Company says new tool facilitates low-cost mobile surveys

Imagine you could ask your customers to complete a survey on their mobile phones while they are in the store or have just purchased your product. What questions would you ask them? What feedback would you expect? Cape Town-based Mobilitrix, a mobile solutions' provider, is offering a mobile phone-based solution that does not rely on text SMS, but rather on USSD.

USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) is a global phone standard, supported by all phones and all networks, and does not require the consumer to have a WAP or smart phone; USSD is claimed to work across the board and is also claimed to be more cost-effective to the consumer than traditional text SMS. It is also claimed to offer greater scope for direct one-to-one interaction.

Traditionally used in the prepaid market segment to re-charge airtime, set up ‘please-call-mes' or make balance enquiries, USSD is now being used to engage directly with the consumer using a menu-driven, survey format.

Excellent response

“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,” says Chris Rolfe, CEO of Mobilitrix.

Response times of USSD are generally quicker because it is not a store-and-forward service like text SMS. USSD is also much cheaper, costing the consumer only 20 cents per 20 seconds versus an average R1.50 per text SMS. In addition to being cost-effective, it is designed to be completely user-friendly for the consumer and fit in with the current usage habits of the lower to middle LSM groups.

Consumer/brand interaction

Implementation is claimed to be simple and you can set up your USSD survey via the company's website. Surveys can be created easily and are live in real-time, which makes true consumer/brand interaction a reality. As CTO of Mobilitrix Andrew Cardoza says, “Ease of use remains our biggest challenge and we continually look to make solutions that add value, but are easy to use and implement.”

Using a call centre example, where specific pieces of data are required to evaluate a new customer, the benefits of USSD become apparent says the company. For example, prior to pushing a prospective customer to call the call centre via standard advertising, companies can first establish if the prospective customer is of value to them by establishing a few important questions via the mobile phone survey format. Such issues as location, income level, age or marital status may influence the company's view on that prospective customer. Each of these pieces of information, which may disqualify a potential customer, could save the company from answering the call and chewing up the associated cost (which is typically between R30 to R150 per call). Alternatively, the call could be routed to another area if that call centre chooses not to call that individual.

To see how USSD operates, dial *120*33009*000# or *120*33009*777# on your mobile phone.

Mobilitrix has also launched all of its other mobile products using USSD as well as text SMS and HTML (from WAP/web pages). This now means that companies and brands can allow customers to request information, join competitions or give feedback using a number of mobile channels.