the end of the pilot there were more than 4000 registered users and the service has already handled over 300 emergency calls.
While Ofcom has announced it wants to make the service mandatory, there are still limitations associated with it in emergency situations, primarily because it lack spontaneity and you have to register in advance to use the service. Emergencies don’t often give you that luxury.

In the autumn of last year we were involved in developing a niche emergency SMS application for a participant of the infamous Mongol rally. Our brief was to develop an application that was cost effective and would guarantee the delivery of all messages sent. This was important because, unlike conventional rallies, the Mongol rally does not have backup or support teams so if you get stuck or find yourself in trouble, you’re really on your own.

In order to overcome the uncertainties associated with delivery (due to phones being switched off, poor signal etc), we made modifications our popular email to SMS application, turning it on its head so it became an SMS to email application.

Our bespoke software converts SMS messages into email formats and delivers them accordingly. Our servers are connected directly to the mobile networks so delivery failure, due to poor coverage or phones being turned off, is eliminated.

If a recipient’s PC, iPhone or other mobile device is switched off then messages may not be seen until much later, but they are delivered immediately – recipients need to make sure they read them.
The opportunities for such an application are enormous, particularly for people who are working in countries where freedom of speech is limited.

Take Libya or Bahrain as examples – our solution would  allow aid workers or news reporters to discretely yet quickly send a message to the outside world saying they were in need of urgent assistance, or simply to keep us updated about what’s is going on.

Our application is not only reliable, it is also extremely cost effective because it works with  “Go-Sim“ SIM cards – where prices are fixed.
Hugh Gibaud, who initially trialled the pilot service said: “To be honest, I was very sceptical at first because I did not think it would be possible to get a signal in the middle of the Gobi desert, but you can and I was extremely glad.”

Click here to find out more about who we are and what we do.

According to figures published by the Institute of Fiscal Studies, if the Government is to reach its borrowing target by 2015, it must cut overall public spending by £456 billion over the next 4 years. No wonder local authorities and supporting agencies are under such immense pressure to run their departments more efficiently, drastically reduce costs and streamline overall services.

Martha Fox, the UK Government’s digital champion believes that more than £2.2billion could be saved annually if routine public services (income support or tax benefits, for example) were digitalised and citizens were encouraged to answer their own queries online using “self-service” style applications.

Significant savings could indeed be made, but let us not forget that even in our digital age,  a third of low income UK households do not have access to the Internet at home and that one in four adults in the UK have never even been online.

In order for self-service applications to be feasible, other communications channels need to be brought into play.

SMS is currently used to deliver more than 50% of mobile marketing campaigns because even in our Smartphone age, SMS is still one of the most effective communications methods available.  Online SMS services and inbound SMS could help local authorities reduce costs because it is significantly more economical to send text messages to mobile phones than to call them.

Why is SMS such an effective communications method? Here are some of the reasons why:

• There are more SIM cards than people in the UK so the potential communication reach is enormous.
• Migrant residents are more likely to have a mobile phone than a landline.
• SMS is not reliant on 3G networks – even the most basic handsets support SMS functionality
• Text messages are delivered almost instantly
• SMS is a technology that is well understood
• SMS is very direct and does not rely on users having to follow links to access information

Furthermore, SMS is cheap. Local authorities for example could streamline information services by communicating routine information by SMS because messages can be bought in bulk. Not only that, the majority of mobile phone contracts incorporate free SMS bundles, so it essentially costs consumers nothing to send a reply or to request further information by text.

Online SMS services can be used as an effective communications tool by many different departments. All of them could use SMS to keep in contact with fellow colleagues. SMS is a cost effective and reliant way to make residents aware of changes to scheduled services (refuse collection, for example) due to bad weather. Social workers could save themselves time by confirming appointments by SMS. Housing departments could speed up housing applications by using SMS to contact prospective tenants.

SMS is the preferred communications channel for consumers because it is discrete and they can usually send SMS messages requesting a call back or further information as part of their inclusive texts. SMS could be the return channel for NHS awareness campaigns, to quit smoking, for example.

Equally, residents could use SMS to report incidents of graffiti or vandalism in the community and commuters could use SMS to inform the Highways Agency of accidents. Inbound SMS advice lines could also help deal with incidents relating to racism or bullying.

These types of services can be delivered quickly and cost effectively using our online SMS applications. No training is required, there is no software to download and there are no minimum contracts or hidden costs. In addition our SMS services can be integrated with other existing CRM systems and databases using our developers API.

Click here to find out more about who we are and what we do.

Travelling in remote parts of the world used to make us feel isolated and vulnerable. However, thanks to mobile communications technology, such feelings are a thing of the past. Ever-expanding mobile coverage and affordable handsets means it is now possible to pick up a signal from almost anywhere in the world.

This fear of being completely isolated was experienced firsthand by Hugh Gibaud and his business partner, Jeremy Miles, when they decided to take part in this year’s Mongol rally in order to raise money for charity.
The rally, designed to be an exhilarating experience for participants, starts in Europe and ends in Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia. Unlike a normal rally, the overall aim is not to get there first but to get there safely – quite a challenge considering the countries that have to be crossed and the terrains involved.

For Gibaud it was imperative he could keep in contact with his family throughout the trip, not only for personal reasons but also for his own safety. Time was also of the essence and Gibaud wanted to be able to quickly contact different groups of people so he could get on with the rally. Sending SMS messages was the obvious answer but delivery is not always instantaneous, particularly when abroad. It depends on a number of factors such as network operators, roaming arrangements, signal strength and most importantly, the recipient’s phone being turned on so the message can be received.

Due to the potentially dangerous nature of the rally Gibaud did not want to leave the delivery of these messages to chance. He wanted to be able to quickly communicate with friends and family and needed a means of sending SMS messages that were guaranteed to be delivered in case he found himself in difficulties.

He carried out some basic research to see if such a service could be provided and came across Slepe Communications, an SMS service provider that specialises in the development of bespoke and niche SMS applications. He explained the situation and Slepe communications made a number of changes to its popular email to SMS service, turning it into an SMS to email service, in order to guarantee the delivery of all SMS messages.

Using a normal mobile phone and “Go-SIM” an international prepaid SIM card, Gibaud sent all messages to Slepe Communications’ centralised server. Here the company’s bespoke software converted all SMS messages to email formats so they could be delivered quickly to recipients. The servers are connected directly to the mobile network, thus eliminating the problem of delivery failure due to poor coverage or phones being turned off.
“I was very excited to be given the opportunity to become involved in the project”, explained Rob Jagger, Director of Slepe Communications.” Normally one associates email to SMS with commercial marketing campaigns but this application demonstrates how SMS can be used to enhance personal safety by giving you the ability to quickly send out emergency messages, should you find yourself in difficulty.

This niche SMS to email application was not only reliable but also extremely cost effective because with Go-SIM prices are fixed. Gibaud continues; “To be honest, I was very sceptical at first because I did not think it would be possible to get a signal in the middle of the Gobi desert, but you can and I was extremely glad.”

Using SMS for personal safety is a relatively new concept but Rob is very excited about future possibilities for the service, as he explains. This application has proved that so long as you have a mobile phone, it is possible to send SMS messages that are guaranteed to be delivered, irrespective of which country you are in. The potential use for email to SMS in this context is enormous; for example, as part of a company’s health and safety procedure. Similarly, providing Aid workers operating in countries where freedom of speech is restricted with this type of service would enable them to quickly but subtly inform colleagues if they were in danger.”

We’ve decided to rename our ‘Receive Texts’ product to be ‘Direct Response’. This is to reduce the possibility of confusion between our product offering. Direct Response is perfect for marketing campaigns or promotional events, as it allows anybody to send texts to a fixed number, and have those texts forwarded to the customers as either an email or by our API.

It has always been the philosophy at toText.net to offer full two-way communications as standard across all our products. What we found is that some customers mistakenly assumed that they need the ‘Receive Texts’ product as well as either ‘Email to Text’ or ‘Web to Text’.

This should be a benefit to all our customers, and we’re looking forward to taking all our product lines forward into the challenging times ahead.