How Clubs Can Benefit from Using Text Messaging

My son has been taking lessons for just over a year at a local karate club. Recently, I decided it was time to try, too. I set up my first private lesson (all first lessons are private), and they asked for my mobile number. It turns out they send text message reminders 24 hours before each appointment. They are a small club with around two hundred students, and less than ten instructors. On average they get maybe 3-5 new students per month.

Though a parent of a student, I hadn’t received any text messages from them. The club communicates via email and Facebook primarily, so I was surprised to hear they had begun using text messaging.

But I shouldn’t have been. Fastsms has customers of all sizes and from all sorts of disciplines. Any organisation that needs timely, central, or automatic communication can benefit from its services. Still, I wanted to understand the reasons why my little karate club had begun using text messaging. Here’s what they told me:

1. It saves them time and aggravation. Like me, all new students are provided with a text message reminder the day before their appointment. The message allows them to respond if they need to cancel or reschedule which has reduced the number of no-show lessons. The instructors are especially happy about this because if the new student cancels, they get a text message saying they no longer need to come to the studio for that appointment. Instructors get back time that would have been wasted, and the students get the friendly reminder to confirm or cancel the appointment. It makes things easier and better for everyone.
2. It’s convenient for the new student to take action. Since the new student can respond directly to the text, it’s very convenient for them to cancel. Maybe they changed their mind and don’t want to go, but would otherwise be embarrassed to call and cancel. Similarly it is easy for them to let the studio know they need to reschedule if they were unable to make it.
3. Text messaging is fast and reliable. The text messages arrive within seconds of being sent. They are easy to read even in places or circumstances where you can’t answer the phone or check email. And SMS messaging is much more reliable than email. Internet gremlins eat emails regularly, or throw them into spam folders when they shouldn’t. But even if an email is delivered correctly, and in a timely fashion, people don’t always check their emails. And checking it on the go usually requires a smartphone. According to eMarketer only about 38% of mobile users have smartphones worldwide. But every mobile user can receive a text message.
4. SMS messaging works seamlessly with their scheduler.  The club uses Outlook to manage their contacts and schedule. So when they create a private lesson appointment in Outlook, it automatically creates a text message for both the student and the instructor. They set the time of delivery to 24 hours before the appointment and everything is all set. The student and the instructor are both reminded to be at the studio without any other action on the part of the staff.
5. If all the benefits above weren’t enough, sending text messages is cheap. Or rather it is extremely affordable for even small organisations, clubs and groups. And if you add in all the time the club previously spent managing the appointments, driving to the appointments to find a no-show, rescheduling the appointments, making follow-up calls – the list can go on – the total cost of using an SMS service is even less assuming their time has some equivalent monetary value.

So this is one example of a fairly small club or business using SMS messaging to improve the way they work and interact with each other and customers. But it can be applied to endless situations and organisations. Want to know how? Call us at 0800 954 5305 , email helpdesk@fastsms.co.uk or fill out the contact form below. Alternatively browse our list of SMS Solutions.