A great example of how messaging technologies are changing peoples capability of responding to external events. MobileMessaging2 shows how the state authorities are able to send out sms alerts to mobile phones on a geographical basis to alert people to the movement of fires in San Diego area. This is no small thing given that many of the networks tend to be jammed and thus near inoperable during crises times, as the first instinct for most people, is to phone loved ones. The piece also shows how individuals are using services such as twitter to keep each other updated directly about how things are going at the local or family unit level. The first solution is top down, and perhaps “official”, the second is “edge, informal, and unofficial”. By scanning the Twittersphere/ Jaikusphere for keywords, and geotags, the official central system could re-broadcast updates or advice around actions. Matching these two spheres could make for a compelling citizen action and co-ordination platform.

technorati tags: customer, interaction, voice, messaging, customer, contact

Explore Tags: alerting, emergency, mobile messaging, san diego

Google are going to do more and more of this kind of linking to the mobile phone, because they know that customers will use it. No doubt they will move to other alert types. For the enterprise, it will actually turn into a challenge. Think about it. If every one starts to get their SMS alert from Google, then you lose your opportunity to hook the customer back into a customer service conversation in order to manage their expectations. SMS alerts via Twitter API will also enable this kind of alerting. It would seem the time has come to really think about closing the interaction loop so that what I get alerted about, is actionable.

Flying high with Google SMS
from Official Google Blog by Molly Graham
Posted by Deepak Sethi, Software Engineer, Mobile Team

Ever spent 15 minutes on the phone shouting answers at the automated airline attendant while rushing to the airport? How cool would it be to get real-time flight info just by sending a quick text message? Well, now you can, using Google SMS.

Simply text your flight number to 466453 (‘GOOGLE’ on most mobile devices), and the status information will be sent back to you. Or text a specific airline name, and Google will send back the main phone number to call.

Google SMS is available for flights departing or arriving in the U.S., and all of the information is provided by flightstats.com. And as always, it’s free. Give it a try, and let us know what you think.

technorati tags: customer, interaction, voice, messaging, customer, contact

Explore Tags: alerting, google IM, Phone Alerts, sms

Marshall Kirkpatrick Knows His RSS. How we get alerted, and how news gets noticed, will involve, at its core, RSS. Some people, right now the technorati, want to know right now when something happens. Its their business, first off the blogs gets the early traffic, and the google juice. See, some technorati-talk. But for the everyday business executive, knowing what is important to know now, and what can wait is all a part of time and priority management in general. I don’t generally re-produce lists without generating some value add, so here is Marshall’s list first :

1. IM me if I’m online, if I’m not then SMS *and* email me the URL of the feed item if I’m not online (Rasasa and zaptxt each fill different halves of this request)

2. Let me set the hours I want to recieve SMS alerts, outside those hours email me. (rasasa does that)

3. Send me the first 25 characters or however much is possible from the feed item, not just its title (anothr.com does that by Skype IM but no SMS is avail)

4. let me unsubscribe from alerts for a particular feed by responding to a text msg

5. don’t send me alerts an hour or two after the item was available – if I select “as soon as it’s available” then send it to me within 15 minutes every time. I hate getting an alert for something only to find that it’s already got 5 comments and 3 trackbacks on it. Experiences like that really mitigate my trust in the service.

6. filter for duplicate URLs, titles or both at my request. (feeddigest can be folded in to existing services if you want to do the leg work)

7. let me exclude particular feeds from my search results. i want to know when my name is used online, for example, but not when it’s in the author field of my own blog.

8. easy integration with Dapper, Yahoo Pipes or some other feed creation tool so I can get alerts from feeds that don’t exist yet would be nice.

9. easy import and export of OPML files.

So,

(1) ASAP has timeframes for Marshall, within 14 minutes of hitting the wires, after that pretty much don’t bother

(2) Send the alert to the appropriate channel and mode, ie. after hours sms me.

(3) Use Smart Clipping, not just the whole header (Give me the gyst, like Snap-for-RSS

(3) For Gods sake, some smart filtering people! (nobody likes repetition and duplication)

(4) Integration with feed management tools like Pipes, Dapper, and Teqlo.

Marshall is clearly a lead user in this area, and I for one look forward to what his company Spashcast are launching.

technorati tags: customer, interaction, voice, messaging, customer, contact

Explore Tags: alerting, Phone Alerts, rss

Here at VoiceSage we think about how, when and where people would like to be “interrupted”, and what they would want to do “in that particular context”. The thing is that every customer company relationship has its own context, and every person will have different psychological thresholds. In a way, how we interrupt our customers is a corollary of how much attention they want to give us. Let me illustrate with a personal experience.

I was in Abraham’s tailors (Little Ann Street, Dublin) and having had a wonderful buying experience I hand over my credit card. As I’ve said before I think the “checkout” experience is key to entire purchasing process. Well, the card was stopped and the staff member was advised by the machine to have the customer call the bank in question. “Perhaps” my tailor advised “you have run over the limit?”. “Not likely” I replied, “I have acres of space on the card”. My tailor handed me the land line, and we called the bank. The bank did not deal with the query and handed me over to credit card services, who in turn told me to go to the local bank branch IN PERSON and sort this out. Wow, I said. I work in this kind of business and this is a horror. “No problem said the Taylor. I will hold the suit for you”.

I go to the bank THE NEXT DAY and they say, hey no problem with the card. “You were just making an unusual purchase, and they stopped the card” (because I was in Dublin, not Limerick). I think I looked at the bank official for a few minutes waiting to see what they were going to do to ensure that this situation would never happen again. No such luck.

First, there is no reason why when an account is triggered as a potential fraud alert that a call cannot be initiated to that person’s known mobile, a pin number requested, a transaction legitimised, and a confirmation received, all in the one phone call and with no other need for human interaction. Secondly, an automated call asking for verification could have increased my confidence in my credit card company; Thirdly, I could be a “highly risk averse person” who very much appreciates these kinds of alerts and interrupts.

technorati tags: customer, interaction, voice, messaging, customer, contact

Explore Tags: alerting, Customer Interaction Report, customer service., Device Alerts, financial services, Phone Alerts