The evolution of cellular technology has greatly impacted when, where and how people interact and communicate with each other. Smartphone penetration is at roughly 30% in the South African market, set to grow to 45% by 2017, giving more and more South Africans easy access to a wealth of information in the palm of their hands. This empowering technology can present both opportunities and challenges when it comes to keeping consumers engaged and informed about business endeavours, says Dr Pieter Streicher, managing director of BulkSMS.com.
Some businesses are finding it increasingly challenging to get hold of clients telephonically, even though most customers prefer personal contact when their input is required. Calls may go unanswered for a number of reasons. One reason may be as the recipient could be in a meeting, driving or otherwise unable to answer the call. Another could be that the receiver does not wish to answer a call from an unknown or private number, or from a contact not appearing in their phonebook. Calls from unknown or private numbers have a much higher chance of being a telemarketing call, and many people prefer to avoid these. Businesspeople now get to screen their own calls - this is somewhat different to a past where the office receptionist or secretary screened incoming calls.
The reason why most telemarketing and business calls originate from "unknown" or "private" numbers is because these calls are routed via mobile least cost routing solutions. Least cost routing simply means finding the cheapest cost to route a call. For calling a mobile phone, the cheapest route will typically be via a cellular router (basically another mobile phone). This device will not be able to receive incoming calls to the same number. To avoid the problem of receiving calls to these numbers, telemarketers and businesses hide the originating number of outgoing calls. As a result, these calls originate from "unknown" or "private" numbers.
Some people do not listen to voicemail messages timeously and some have completely disabled voicemail facilities. All these factors can have a negative impact on the ability of a business to reach their clients for legitimate reasons. For example, while one's car is in for a service, the dealership needs to be able to reach an individual in the event that additional work is required. Should the dealership calls be routed via a private number, staff could end up calling the same customer repeatedly, leaving several voicemail messages, and as a result, incurring unnecessary costs and losing time.
One of the ways that businesses - both large and small - could take advantage of the recent surge in mobile activity is by adding SMS into their correspondence mix. SMS offers two-way communication, which means the recipient can respond immediately and directly. A business can use SMS before placing a call, by describing who will be calling, the reason for the call, and also offer the client the option to propose a more appropriate time for calling, if required.
SMSes are often read within five minutes of being received. They are short (160 characters or less), less invasive (compared to a phone call) and can be responded to when the recipient has the time, making it more customer-orientated than a phone call. SMS combined with a voice call allows for efficient, effective yet personal communication between a business and its customers, at a time and place that suits both parties.
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