BA announced this week that is had sent out over 11,000 SMS apologies to customers affected by the Terminal 5 saga. Their SMS programme is managed by mobile marketing agency, Incentivated.
CRM is a great use of SMS by businesses and I believe, far more powerful than other forms of Push marketing that some brands are still thinking about running. If you’re going to contact people about a cancelled flight or an unexpected transaction on their credit card, it’s simply the best way of delivering the news, quickly and cheaply.
I flew in and out of Terminal 5 during the ill-fated launch week. OK, they cancelled my inbound flight (but sent me an SMS notification in good time), but after that, all was sweetness and light. Me and my baggage arrived on time and they even gave me a whole bunch of Air Miles to compensate for the cancellation.
I think the big issue was more to do with the classic “over promise, under delivery” so beloved of big business. If they said that they were going to have teething problems, people would have been prepared and much more forgiving. And if they left people to make up their own minds about the terminal, without the overhype, people would have been pleasantly impressed.
Terminal 5 is pretty nice and shiny, but ultimately, it’s just a terminal. No one really is going to get excited about it and if they do as a result of hype and spin, they’re going to be mildly disappointed.
At the creative mobile ad agency, We Love Mobile, we’re calling this kind of thing ‘mCRM’ and encouraging brands to use thoughtful and well written SMS as a cost-effective ‘positive’ follow up to a transaction. That could be care instructions, thank you for your custom, money off your next purchase etc, as well as for more negative issues management, such as the BA example. We also think that the humble SMS has great potential as an internal communications tool, warning staff about issues (e.g. don’t come into work today, the photocopier is broken!), but we haven’t seen much evidence of that taking off yet. A word of caution, however, in that ‘mCRM’ only works when the message is useful and anticipated, so hard opt-in and judicious and targeted usage is key. Simon, MD, welovemobile.co.uk