Technology and business: text reminders

As businesses continue to ride through the winter chill and credit crunch, some customers are hiding out at home - missing their hair appointments and not being able to make it to their doctors visit, to save money during the January gloom and to stay off the icy roads.

Our business survey has revealed:

This week we conducted a poll of 100 businesses involved in the health and beauty sector. The businesses included hair & beauty salons (50), spas (5), nail bars (25) and private dentists (20). All of whom could be found in busy high street locations.

We investigated which of the businesses we spoke to used technology to remind their customers of their services and products:

Only 10% used any online marketing (such as Google adwords or e-mail newsletters). Many owners felt that their clients wouldn't find them online.

32% of the businesses questioned used text message reminders, 15% used letters as a form of reminding their clients of their appointment with them, whilst an amazing 53% did not use any system at all.

We found that text message (SMS) reminders are nearly 3x more effective than sending letters.

Businesses that did remind their clients and customers electronically (e-mail or text) found that nearly 90% of their missed appointments were cut! In some cases saving up to £400 per week!

Other statistics included: 77% of businesses believed that the credit crunch has had a direct effect on their business, 12% of businesses disclosed they were in financial trouble.

Calum Brannan founder of Appointment Toolkit commented: "Our service Appointment Toolkit was started to help everyday small businesses make use of technology. We help their business in a way that isn't scary. Our findings show how clear it is that sometimes customers need a gentle reminder of their appointments for services like hair cuts and doctors visits."

Co-founder Adam Desmond who worked with his colleague Jeni to conduct this survey commented "Many of the businesses we speak to everyday don't realise how cost effective it is to implement a service like Appointment Toolkit, in fact many of those we spoke to during our survey are already up and running using our text reminder service."

Appointment Toolkit allows businesses to send SMS messages (that a text to most people) an hour, a day, a week or even a year before their appointments. We also have reports and tools which allow our customers to send e-mail marketing campaigns for free. You can target your most loyal customers, or automatically send a happy birthday message.