The irks and pros of promotional SMSs
Isaac Pinielo | Friday August 7, 2015 16:40
Each day, mobile phone users are bombarded with multitudes of promotional Short Message Services (SMSs) from their operators ranging from promotions, quizzes to alerts. While the majority of these unsolicited SMSs turn out to be something that customers are totally not interested in, some have proved to be useful as they can alert a consumer to a vital promotion or a pending deadline to an important subscription.
“I don’t like those SMSs at all. They are nothing but harassment to us as customers. I wonder how one can block them,” says 25 year old Facebooker Binah Gakeforwe.
Thatayaone Jappie, a student at one of the tertiary schools said the only thing that annoys her is when she receives a promotional SMS while waiting for an ‘important’ one.
“Imagine when I am expecting to receive an SMS notifying me that my allowance has been credited to my bank account at the end of the month, but only to get an SMS about some soccer quiz. It is really frustrating,” she says. Another subscriber who does not want to be named says the promotional SMSs are overwhelming especially when it is month end. “For us who use dual sim cards it is horror. We endure the torture now and again,” he reveals. SMS promotions have become very popular due to the fact that customers receive the messages immediately.
While mobile phone companies continue to send promotional SMSs with the belief that this service is cost-effective as well as time conserving, some users on the other hand believe that bombarding them with constant marketing messages does more harm than good. BusinessWeek has learnt that the regular spam messages annoy, irritate and frustrate some users who end up developing a negative approach towards the firms that are sending the messages and thereby affecting their brand name adversely.
Most short messages range between 140 and 160 characters in length and they are mostly on various issues including competitions, quizzes, announcements of new services, disaster warnings, and so on. Experts assert that although text message marketing is a great tool for reaching customers instantly, if done incorrectly, it could annoy subscribers.
They say one of the most important rules of text message marketing is that all businesses must first gain permission from customers to contact them via text, adding that failing to do so could damage a company’s brand. Chief communications and public relations officer at Mascom Botswana, Tebogo Lebotse-Sebego has defended the service, noting that as a mobile network service provider, Mascom has a marketing strategy that includes the use of promotional messages to promote products and services. “These are meant to get across important and relevant messages to the client base about the service or product that the company is currently promoting,” she argues.
Lebotse-Sebego adds that this platform is not only for promotional purposes, but also to inform the customers about matters that are of national interest like disaster awareness, geographical, health and so on.
“Our customers get first-hand information on matters that could be life - saving through the use of the SMS. Our position on this service is that of dispensing timely, useful information meant to inform and promote relevant products and services to our client base,” she says.
Lebotse-Sebego also indicated that customers have an option to be removed from this service. Similarly, the public relations manager for Orange Botswana, Boga Chilinde says sending text messages is one of the many ways in which the company communicates with customers, adding that it has proven to be an effective method in reaching their customers instantly and timely.
“We use broadcast text messages for communication to our customers in the event of network upgrades or maintenance which could affect access to services and helping customers anticipate and plan in the event that there are technical problems,” she says.
She also says they do so by sending broadcast text messages informing the customers of what to except and make apologies for the inconvenience that the technical problems might cause or have caused. Chilinde notes that the SMSs offer customers the opportunity to benefit from their competitions that mostly include charitable games. She says these charitable games contribute positively to the society by donating to various charities while the customer stands a chance of winning ‘goodies’ and other prizes.
“Inform them of our promotions on subscriptions and airtime promotions to allow them to save on their airtime and data expenses by giving them abundance,” she says.
According to Chilinde, the network also sends out broadcasts text messages as corporate social responsibility. She adds that Orange partners with governmental organisations for public awareness campaigns in cases of disaster management. Chilinde also says they also partner with non-profit organisations and non-governmental organisations to send awareness messages and requests donations.
“Please note that all Orange customers are free to request that they be removed from receiving promotional SMS from us. Once the request is received and implemented, customers will no longer receive these messages,” she advises. When contacted for comment, the Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority (BOCRA) stated that Public Telecommunications Operators (PTOs) are expected to, in terms of their licence conditions, inform their subscribers of the services they offer to allow them to know of the existence of such services and choose the services they want. BOCRA deputy director of corporate communications, Aaron Nyelesi states that the messages should be sent and received at convenient times of the day, typically between 0800 and 2000 hours.
“Where a consumer does not want to receive information on a particular service, the consumer has a choice to ask the PTO to stop the messages,” he reveals.
He indicated that where a consumer has requested to be unsubscribed from the service and the PTO continues to send the alerts, the consumer has a right to escalate the issue to BOCRA. Nyelesi explains that promotions are applied for by PTOs and approved by BOCRA.
It is therefore incumbent upon the PTO to inform the consumer about the service on promotion. “Once the consumer knows about it and does not want any more information about it, the consumer then has to inform the PTO.
The consumer must not feel like the SMSs are forced on them because they have a choice to instruct that they be stopped,” he says.
Nyelesi also says consumers can instruct PTOs to stop the SMSs, adding that it is also possible for consumers to block the SMS using the features on the phone. He however noted that some SMSes contain important notifications such as reminders on the expiry of road licence and impending disasters, adding that when opting out of SMS promotions, consumers should be careful not to opt out of SMSes relating to vital information.