South African mobile solutions provider Mobilitrix has introduced a new service offering, enabling companies to conduct mobile phone surveys without having to send text messages.
The Cape Town-based company is offering an innovative mobile phone-based solution that does not rely on the traditional text sms to send messages, but rather on Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD).
Says Chris Rolfe, CEO of Mobilitrix: “We are getting excellent response rates from brands and corporates for the new mobili-survey product that we have just launched. USSD is well understood by the LSM 4-8 market segment and we are finding that this is a better way to communicate than text sms for these market segments.”
USSD is a global phone standard supported by all phones and all networks, and does not require the consumer to have a WAP-enabled or a smart phone. In addition, USSD is more cost effective than traditional text sms and offers greater scope for direct one-to-one interaction.
Traditionally used in the prepaid market segment to recharge airtime, set up please-call-mes or to make balance enquiries, USSD is now being employed by companies to engage directly with their customers by using a menu-driven survey format.
Unlike text messaging, USSD is not a store-and-forward service, therefore its response times are generally faster. USSD is also much cheaper, costing the consumer only 20 cents per 20 seconds versus an average R1.50 per text sms. USSD is also completely user-friendly and fits in with the current usage habits of the lower-to-middle LSM groups.
The company allows clients to set up USSD surveys via their website. Surveys can be created easily and are live and in real-time, making true consumer/brand interaction a reality.
