I received a text last week, which took me back. Didn’t take me back that far but to a time when we would eagerly await this particular SMS. The SMS was from the National Health Service, and it was an invitation to get my covid 19 vaccine booster. Shortly after on the same day I received a second text from the National Health Service inviting me to get my fly jab. As time has passed and the pandemic is relegated from the front pages of our newspapers, as a society we have begun to live with the disease and as such been less in tune with how to fight it. It was a refreshing almost pleasing text to receive, and it got this writer thinking about the text experience. Today with the multitude of platforms available, the text message still elicits a wide range of emotional responses.

The text from the NHS was clear and efficient, and because of my enthusiasm and excitement about what was on offer, I was pleased that the Call to Action was clear and simple. A simple clicking of a link took me through to a web page where I could book an appointment at a location nearby at a convenient time and simply turn up for my jab. I received a reminder text on the day again ensuring the process was efficient and user friendly and that I engaged with immediacy.

The SMS continues to be a really useful communications tool and in a noisy environment with a proliferation of communication choices, business still depends on the text message for cut through. When the dissemination of bulk messaging is a requirement, the SMS is in fact an unrivalled solution, the text message continues to be the preferred option for business when audience participation is essential, and response is required.

A further example of this medium in the modern dynamic world in which we live is our dependence on SMS when it comes to travel. When booking a flight today, the online booking system will request and enquire as to whether we would like to be kept abreast of our flight updates. More valuable however is the ability to receive our boarding pass via text message and to then be able to add it to our wallet on our mobile device. Flight delays, updates, gate announcements and information around collection of baggage all shared via text message, ensuring that as a traveler we are empowered with real time, live information.

It seems that business has continued to trust bulk SMS technology, more than any other platform for the efficient use of mass communication. Business leaders have realized that the mobile device has become an integral part in the lives of consumers and that consumers are comfortable not only receiving business related messaging through these devices but are just as comfortable responding via the same device, ensuring high rates of engagement, efficiencies, and profitability.

So, whether we are ordering a takeaway, confirming a barber appointment, checking in for a flight, or securing the health of the nation, we are dependent in a positive manner in the contribution the text message makes to our day to day. We should not be too dismissive and take the technology for granted, as it continues to be the oil that greases the cogs, no matter how big the machine gets! It is a technology that has stood the text……….. of time and that continues to offer businesses across the globe value irrespective of size or sector.

The SMS is agile, flexible, and adapts to changes in communications technology allowing users to continue to be confident in its ability to deliver. This week, the writer will visit the local pharmacy and have his covid 19 booster shot, he will do so as the reminder he received from the NHS prompted him into action, an action he may not have considered otherwise. This action will be repeated across the country by millions of people on a scale unprecedented and only deliverable through bulk SMS technology. It would be remiss of us to discount the impact text messaging has on our lives and well-being.