If you’re in the property rental and management business, keeping in touch with – and on track of – your tenants can be one of the most challenging parts of the job. So when Oak Estates of Sheffield discovered the TextMagic suite of business SMS services, it dramatically changed the way the business operates for the better.

‘I wouldn’t know what to do without TextMagic’, said Diana Maratty of Oak Estates. ‘The text messaging service has brought amazing changes to the way we work. I estimate that TextMagic directly saves our business at least 15 man hours per week, so it saves us the cost of employing a part-time member of staff.’

So how exactly has the TextMagic business SMS service become such an integral part of how this successful Sheffield-based letting and property management agency operates  – and how can this huge increase in efficiency be replicated in other property management businesses?

Text Messaging Increases Response to Late Payment Requests

Diana Maratty explains, ‘We started using TextMagic SMS services in conjunction with our Total Letting Solutions software about eighteen months ago. At first, we used the service to chase up late rental payments from our tenants. As we manage over 250 different properties, chasing overdue rent was taking a lot of our staffing resource – and it’s vital to our business and to the owners of the properties we manage that rents are collected on time. Changing rental reminders from postal letter or emails to text messaging immediately decreased the amount of outstanding debt owing to us.’

So what’s the secret behind why TextMagic business SMS is so much more efficient at chasing late payments than email or letter? ‘Most of our tenants are young professionals or students and always have their phones at hand. Text messaging gets a far better response than other methods of communication. Immediately after sending a late payment text alert, tenants would be on the phone to sort out their outstanding rental payment. Not only has it improved our cashflow,  it’s significantly reduced the amount of time we have to spend chasing late payments.’

Property Maintenance Management is simplified via business SMS services

As soon as Oak Estates realised the value of TextMagic business SMS services in communicating with their tenants, they expanded its usage to include alerts for regular house inspections. ‘We’re legally bound to give tenants 24 hours’ notice before entering their properties to carry out maintenance or inspections. By using TextMagic text messaging to communicate with our tenants, we can not only gain access to the properties faster to carry out general maintenance and checks, but also respond quickly to urgent issues.’

The letting agency now uses TextMagic business SMS to keep in contact with key contacts in every part of their business – including maintenance contractors and landlords. ‘By text messaging job alerts, we can get contractors to our properties to carry out maintenances and repairs much more quickly – and that’s appreciated by our tenants and our landlords. We also keep our landlords up to date with essential information about their property via TextMagic, making communication much quicker and more streamlined.’

Business SMS saves letting agencies time, effort and money

Diana Marratty is adamant that the TextMagic business SMS system has revolutionised the way Oak Estates operates as a business. ‘Every letting agency, property management business and landlord needs TextMagic. It’s entirely changed the way we operate for the better – and knowing how TextMagic text messaging has improved our business efficiency, we could never go back.’

For more information on Oak Estates and its range of properties available in the Sheffield area for professional and student lets, visit www.oakestates.net or call 0114 258 5981.

Tiny mobile phone screens and keypads have historically been a barrier to many. Now, technology for the blind and visually impaired by UK company TextMagic opens up the world of text messaging to all

Text messaging has become a key part of most people’s lives in the UK over the past ten years. It’s estimated that 85% of the British population own a mobile phone, with a staggering 11 million text messages sent every hour*. It’s great news for helping the average person keep in touch with their friends and family – but less so for the more than two million blind and visually impaired people in the UK**, for whom text messaging on a mobile phone can be difficult or impossible.

Technology for the blind and visually impaired to help their daily lives

Whilst many other developments have been made in society in terms of technology for the blind and visually impaired population to help them go about their daily lives with ease, text messaging hasn’t been one of these. In contrast, as more and more people take to communicating by text rather than by phone calls, it can lead to the visually impaired becoming alienated from their text-messaging social circle.

However, good news is at hand – text messaging is no longer restricted to small and fiddly mobile phone keypads and screens. Technology for the blind by companies such as TextMagic means that communicating by text message has been made simple and easy to perform on a PC, MAC  or laptop – which opens up the world of text messaging to those new areas of society.

Online SMS technology helps the blind use text messaging services

The services offered by TextMagic, which includes a simple to use web-based application called TextMagic Online and Email to SMS software which assist users to easily send and receive online text messages from their email account, mean that this technology for the blind and visually impaired helps them to easily send and receive text messages to mobile phones anywhere in the world, in any of eleven different languages.

Visually impaired users currently using the TextMagic online text messaging service have heaped praise upon the applications and how they have helped them to communicate with family and friends. C. Landsdown, a TextMagic customer, required assistive technology for the blind and had always found it difficult to use mobile phones. In his experience, companies and manufacturers often make phones suitable for the deaf but not for the blind or dexterously impaired. He currently uses TextMagic’s PC and web-based programmes, using his magnification software to send and receive messages with ease.

It’s not just the blind and visually impaired population who struggle with text messaging on a mobile phone – there are many others who suffer with impairments or paralysation who have found more accessible software such as TextMagic a huge boon to their daily lives. Many people who have suffered strokes or other paralysis are unable to use mobile phones, but with small modifications can use computer keyboards – meaning that using the TextMagic technology for the blind, keeping in touch by text messaging is now within their reach.

TextMagic SMS technology is accessible to the disabled

TextMagic firmly believes that their software has an important place in making popular technology accessible to the wider population, particularly those who via illness or disability find mobile phones difficult to use. Their services are reliable and affordable and have the benefit of not being reliant on mobile phone signals – meaning that TextMagic is invaluable for sending urgent or critical messages, which can be a lifeline for those who are reliant upon others for assisting with their daily needs.

For more information about the simple to use TextMagic online text messaging applications and how this technology for the blind and visually impaired can help change lives, visit www.textmagic.com. Visitors to the website can sample how easy it is to use by sending a test message before signing up. There’s no contract commitment, for TextMagic operates a ‘pay as you go’ system, with a purchase of 200 credits for 250 SMS text messages within the UK costing just £19.99 – that’s less than 8 pence per text message.

Footnotes
*Mobile Data Association, January 2010
** Data from Wireless for the Blind Fund

Unhappy with the response rate on your email marketing campaigns? Now’s the time to change to SMS marketing, the clever alternative to email

Any company using emails to communicate with its customers will be all too familiar with the issues and frustrations which this style of communication can create. Email marketing has been part of business strategy for many years and due to misuse via selling of data lists, has gone from a convenient and effective method of communicating with a customer base to a strategy which is now largely mistrusted by customers and suffers from poor penetration rates.

So what’s the right alternative to email that will get through to your customers? The answer is SMS.

88% of emails are spam – business SMS gets the message through

It was recently estimated that a huge 88% of emails sent are spam. Unsurprisingly, this means that many of your email messages to your customer base will remain unopened or be sent directly to the junk email folder – not great news for building relationships with your clients. Furthermore, if you have vital information to share with your customers, such as delays on delivery times or the re-arrangement of appointments, how do you get past the problem that your email may never even be opened by your customer?

That’s where the real beauty of business SMS messaging as email alternatives shines through, acting as a lifesaver to your marketing and customer communications.

Four mobile phones sold for every computer – that’s why SMS marketing wins

According to the GSM Association, there are now four mobile phones sold for every one personal computer. Mobile phones invariably stay with their owner 24/7 – which compared to the relatively short time people spend in front of their computers checking their email, just can’t be beaten. Additionally, business SMS messaging services haven’t been affected by the spam issues which the email marketing landscape struggles with, meaning that consumers have a far higher level of trust in SMS messages than they do in email. That’s why an SMS marketing campaign sent to customers as an email alternative will invariably be opened and read – and is most likely to be read at the time of delivery. The latest statistics from market research experts Frost & Sullivan state that the open rate for SMS messages is over 98% - that’s impressive, particularly when you consider you’re likely to get less than a 30% open rate from marketing emails. Business SMS has another benefit over email – you can choose when you want the customer to read your message.

SMS marketing is effective from any computer in the world

There’s a vast choice of different ways in which a business can take advantage of SMS technology as part of its marketing strategy. The TextMagic Messenger is a simple and cost-effective way of sending business SMS messages from a Mac or PC and the interface is available in 11 different languages – ideal for today’s businesses operating over many different territories. You don’t even need to be tied to an office computer, as TextMagic Online offers great two-way SMS functionality from a web-based application – meaning that your business communications are truly mobile and you can connect and communicate with your customers wherever you are.

But don’t just take our word for how invaluable SMS messaging is to business – Mrs Rimmer of land and property specialists Rostons Ltd agrees. ‘Our clients have commented on how useful it is to receive a text and it has put us at the forefront of our industry by using a service like this.’

Business SMS messaging delivers an unparalleled penetration rate over email marketing, enabling your business to communicate more effectively with your customer base and build that all-important confidence factor. If you’re serious about getting your marketing messages in front of your customers, then look for an alternative to email - SMS marketing is the only logical option.

Join the International Texting Tour and Win 50 FREE SMS CREDITS from TextMagic!

If you are not already reveling in SMS technology and absolutely loving it, then you have certainly considered all of the ways text messaging could benefit you on a personal level as well as your business.

So what’s stopping you? Can’t find SMS Pricing? Does it seems too complicated to use? Haven’t found the Global SMS coverage you need?

Now is your chance to win some FREE mobile magic and see how easy it is to use SMS!

Prizes Up For Grab: 2 packs of 50 SMS credits (wow!) every week during April 2010.

Contest Rules

To enter the competition, there’re two simple steps:

Step 1: Follow @TextMagic on Twitter.

Step 2: Post a tweet and mention TextMagic with some content from our blog. Or just re-tweet a @TextMagic’s tweet.

Once you have completed the above steps, you will be automatically entered in to the prize draw. We’ll let you know via DM if you win. Also we will post a tweet with the winners.

To qualify, your Twitter account must be active for 30 days with no less than 30 followers. We love our fans, but we don’t love spam!

Contest ends April 30, 2010 at midnight (-GMT).

Thank you for participating and good luck!

Like many business owners these days, Mr. Alan Hopgood, the Southend-On-Sea franchisee of the Kendlebell Personal Telephone Answering Service, is constantly seeking new ways to streamline day-to-day operations in order to save time and money. With over 200 clients using his Kendlebell answering service, Mr. Hopgood needed a way to simplify and secure the process by which clients were notified about their incoming calls and messages.

“The majority of our customers like to receive both an email and a text message to ensure that they aren’t missing any crucial communication coming through the Kendlebell answering service,” states Mr. Hopgood. “We needed a belt and braces approach that would allow us to send SMS texts and emails simultaneously.”

Mr. Hopgood discovered TextMagic while researching his options on the Internet.

“Prior to using TextMagic’s Email to SMS service, we had to manually send an email and then re-send the same message by SMS text using 2SMS or BlueSMS. TextMagic has simplified this greatly as we can now relay both types of messages with just one click from our screens. We simply added clients’ TextMagic to their list of email addresses.”

What surprised you about utilizing SMS messaging as a business tool?

“How easy it was to integrate into our business process. TextMagic also allows clients to reply to our text messages which was not possible using conventional web-based text messaging systems. We have been using the TextMagic service for over 18 months now and we are very pleased with its advantages.”

Kendlebell (Southend) Ltd. has been the leader in the telephone answering services field for over 12 years, delivering a level of highly personal service to each and every customer. With over 20 locations, Kendlebell is the single largest provider of Personal Telephone Answering Services in the UK and Ireland. For more information on the Southend-On-Sea location, please visit http://www.take-your-message.co.uk.

An interesting discussion is going on among professionals on LinkedIn – “Is Twitter replacing text messaging?”

Different arguments and ideas are discussed, but the majority of votes are cast in favor of separating the two tools (or paradigms if you will) – even in the times of Social Media revolution, where Twitter plays a vital role, SMS is still here to stay and stay for a good reason.

Below are some of the brilliant ideas in defense of SMS:

• Twitter users still quite often see the “fail whale” error message meaning there’s no way to connect at that time. Stability and uptime issues.
• Twitter requires sufficient Internet coverage.
• Almost unbelievable but even now many people have no idea about Twitter.
• Others just don’t see the reason to tweet because they have Facebook.
• In some corporate networks and intranets Twitter is blocked.
• It’s not even clear that Twitter will be a long-lasting tool.
• Twitter will never be able to say that over 90% of tweets are read within 5 minutes of receipt.
• SMS doesn’t require any type of registration.
  
• SMS is a secure and trusted environment that is still free of much of the unsolicited and impersonal automation, spam and phishing that is already running rampant on Twitter.

What have you say about Texting vs.Twitter? We encourage you to join the discussion and share your views on LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/beSsMs