Test Message Madness
We often use text messaging to communicate between ourselves while working in the field. When this first started a couple years ago I couldn’t help but feel like a teenager doing it but at the same time I found it very effective. We use it mainly for simple messages that aren’t worth a phone call. Things like “bring me a coffee”, “got bit by a squirrel, bring bandaids”, “this customer is a lunatic, he locked me inside his attic” and things of that nature.
Two weeks ago Mike was working on a house in Upton Ma. The town of Upton is the worst town in our area for cell phone reception. In 90% of the town you can’t get a shred of reception. While he was working on this house he couldn’t make or receive any calls on his phone. However he did have just enough reception to send and recieve text messages.
I had sent him a text message asking him if hehad called his 3pm appointment to let the woman know that he was going to be15 minutes late. He told me that he forgot to call her before he lost reception but don’t worry because “I sent her a text message”. I had to laugh, I said “you did what? you sent a customer who we haven’t even met a text message?” He simply said that he had no choice. I asked him how she reacted to receiving a text message from the animal removal guy and he said that she responded to the text message, thanked him for contacting her and never mentioned it again.
At first I thought sending a customer a text message was a bit unprofessional but I guess not.The customer didn’t mind at all and all was well. With that said we’re not going to make a habit out of sending text messages to our customers but it’s nice to know that we can if we have to. I just thought it was funny how the customer wasn’t surprised or taken back by it at all.
Matt Grady