SMS Keeps South African IT Specialists Ahead of the Game
A BulkSMS.com Case Study

MCE South Africa is an IT and telecommunications company that offers IT products, repair services and support to the North West region of South Africa. In partnership with Microsoft, Samsung and HP, MCE South Africa aims to stay a step ahead of their competition through innovation and quality service.

One of MCE’s primary goals is to provide their clients with a high standard of customer service. To Danie Botes, (Samsung Business and Technical Manager,) and his team, this meant finding a way to keep their clients informed and updated of any progress during a repair job, “For example, when a computer is sent in for repairs, we wanted to be able to notify the client on the repairs every step of the way” says Botes. Botes explored various options that would facilitate effective communication; and he opted for SMS because of its instant and reliable nature.

The team uses their in-house logistics software, which allowed the technicians to track their progress and also automatically notify the client of any changes via SMS. By integrating an SMS API into the application, whenever a change is tracked by a technician the software automatically sends an SMS to the client.

In most cases, 4 or 5 SMS messages are sent to ensure that both the client and technician are up to date until the job is done. Not only has this use of SMS proven effective in keeping clients informed, but it also enables two-way communication between the technicians and the clients as it allows for the client to respond directly to the SMS message. According to Botes, once a job is complete, their system automatically sends an SMS message to the client, asking them to rate the process. “We get replies every day, which gives us great insight into our customer service,” says Botes.

“More and more of our clients are using our SMS API solution to SMS-enable their in-house applications, which shows how integral SMS is to corporate communications within the business environment. SMS has become intrinsic to the customer service value chain and will be hard pressed to replace.” says Dr. Pieter Streicher, managing director of BulkSMS.com.