Summary
SMS texting is an accessible technology; it’s accepted, understood, and used regularly by both young and old alike.
The Challenge
My father called me to get help finding the address and getting directions to a church that he hadn’t been to before. He was 88 years old at the time. He has an iPhone.
If it would’ve been someone younger, I would have said “you can use Google Maps to search for ‘ABC Church’, or Google ‘ABC Church’ and navigate to their webpage and you’ll be able to find the address there.”
All of that is a problem though, for anyone who hasn’t grown up with mobile technology. Terms like ‘browser’, ‘Safari’, ‘Google’ are all difficult to manage. Even navigating a webpage is confusing and challenging. They have a sense of what all these things are about … but it’s just difficult and frustrating. What they desire is a clear and concise answer to their request.
My dad uses his phone, primarily as a voice phone, but he also regularly responds and sends text messages. He’s like many seniors: they text because that’s the way many of their kids and grandkids connect with them. He’s familiar with how to use it.
Our Role
Pulse Retail Systems (PRS) supplied its SMS/Pro technology, text-enabled their existing landline, and trained the church’s communications team on the effective use of SMS technology.
The Solution
So, my response was “Send a text to the church # and ask them for directions.” He could do this … and I already knew that this strategy would work because this church had implemented Pulse Retail’s texting solution.
When he sent the message “I need directions” to the church’s EXISTING LANDLINE (we had text-enabled the landline that they had in place for over 50 years; it was a number that people recognized and trusted), the automated response came back with the address, along with a link to Google Maps to provide navigational guidance for him. All he needed to do was tap on the link … and that was intuitive for him.
SMS texting is an accessible technology; it’s accepted, understood, and used regularly by both young and old alike.
The point of this example is that text messaging is accessible to all people (young and old); they use it regularly and are familiar and comfortable with using it. SMS/Text-messaging is a native app on all smartphones (no app needs to be downloaded/installed) and it’s the top-used app on smartphones.
Sector / Industry
- General
Need
- Solution for All Ages
Issues
- Many Seniors Only Use Smartphones for Voice Calls & Texting
- Many Seniors Are Not Comfortable Googling for Information
Approach
- Text-Enable Existing Landline
- Setup Keywords to Automatically Return Responses to Often-Asked Questions
Result
- Sending a Text Message to a Trusted Phone Number Was Easily Done
- Defined Keyword Automatically Returned Information Which Included a Link to Google Maps
