Go Beyond Contacts

There’s more to instant brand communication than mere contact. It’s bigger than that… And that’s why, with FLOODGATE, you can go beyond contact, in ways you never imagined.

1. Reply MMS

The consumer sends an SMS and gets an MMS reply, which can take the form of:

a) Picture MMS
Thumb shopping. The reply MMS can be an interesting alternative to the reply SMS. Now you can show the prospect a picture of the car they are interested in buying!

b) Video MMS
A video reply MMS captures the action or provides a practical demonstration of a product being used.

c) Animation MMS
An animation is a very entertaining way of delivering an exciting, dynamic or interesting message.

d) Audio MMS
Put your thumbs in her ears! An SMS enquiry returns an audio file containing information or entertainment - anywhere, anytime.

e) Text MMS
Maybe a thousand words can say more than a picture? MMS can also deliver large text files instead of images.

2. SMS to E-mail

Send an SMS containing your e-mail address and get both an e-mail and an SMS reply. In short, pull customers from above the line to below the line by asking for an email address. The client smses a KeyWord and his e-mail address; FLOODGATE picks up the email address in the SMS and immediately dispatches your e-mail to the customer.

For example, think of a recipe. The customer sends us a KeyWord and e-mail address. We e-mail her the recipe and SMS her a list of (branded) ingredients for easy reference when in-store.

3. Qualified Purchasing

Now it’s getting interesting… Send an SMS and secure a monster discount on your purchase!

This product is aimed at capturing a commitment to purchase big-ticket items. Imagine someone reading the newspaper in bed at 10pm. There’s a TV advertisement offering a guaranteed R300 discount off the purchase of a new kettle braai, if he sends a R30 SMS immediately. The consumer seizes the bargain and receives a reply SMS with his ‘voucher’ and the store calls in the morning to confirm the purchase and arrange delivery. The point here is that once the consumer has sent the R30 SMS, he is committed to the purchase and unlikely to shop around.

4. Location-Based Services (LBS)

Where’s the closest supplier? If you’re the consumer, simply send an SMS and receive a reply with the details of your closest supplier. What’s more, have them call you! Or, put another way, which is the branch closest to the enquiring consumer? (This works brilliantly for franchises.)

Putting it plainly, LBS works on four levels:

• On the simplest level we use different KeyWords to identify different areas.
• Next up, we use a single KeyWord but ask the enquirer to add their postal code after the KeyWord.
• Moving to network services, we request the Wireless Application Service Provider (WASP) to identify the closest supplier to the phone’s current location.
  • In this instance, our mapping company partners ‘geo-code’ all of the suppliers’ locations and lodge the list with a WASP.
  • On activation the WASP locates the mobile phone and returns a code identifying the closest supplier to that position.
  • FLOODGATE then sends the enquirer a reply SMS giving him the details of the closest supplier.
  • We simultaneously send the supplier the enquirer’s details to make the follow-up call.
  • In this instance the Mobi-URL link can be used to send a map of the supplier’s location.

In London, you can send an SMS and receive a reply detailing the location of the closest toilet!

5. Intelligent SMS

Send an SMS query and receive a personalised reply to your question. For instance, ‘How many air miles do I have?’ FLOODGATE’s most exciting product is intelligent SMS, although it is really quite simple. We read ‘codes’ in the incoming SMS and request the answer to a pre-determined question from the company’s computer. Then:

• The KeyWord instructs us to search the message for other pre-programmed codes.
• We deliver these codes to our client’s computer, requesting the answer to a pre-programmed question.
• The client’s computer sends us the relevant answer to the question and we populate the reply SMS with the answer.

6. SMS for Call Centres

Send an SMS to log a callback from a call centre; in other words, let the call centre call you.

Research shows that Smart Access numbers may not be so smart if your clients are using mobile phones to call in. So FLOODGATE suggests that call centres allow clients to ‘log’ their call with an SMS. “But won’t returning calls increase the running costs of my call centre?” No. Probably not. Let’s look at some facts about call centres and call origination:

1. Is the call centre using a Smart Access number – 0800, 0860 or 0861 prefix – or a ‘normal’ Telkom telephone number?

Telkom designs smart Access numbers for Telkom-to-Telkom calls and the charge rates assume this to be the case.

• 0800 – Toll Free: This is free to the consumer from a Telkom landline. The business picks up the cost of the call, no matter the location of the caller or the call centre.
• 0860 – Toll Share: This does not mean 50/50! The consumer pays the cost of a local call and the business picks up the long distance portion of the call if the call centre is remote to the caller.
• 0861 – Toll Pay: Here the consumer pays the entire cost of the call at a flat rate, no matter the location of the call centre.

So, in short, 0860/1 numbers raise their own issues in terms of customer service - but what if a customer is calling from a mobile phone?

2. What’s the Telkom vs. mobile phone split? What percentage of calls is originating from Telkom landlines and what percentage from the mobile operators?

• 37 million of the 51 million active SIM cards in South Africa are in private use. When Vodacom arrived in South Africa there were 4 million Telkom lines.
• Mathematically, 90% of calls should originate on the mobile networks.

3. What is the average hold time for a call?

• There are two time components to making a call to a call centre: hold time and consulting time. Hold time is how long you hold for, before you speak with someone. Consulting time is the time actually spent talking to the consultant.
• When a consumer calls from mobile device, Telkom charges the owner of the Smart Access number a flat rate for the duration of the call. If we assume that the consultation will take three minutes, then that time is going to be paid for by the company - regardless of which party originates the call. Acknowledging that this rate is lower than the cost of making an outgoing call to a mobile network, it is then the hold time that becomes the swing factor on the overall cost of the call to the call centre.
• The mathematics are that if the consultation time is an average of three minutes, then any hold time in excess of two minutes is starting to cost the company more than if they had returned the call and only paid for the consultation time via a network card in their switchboard.

In summary:

• On 0860 and 0861 Smart Access numbers, Telkom relies on charging the consumer for all or part of the call from a Telkom landline.
• Telkom cannot levy this charge on a mobile operator contract.
• Therefore Telkom charges the owner of the Smart Access number the charges they cannot recoup from the ‘competing network’.
• The cost break-even point for a call centre is an average total call time of five minutes.
• A consumer calling from a mobile device is better off sending a R2 SMS if the call lasts longer than one minute - not to mention the customer service inherent in being the first business to say, ‘We really look after our customers. SMS our Customer Care Centre and we will call you back!’

SMS does not seek to replace Smart Access numbers, because an 0800 number will still be the cheaper option for 10% of the customers with access to a Telkom landline. But 90% of the population will be better served, and will more readily communicate with a brand, using the SMS callback option from FLOODGATE.