Scheduling Text Messages

How to Prevent No-Shows: Dentists

2010-06-21T09:39:00.001-07:00

In many dentist surgeries, it isn't just your clinical revenue figures that no-shows hurt - it's all of the other patients that depend on your service. In many areas of the country dental services are stretched to breaking point, and when a patient fails to keep an appointment there is often someone, somewhere, that was turned down for an appointment and now must wait with a toothache unnecessarily. Today we check out some of the methods best suited to dentists for preventing no-shows, including scheduled SMS messages, signage and employee training.

Have a dedicated cancellation contact point

This could be an option on your call distributor, or even a reply service to scheduled SMS reminders. Make it easy for patients to call and tell you they can’t make it, or they might not bother.

Send reminders … in several forms!

For patients with a single no-show against their name in your booking system, you could simple schedule SMS reminders. For patients with 2 no-shows against their name, consider sending a letter and an SMS closer to the date. For patients with 3 against their name, you should call, send a letter and SMS your reminder. These few dollars in stamps, phone calls and employee times will save many more dollars in missed appointments. However, their most valuable return is in showing your patients that no-shows matter to you, and that you need to know when they can’t keep an appointment.

Use signage to remind customers

Pop up signs reminding people that you have a dedicated cancellation line, that there is no penalty for cancelling within a set period, and that they'll be doing other patients a favor.

Shorten any automated reminder messages

If you have an automated reminder, make it snappy - otherwise many patients think it's telemarketing and hang up.

Consider overbooking

It may be worth overbooking your schedule by around half the usual rate of no-shows in order to preserve income.

Create standby appointments

Maintain a list of patients that can come in at a moment's notice - clear and rebuild this weekly. When you have a no-show, simply call in a new patient. One sister strategy to this is to make your SMS appointment reminders compulsory-reply; if your patient doesn't reply to an SMS reminder by 15 minutes before the appointment is due, tell them it will be rebooked.

How to Prevent No-Shows: Hotels, Motels and Accommodation Providers

2010-06-08T14:35:00.001-07:00

There are variations of the "no show" in every industry. The client who has "a ton of work that I need done," but never ends up calling. The lady who says "Great! I'll just grab my husband's credit card" and is never to be seen again. And even more damaging are clients that actually make firm bookings at hotels, motels and other accommodation providers and then don't turn up. Many hotels deal with this problem by taking credit card information in advance, but this isn't always the best customer service policy for those who have a genuine difficulty that meant they couldn’t cancel within the allotted time. Today we check out some solutions, such as scheduling text messages and other policy changes, that help prevent no-shows for hotels and motels.

Create a no-show policy with the help of a lawyer
Before you can deal with no-shows in a professional manner, you need to create a policy for dealing with them. Do so in conjunction with a lawyer - when softer methods such as scheduling text messages and other reminders fail, you need to know what recourse you can legally take.
Take a deposit for busy periods.
When you are taking a booking over the phone, or a booking is being made through the website, always make sure that the booker understands the penalty for not cancelling by phone prior to the arrival time. Over the phone, ask the caller to acknowledge the information. On the internet, create a window with multiple checkpoints (not just a link and a checkbox) to ensure they know what the policy is.
Set up a multi-step reminder system which includes methods like scheduling personal reminders via text message, doing callbacks, and requiring email confirmations.
Check your booking sheets daily, looking for duplicate reservations, date discrepancies and any bookings that are from two seemingly different people but with similar names.
If possible, have a single person within your hotel or motel take all the reservations, to ensure that no crossover of information occurs.
Do mystery shopping on your own accommodation service regularly to make sure people are giving out the correct cancellation information.

All of these small business tools will help you get and keep the clients you need and deserve!

A Small Business Boost

2010-05-17T09:40:00.001-07:00

Do you find yourself rescheduling appointments for clients due to no shows or them forgetting their appointment? This costs you valuable time with other clients as well as loss of money whether from that scheduled appointment or the one you had to turn away due to already having an appointment at the time they needed one. Now you can avoid those financial aggravations and added stress on you and your employees when your daily schedule is thrown behind due to a no show or someone running late. With Pelicantext.com, you can send your clients text reminders directly to their phone at the time you choose to remind them of their scheduled appointment. Never turn another client away and lose money in the processes when your scheduled appointment does not show. Simply login and program the system to send a reminder text to your clients for the days appointments and start enjoying your new small business tool.

Avoiding the aggravation with clients not showing will reduce the stress in your business life for sure, but what if I told you there is also a way to remind your teenager, family members and friends of scheduled luncheons, important family dinners or a simple get together? Well, with the assistance of pelicantext.com you can ensure your teenager never misses an important event or gathering again. Now you can avoid having to hunt your son or daughter down to remind them of doctor appointments, school meetings and other scheduled appointments and you can have a scheduled reminder to your kids sent directly to their phone. Stop pulling your hair out at the last minute when you realize your teenager is nowhere to be found and rest assured they are where they are scheduled to be with the use of pelicantext. You can put an end to missed dinners and gatherings with family and friends when they receive a friendly reminder text directly to their own cell phone.

Start saving time and money now, rather you are chasing family members and friends around to keep scheduled events or trying to eliminate clients not showing to scheduled appointments when it comes to your own business. Pelicantext.com is a simple and easy way to make sure everyone in your life keeps their promises when it comes to scheduled events. Logon today and discover a world of ease and sign up for a free trial run and experience the world of simplicity with the SME promotions taking place now.

Big Communication for Small Businesses

2010-05-04T09:37:00.001-07:00

There is something special about a small business. One thing that small businesses are known for is their communications skills. Small businesses normally only consist of one or two locations, so communicating is not that hard. What if there is a way to make it even easier? This is where Pelicantxt steps in! We are a company committed to the success of your small business. We have come up with a new unique way of communication between business partners as well as customers. Pelicantxt has set up an easy to use system for the small business leaders to schedule personal reminders. All you have to do is schedule a mass text to be sent out and you are done.

This service is great for appointment and meeting reminders. Sending a text message is much more efficient then email or phone. Scheduling text messages from your PC is the newest wave in communication. Pelicantxt allows you to organize groups and set certain times and dates for text messages to be sent out on. You can even send scheduled text messages to yourself. Sometimes running a small business can be hard work. It is great and relaxing to know that your employees and clients will be informed of all business matters without you having to remember to send them out. Sign up is free and if you try it now then you will automatically have 100 message credits granted to you. There is no commitment or contract. You can come as you please. There are no fees to tie you down. All you are responsible for is buying the message credits. How simple is that?

We receive rave reviews on our unique system of communication. Check out our customer testimonials if you are not one hundred percent convinced that our product will push your small business to the next level. Also, visit our frequently asked questions link to gain more understanding of our program. Pelicantxt is easy and simple for anyone wanting to expand their company’s production.Scheduled text messages save time and money. Why would anyone pass it up?

We are not only for small businesses, though. Any organization or committee interested in text message scheduling is welcome to try our service. We are open to anyone wanting to better their communication program. Visit our website to learn more about our fabulous product.Big Communication for Small Businesses

Text Messaging is a Great Business Tool

2010-04-17T18:54:00.001-07:00

Many of us use text messaging as a way to keep up with family and friends throughout the day. With many people now owning cell phones, many people would rather send a quick text message then call someone because of the convenience of this type of cell phone service. But many of us do not think about using Scheduled Text Messages to increase business.

Using Pelicantxt.com can help increase more business and help to reach your customers and business contacts through Scheduling SMS Messages to their cell phones. Many benefit from this type of service. These messages are great small business tools that work without spending a small fortune on television and radio adds.

Text Message Scheduling helps to target old customers as well as new clients that have just been acquired. From doctor offices, restaurant owners and even families can benefit from using Scheduling Text Messages. Physician offices for instance send out reminders to patients about upcoming appointments to cut the cost of no-shows. Restaurant owners like to send them out to inform customers of daily specials or as a reservation reminder. Families even find this service helpful also with keeping up with upcoming events as family picnics or even for planning a birthday party for a family member. The uses for this type of messaging service can help many people to never forget an appointment.

Effective Small business tools can help to increase business can and help to keep all ready acquired customers informed on what new products or features that your business has to offer. With the thousands of texts that are sent out everyday it only makes sense to use them to increase profits for a minimal fee in stead of wasting money on other advertising tools that do not target your cliental.

SME promotions are an effective tool when wanting to inform existing customers of new products or specials that are being offered. Without using this type of text service can mean that many small businesses can miss out on increased profits when a customer base is not informed about promotions or products that are for sale.

Appointment Reminders Save Money

2010-04-11T10:09:00.001-07:00

My husband deciding to go to medical school was one of the best decisions that he had ever made. I could not wait to help him open up his new family medical practice. We found the perfect building and hired a great professional staff to help him run his new medical practice.

The practice was running like a well-oiled machine and my husband finally started to build up his medical practice. Unfortunately when the medical practice started to grow, so did the little office headaches that go along with it. One area of concern was the scheduling conflicts that were starting to occur with patients not showing up for appointments. Not only did he have to higher more office workers to keep up with the scheduling conflicts and no-shows of patients, a vacant slot in the appointment book meant money lost.

Not only did he hire more office staff, he also tried several new office procedures to help stop the problem. Unfortunately, the scheduling problem was still there after many months of trying different methods. My husband was then fed up and decided to do a little research to find a solution that was cost effective and efficient. My husband soon found Pelicantxt.com. This unique service was inexpensive and easy to use. By implementing a Text Message Scheduling service helped to remind patients of upcoming appointments on their cell phones. His office workers found the system easy to use and more efficient then making individual phone calls all day.

My husband soon started using Scheduling Text Messages to remind his talented staff about upcoming meetings and special promotional events that were going on for each month. It helped to reduce the amount of confusion in the office and other work related scheduling conflicts.

Using Scheduling SMS Messages in his busy medical office helped to take the kinks out of the previous office procedures that were failing miserably. His patients and employees are now happier with the new procedures and like the convenience of the reminders being sent to their cell phone. He now recommends Schedule Text Messages to many of his colleagues and patients that own small businesses.

Text Reminders

2010-03-20T18:45:00.001-07:00

Social club organizers attention! Now there is a way to stay in touch with all your social contacts when important dates or events open or appoints are upcoming. With the use of pelicantxt you can put an end to spending hour after hour trying to contact each person by phone or email. By using this wonderful text service you can list a endless number of people on your account and every time you need a to remind your group of an upcoming event, appointment or a long awaited opening you can do so with the simply process of pressing a few buttons. Notify everyone at once when something has occurred to ensure that everyone get the message at the same time. Put an end to missed appointments and lost shots at booking top of the line country clubs for the social event of the year.

Say goodbye to your teenager missing his or her dental appointment when you become a member of the company that knows how important it is to keep appointments in your life and how busy your life can be at times. You have the ability to make sure your teenager keeps important appointments, is notified when certain life options come up and show up on time to family gatherings. Simplify your life with this text service and enjoy the freedom of concentrating on your life happenings yet rest assured your teenager is not missing theirs.

Perhaps you own a restaurant or have a physician’s office to run. With the use of texting you can put an end to missed appointments and open spots on your books that only cost you money. Enjoy knowing that the day of your customer’s appointment or reservation they are reminded without you having to spend the time calling each individual. You can save a ton of money when you know in advance that you will have an opening, this way you can place someone else in that time slot and still make the money you were counting on. Missed appointments and reservations are costly to the business owner and leave the customer with a bad impression but when you take advantage of this on line service you save both money and embarrassment for both parties. Life gets busy and sometimes you forget important dates or events. Put an end to those missed appointments, social parties, meetings, reservations and such when you have the ability to remind yourself and your friends, family and clients with a simply text reminder.

Text Reminders

2010-03-09T10:22:00.001-08:00

Never miss an important appointment or event again when you have the ability of scheduling SMS messaging to remind you. Perhaps you own a business that runs on appointments only and you’re tired of individuals missing an appointment they scheduled as well as losing money due to someone not showing up. When your financial well-being depends on people keeping appointments with you it is vital that you have a way of reminding them the same day the appointment is scheduled. With the assistance of scheduled text messaging you can guarantee a reduction in people missing appointments which means you are securing your financial future as well as the financial future of your family. You can register online now and receive up to 100 free text messages just for signing up and reducing your cancellations.

Now you can schedule meetings, alert customers or clients of important and urgent opportunities or cancellations. Take comfort in the fact that you will never miss an important event in your life again no matter how hectic your life may become. With the assistance of text message scheduling, you will be able to enjoy a quick reminder sent to your phone. You can schedule reminders to go out to your phone and your children’s phones so they never miss an appointment with you or anyone else again, and your client’s phones or friend’s phones. Schedule reminders for regular get togethers with friends that will send an alert reminder to you and how the friends you request. Have the ability to hit only a few buttons on your phone when your business partners or clients need to be reminded or informed of events and opportunities as well as informing family members of important news or accomplishments.

Take advantage of the affordable service brought to you on line that will reduce the stress you experience when depending on people to keep appointments, praying that your children remember appointments or events when you cannot be with them to remind them in person, SME marketing will simplify your life. Sign up today and take advantage of the SME promotions that will be a constant asset to your small business no matter what profession you are in at this time. Scheduling personal reminders for yourself, clients, patients, restaurant reservations and general gatherings will reduce stress in your life and guarantee you will make each appointment as well as your clients when it comes to the financial end of your business.

4 Ways for Employers to Use Text Message Scheduling

2010-02-17T19:23:00.001-08:00

Text message scheduling is one of the fastest, cheapest and most effective methods of communication available. Until the time when everybody in the world can afford an iPhone, it is also the most accessible form of communication. And there is nowhere that communication is more critical to success than in the workplace. Today we are looking at four different ways that employers can use text message scheduling to make their lives easier.

Notifying employees of their schedules
You could put a roster up at work, but there is always the possibility that it will be misread. Emails are not accessible anywhere like mobile phones are, and if you leave a printout for people to collect at work, it is liable to be lost. Text message scheduling can be set up to deliver timetables to employees automatically. You can even set up the system to allow replies. Tell your employees that they'll need to reply within 24 hours to confirm they are able to work those hours, or they'll be reallocated to somebody else.
Advise of schedule changes
The one piece of communications equipment that most people have on them at all times is their mobile phone. If there is a schedule change, especially if it affects a large number of employees, it is much quicker and cheaper to send out a bulk text message and have people reply to confirm, rather than calling every single one.
Record job times
If you have remote working employees, set up a system where they punch in and out by text message. This is a great way to eliminate time-card padding, or receive short job reports in real time rather than at the end of the day.
Call employees in en masse at short notice
In industries like healthcare and emergency services, you often need to get in contact with a large number of staff at once. Text message scheduling allows you to put the message out there once and once only, and get a response from all available staff.

How to Prevent No-Shows: Real Estate Agents

2010-02-09T08:15:00.000-08:00

No-shows area killer in any business -- whether you're in reiki or real estate. It is really difficult, both mentally and logistically, to set yourself up to deal with a client and then have to switch tasks, sometimes only after you've waited a quarter of an hour or more. Today we are looking at how some simple tools and techniques, like scheduling SMS message reminders, can really help real estate agents cut down on the number of no-shows they encounter.

Meet at the office

Where you can, if you suffer from a high number of no-shows, always try to arrange to meet at the office. The disturbance will be minimal if they don't show up. If they don't call to advise you they are running late, and don't show up after 15-20 minutes, it should be acceptable to leave if you have to.

A debated method

One agent reports enormous success with the method of "You call me, I won’t call you". In this case, people are required to call the agent half an hour or fifteen minutes beforehand to confirm that they will arrive. If they don't, he doesn’t show up.

Despite the success, it is easy to see how this isn’t necessarily the most hospitable way to treat prospects. If you feel you can make it work for you, though -- try it!

The call-ahead

Calling ahead to let your clients know that you are on the way to an appointment is a good strategy. Actually having the voice-to-voice contact with a person seems to make a big difference in people's willingness to keep appointments -- otherwise, frivolous meeting-makers can find it all too easy to simply "forget" the appointment, when they don't have that visceral understanding that they are making life hard for somebody else. However, these real estate agents often report enormous phone bills and lots of wasted time, also…

Scheduling SMS messages

Scheduling SMS messages is one of the best all-round solutions to cutting down on accidental no-shows, and saving both time and money on the phone bill. When it isn’t possible to meet at your office, having an automated computer program send a reminder about the appointment to your prospect's phone is a great tactic.

Make sure your message sounds as personal as possible -- this capitalizes on the fact that people don't feel bad about disappointing machines, but they don't like disappointing people! Make sure you include your name, and write your message as if you were actually typing to a single, real person.

Social Networking

2010-01-16T18:24:00.001-08:00

The struggling economy has made many small businesses look for more creative small business tools to help increase business. A good social networking tool will help increase profit. This can be anything from word of mouth to using an online SMS messaging service. Many small business owners are now using a text messaging service to their full advantage to help make their business successful.

Many small businesses, especially restaurants are finding that by using an online SMS messaging service can help keep their clients and employees informed on many different aspects of the business. There are so many advantages that this type of small business tool can do for a restaurant owner.

Along with running adds in the newspaper or other traditional methods of advertising, incorporating a SME marketing tool can also help advertising a business. This tool can keep customers informed in so many aspects of the restaurant business. When running certain food specials during the week one can send out text messages informing their regular customers one what days these dishes will be available at a special price. Many business owners find that this helps increase sales on days when business can be slow, such as certain holidays.

With the majority of people now owning cell phones and using them on a daily basis to keep informed with business and loved ones, it makes sense to use Scheduling Text Messaging to keep employees well informed on when company meetings are and also when something has changed in the work schedule. This cuts down on most of the confusion that can occur when food specials or the work schedule changes. With having employees that are better informed makes for a more organized staff and a smoother working environment. Because we all know that running a business, especially a restaurant can be a very fast paced environment that needs to work like a well-oiled machine.

Instead of adding clients and or customers to a mailing list, try adding them to your list for text messages. It helps in letting customers know what specials are being run that day. This service can also help them in making reservations. Not only can a customer make a reservation instead of calling and waiting on the phone for someone to pick up, this service can confirm or remind a customer what time his or her reservation is for. That has made using small business tools very effective when running a small business.

Increasing Business for a Pub

2010-01-04T10:43:00.000-08:00

Opening an authentic Irish pub in the United States had always been a dream for my husband and me. We went to Ireland on our honeymoon five years ago and traveled for three weeks throughout the countryside. One of our favorite things about the trip was the traditional Irish pubs that we visited. He and I fell in love with the atmosphere of these small bars with their music, dancing and of course the wonderful Irish beers that were served.

After much discussion my husband and I quit our jobs and became small-business owners. The goal was to open our dream business of a Irish pub in the middle of the Midwest. Our family and friends thought we were crazy for doing this in a struggling economy and no prior experience in running a bar. So with a few heated discussions with family and friends we forged ahead in our endeavor.

Not only did we make sure that the food, entertainment and alcohol were truly Irish to draw business, my husband focused on the advertising. Since my husband was in advertising he knew that we had to have a great advertising strategy to make the Irish pub a success. He advertised on the radio, newspaper and even started our own website for the pub. He also made sure that we were using Scheduling Text Messaging to keep our employees informed when we needed extra help during certain days of the week.

The business took off better then we expected and we had many regular customers on our email list and were using SME marketing to keep our customers informed about drink and food specials. This also came in handy keeping the customers up to date on the entertainment that we have each night. Our college-aged customers really like receiving the text messages on upcoming events and drink specials. These small-business tools have helped our Irish pub to become one of the most popular spots to go in the city.

We are now using Scheduling Text Messages for our dart league at the pub. This helps to keep the dart teams informed on tournaments and the stats of each team. They love it and so do we. It has made our dart team a success and has increased our business dramatically with all of our upcoming events. Now after using this type of advertising tool for our Irish pub, our family is now believers that we could make our small business a success in a struggling economy.

How to Prevent No-Shows: Event Organizers

2009-12-10T09:32:00.001-08:00

You've worked hard to get your event to this stage, and now you feel like a kid before their birthday party … will anybody show up? Most of the time, people that have booked a spot for an event turn up. Yet there is always a percentage of no-shows, and every empty seat is lost cash. Today we are looking at how event organizers can help prevent no-shows, with a minimum of fuss and cost.

Scheduling SMS reminders

When doctors, dentists and real estate agents choose to schedule SMS messages to remind their clients about appointments, they are usually sent several hours beforehand. If someone has truly forgotten about an event, though, they usually require more notice than this to organize their attendance. Schedule SMS messages both three and seven days in advance, as well as on the event day.

Allow replies to your scheduled SMS messages

In many SMS software programs, it is incredibly simple to allow replies. This is an easy way to discover if someone isn’t planning to come -- let them reply to the message and be taken off the list. If you’re going to use this tactic, make sure you let your customers know! Many people aren’t used to being able to reply to scheduled SMS messages. Simply advise them in the message body of how to reply with a cancellation.

Consider taking small deposits

If you are setting up a free event that requires registration, you'll inevitably find more no-shows on the day than for paid events … even more than paid events where no deposit is taken. This is because people see the seat or booking as less valuable to you, so aren’t as concerned about letting you know it won’t be fulfilled.

To solve this dilemma, charge a nominal fee upon booking. If you want, you can use the fees towards food and drinks for the event, or donate it to a charity of your choice. Make sure you let people know what you are doing with the fee.

Using Text Speak in Your SME Marketing Messages

2009-12-03T09:29:00.001-08:00

In general, you'll find that most people advise you NOT to use text speak in your marketing messages. "You'll alienate the older generation," they warn you. "People won’t understand you, your money will be wasted!" While this is true in some cases, it certainly isn't unequivocally true. If you’re speaking to a younger audience, full words will look very stilted to them on a screen … and ironically, it is the younger audience that are more likely to engage with SME marketing promotions via text. So today we are looking at some common text abbreviations, and how far to go with your text speak in scheduled SMS messages.

Common abbreviations in SMS speak

Some abbreviations are more common than others in text speak. You'll find that young adults, teens and middle-aged people alike are comfortable with using terms like:

L8 Late

l8r Later

bcos because

no Know

lol Lots of laughs/Laughing out loud

omg Oh my God

brb Be right back

Especially since most text messages are limited to 160 characters, some of these common abbreviations can be useful for getting plenty of detail into your SMS marketing, without adding a second message. While one set of beeps might be interesting, a second set unfailingly annoys!

Emoticons

Emoticons are common among the younger generation -- if you are sending scheduled SMS messages to teens or tweens, it is entirely appropriate. You might use pictograms like

Less common abbreviations

Most of these are conversational and not used in text message scheduling for marketing. Some of these abbreviations include:

n and

atm at the moment

or+ awesome

btw by the way

def definitely

g2g got to go

hru how are you

imo in my opinion

jtlyk just to let you know

obv obviously

prbly probably

Demographically Targeted Promotion Ideas for the Hospitality Industry

2009-11-02T20:33:00.001-08:00

Demographic targeting is the most important part of ensuring your text message scheduling and marketing campaign is working -- check out our earlier post on demographics in advertising and how to utilize them. If you're wondering exactly how you can apply these lessons to your own business (and you happen to be in the hospitality industry), we've done the hard work for you! Use these demographically targeted SME marketing and promotions ideas via text message scheduling for everyday success in your business.

For coffee shops

$1 Tuesday for cakes: This one would be targeted towards women -- yes, there are plenty of men with a sweet tooth, but the gals outweigh them by a mile in the sugar-licious stakes! You can expect quite a few coffee sales along with your cheap cakes.
50% discount on lunch-hour coffees: You can frame this as a happy-hour-style SME promotion. You'd be targeting office workers, and those that you know work in your immediate area. Use phone number prefixes to determine who to send these scheduled text messages out to.

For restaurants

Kids eat free: Target this one to customers that you know have children -- an obvious one! If you have children yourself, you'll know how little they actually eat at one meal, and can safely offer tiny plates of food along with free refills of pasta, or nuggets and chips, or whatever you do at a very low cost.
Oysters and champagne night, $20 per head: If you have included marital status information in your demographic gathering activities, you can quite easily target couples with this text message scheduling promotion. Alternatively, look back through your old booking sheets and see who has booked tables for two. A male name on the booking sheet generally indicates a couple coming.

For bars, pubs and clubs

$3 cocktail night coming up: Women are more likely to drink cocktails than men are -- and big discounts on these traditionally expensive drinks will be a sure-fire pleaser. Make this SME promotion for a limited part of the night, so that you attract customers but don’t run a huge loss.
24 beers in 24 hours competition: These will be legal in some areas but not in others, so that is the first thing you'll need to investigate before implementing this demographically targeted text message scheduling promotion. Once that's done, go for younger men (and be prepared to pull an all-nighter!).

4 Ways You Can Use Text Message Scheduling to Manage Employees

2009-11-02T20:26:00.000-08:00

One of the biggest challenges and biggest expenses in running a business is managing the people within it. Wages make up a big part of expenses, and sick days and missed shifts not only cause headaches, but cost even more money. Text message scheduling is a great way to automate some parts of the employee management process, so that managers can focus on keeping the most expensive and important part of the business healthy and happy! Here are four text message scheduling techniques that apply to any business with employees.

Distributing rosters

Let your employees know their shifts as soon as rosters are completed with text message scheduling. You can input the data by simply copy-pasting the shift times in the appropriate format into a text message for your employees. A delivery report means that you have hard copy proof that your employees were notified of their shifts!

Even when absenteeism is not an issue, scheduled text messages informing employees of rosters eliminates confusion and cuts down on paper usage -- much more appropriate in the modern world.

Staff meeting notices

Text message scheduling to a group using web based software is extremely quick and extremely cost-effective -- much more so than ringing employees individually to let them know about an upcoming meeting. The cost for good text message scheduling will usually be around 10p per message, and you can request employees reply to confirm that they are attending. This strategy helps ensure everyone gets the message at minimal time and cost.

Social club events

Send out a reminder about Friday drinks, Monday lunchtime's trivia event, or an upcoming office birthday party using text messaging. Even people who aren’t working (and so won’t be checking their work e-mails or noticeboards) will get the message, and won’t miss out on the event.

Memos

Use this technique carefully; text message scheduling for memos sounds like a great idea for ensuring blanket coverage for management's message, but the practicalities can be a little restrictive. You only have 160 characters to get your message out, or else a second message will be sent. Sending two messages is unprofessional (and more than a little annoying for the recipient!). This strategy can be useful as a reminder for policies that everybody has previously discussed, but is rarely a good format to deliver more extensive new information.

Making Restaurant Reservations

2009-10-15T20:24:00.001-07:00

My dream as a chef was to open up my own Italian restaurant. After many years of working under some of the top Italian chefs in the country, I was finally able to open up me own little piece of Italy in a busy downtown location. I could have not asked for a better location and an even better price on the building that was purchased.

After many months of renovations to the building and hiring a great staff, my Italian restaurant was ready for opening night. The first night we were open was extremely busy and we were surprised at the turnout. Everyone loved the food that we were serving and our staff was elated on the many wonderful compliments about the cuisine.

Since being open for the past three months, it seems that the newness of the restaurant has wore off and the struggling economy was having a negative effect on the business of my restaurant. We went from being booked for weeks in advanced and then business seemed to slow down a bit. My wife suggested that we look into subscribing to some small business tools to get the momentum back in our business.

We both did our research on the Internet and came across an interesting website. My wife found the website Pelican Txt.com. This amazing service provides text messaging to many of our regular customers and we can even send scheduled text messages to our talented staff.

My wife explained to me that this text messaging service provides our customers with the opportunity to receive up to date food promotions via cell phone or computer for our Italian restaurant. I even learned that the text messaging service would allow customers to make reservation at the touch of a button instead of waiting on the phone. This made perfect sense to use this service as a convenience to our loyal customers and to help promote our restaurant.

Since we have been using the scheduled text messages for our staff and customers, it has made our Italian restaurant one of the busiest eateries in the downtown area again. My staff is now constantly up to date on meetings and restaurant reservations. The service has saved my talented employees time on how many people to expect for dinner service every night. This has also helped me in knowing how much food to order from my distributors and helps keep our food cost down, and the savings are passed on to the customers.

How to Use Demographics in Your Text Message Scheduling

2009-10-12T20:06:00.001-07:00

If you aren't already using demographic profiles in your text message scheduling and marketing, then you are wasting up to 90% of your budget! Many businesses make the mistake of thinking that their product or service would be good for everyone … even if that is true, your marketing budget can waste away quite quickly by not targeting your message properly.

Imagine if you were selling facial treatments, and were offering free eyebrow waxing with every treatment this month. Sure, there are some men who like getting facial treatments and eyebrow waxing, especially corporate type guys. But would you take out an ad for your services in a business updates magazine? Probably not! On a smaller scale, not paying attention to demographics in your text message scheduling is just as wasteful. So how do you collect and use demographics in your cellphone marketing efforts?

What are demographics?

There are several main ways to split your customers up into groups. Each of these must be useful in considering what they are likely to need or want. Arbitrary divisions are not useful. You'll want to maintain a database showing each customer's:

Age, or age bracket (for example, 18-25, 25-35, 35-50, 50+)
Sex, male or female
Income level or bracket
Education level
Race and/or ethnicity
Geographic location

How to collect demographics

Some lucky businesses collect these demographics as a part of their service. For example, if you sell products via the internet, you will already have your customer's geographic location. In some cases, businesses might take a date of birth to help verify customer identities (for example, internet providers and electricity providers), giving them accurate age data for creating demographic divisions. In other cases, businesses may be able to assume data based on their interactions with the customers -- but be aware that this is risky business!

A better way to collect demographic data is to offer a reward in exchange for it. Loyalty card providers don’t really need to know people's income or education level in order to give them a free coffee once they've bought ten. However, many stores require this sort of sign-up. There are many ways you can do this is your own businesses. You an also use:

Suggestion boxes
Post-purchase surveys
Focus groups

Shaking what your research gave you

So, how do you apply all this newfound knowledge in your text message scheduling campaign? Many businesses will have only one demographic for their customers -- you might sell a product that only high-income, older females want. However, other businesses have a wide range of customer demographics.

When you design a promotion or special, keep a single customer demographic in mind. For example:

Mechanics could offer promotions on tasks that men usually do themselves, but women often need help with
Hairdressers could offer a promotion on a trim and shampoo aimed at their male customers
Beauty therapists could offer an anti-wrinkle product sample free with a facial, aimed at older customers.

And then use your text message scheduling program to ONLY send this out to customers within your chosen demographic! Easy - and effective.

Top 4 Writing Tips for Scheduled Text Message Marketing

2009-10-08T20:32:00.001-07:00

Almost the only form of marketing that is guaranteed to be read nowadays is scheduled text message marketing. People will delete emails without even seeing the first line, they're wise to pop-under ads and right click to close them, and even the most annoying blinking banners barely get a look in. Scheduled text message marketing is still fairly underused and a powerful tool for the right offer and audience. If you've got a powerful promotion, here are our top four tips for framing it in text message words!

1. Set the scene

Frame your offer either in terms of the problem it solves for your customer, or in terms of its benefits … using SENSORY language. This is language that evokes a feeling in your reader. "Save" and "discount" always arouse interest, but to be memorable you might uses words like:

Warm and cozy
Sizzle
Dripping
Laugh
Fresh

You can see how these apply to many different contexts, and as you read them you can picture a feeling, a sound, a sight or a quality. This is what will make your scheduled text messages stick in customers' minds.

2. Calls to action

They are an essential part of marketing everything from hearing aids to handbags. Don’t just provide a website or phone number, TELL your customer to look it up or call it. If you have a physical store, say "Come and see us at…". You can also bring your sensory words into a call to action. For example, if you were advertising a steakhouse restaurant, you could say "Experience the sizzling flavors and juicy drip of our finest by stopping by 123 High Street, Downtown."

3. No txt spk!

Society is well and truly divided on the issue of text-speak. The bottom line is that it isn’t suitable for corporate communications. Even if you have a young audience or an informal brand, full words are safest.

4. Write about one thing only

You need to identify a single offer for your text message. Customers will only get annoyed if the first message is truncated, and then their silence is again interrupted by beeping, only to find more advertising. You need a single offer per scheduled text message for both memorability, and to avoid being an annoyance.

Be a Social Butterfly!

2009-09-24T12:04:00.001-07:00

You've probably heard again and again the benefits of social networking. Social networking is an excellent way not just to maximize your own social life, but also to maximize your life and business. Utilizing a social network as a means of advertising, communicating, and keeping your business up and running will help you to develop a personal relationship with your staff, your clients, and other people involved in your organization on a day-to-day basis. We find that utilizing a social network is more beneficial if you can grow with the social network, such as, when you enter on the ground floor. Getting in on the ground floor of a building social network is an excellent way to expand your repertoire can get the word out before spam and other unnecessary messages become commonplace.

Basically, if you're part of a social network from its early stages, you'll notice you get more legitimate attention in both the social and business realms. Depending on the network, getting in early can mean some specialized added benefits as well. If you’re planning to join a social network, spend some time researching the opportunities available there before you get the ball rolling.

You may be curious as to what a social network actually is. Other social networks, you might be familiar with networks like Facebook, Myspace, and others of a similar nature. Social networking is a place where you can chat with friends, post information about your business, transfer information, share photos and messages, and keep your family and friends updated on your day-to-day living.

While simply signing up for a social networking will do little to promote your business, actually utilizing the services of a social network can be the perfect way to advertise new products get the word out about any business. Don't underestimate the benefits ofbeing part of a social network. We think in engaging in a useful nature of any social network is a wonderful way to stay on top of all the benefits modern technology has to offer.