Posts tagged Mobile Services

Mobile technology and entertainment company ROK have just announced they’re behind the ‘Ask Terry’ Q&A text service service launched today on UK sports radio station TalkSPORT.

Commenting on the initiative, Laurence Alexander, CEO of ROK said “TalkSPORT is the perfect medium for reaching keen sports fans who find themselves with a burning question that needs answering.

“Our answers to questions asked have a real, live, human interface – most often with a lot of humour involved – and in most cases we are able to reply within 10 minutes”.

Listeners are invited to text ‘Terry’ to 81089 with any question they need answering and they will receive a personalised ‘human’ answer from ROK’s panel of experts via SMS. Questions cost £1.00 each.

“We think our audience will love the talkSPORT Ask Terry service” said Kevin Bird Commercial Director of talkSPORT Radio “and will help put an end to those arguments sports fans have, for example, over who scored the winner in the 1972 Cup Final.”

According to ROK, Terry is a ‘bloke in a dressing gown in the attic with a load of encyclopedias’.  The company claims the UK SMS Q&A market is growing rapidly – with an estimated 1-2 million questions being asked every month. It’s a sector already served well by companies such as Texperts (formerly 82ASK) and AQA – and although this latest venture is aimed at sports fans, ROK say they’ll answer any question on any subject.

Incidently, Allan Clarke of Leeds scored the only goal in the 1972 Cup Final, against Arsenal, with a powerful header from 15 yards out in the 53rd minute.

As we’re in the midst of yet another postal strike, it’s rather apt that a District Council in Suffolk has announced they’re embracing the 21st century and communicating with residents by text.

Barbergh District Council, working with solutions provider Avanquest, are to start sending out reminders to residents to pay council tax by text, instead of relying on the creaking (and increasingly unreliable) Royal Mail to get the message out.

Bob Southgate, Babergh’s Head of Customer Services, said: ‘Text messaging is an effective and modern way of communicating. Most people have a mobile phone and it is no longer a gimmick but a real help in a busy world. By launching this system, Babergh is hoping to communicate with even more of its customers, while keeping the traditional methods open, to allow for greater access to our services.”

Reporting quantifiable savings on the council tax reminder project, Bob comments, ‘Text messages are more instantaneous and allow a greater flexibility for the person receiving them. The potential for numerous worker hours saved is enormous, coupled with money savings – the cost of a second class stamp is 24p, a text charge is 6p.”

Developed by Avanquest, Text Message Server is a fully-featured inbound and outbound communications solution. Text messages can be created, sent and received from within any email client and third party software such as CRM, ERP and Web, with enterprise reports and developers tools kits.

The software is easy to install and simple to use. It was quickly embraced by council personnel and recipients, plus it meets all up to date regulatory compliance initiatives.

Plans are also under way to use SMS technology for Emergency Planning processes. ‘Texting is quick and accurate, plus it gives us a complete audit trail, essential for this scenario” said Bob Southgate.

‘Plus, we plan to use SMS to empower our ‘Litter Champions’ across the 76 parishes that make up the district” said Bob. ‘These Champions will use text messaging as the preferred method to report fly-tipping, abandoned vehicles, graffiti etc to the relevant departments, which means damage, will be able to be assessed and action decisions made before visiting the site”.