Text Messaging Featured Article

Text Request started up on the strength of a rather simple idea: why not offer a way for businesses to readily receive text messages from customers instead of only offering a phone call as a contact point? Now, Text Request offers up just such a service, and in a bid to get it into more hands, has likewise launched a new reseller program for technology specialists and consultants throughout the United States.

Text Request is bringing its service—and the reseller program—into an environment rather ripe for such services; indeed, just between 2007 and 2012, the number of text messages sent monthly increased fully 840 percent, showing that there's plenty of interest out there in the short, quick message that text messaging services offer. Indeed, it turned out there was interest not only from users in sending text messages, but from businesses in offering the option.

James Dawson, the company's director of communication, recounts a story where Text Request was a vendor at an expo, and several people came up to the booth noting that the service was incredibly easy to use. Not entirely unexpected, of course, but when people started asking how the service could be sold to current clients, a new demand made its presence known, and Text Request responded accordingly. Company co-found Brian Elrod rang a note of assent, noting that Text Request has had a lot of positive reviews anyway, so why not open up the floor to allow those who would ordinarily recommend Text Request to get paid for the opportunity? Thus, Text Request offered up 20 percent of account value—in terms of net transactions—to those who add Text Request to the toolkit, and there won't be caps on earnings, either. Resellers will even be provided a free account for demonstrations, and only need introduce the service to clients. Text Request is set to handle issues of training and maintenance, making it a lot easier for the reseller to offer the service.

So far, Text Request has brought a lot of value to companies looking to expand a customer service platform, and with good reason. Customers have been shown to want more contact methods than just the phone call, and to be able to access customer service outside of business hours. Companies who therefore prepare for such conditions by offering text messaging or live chat or similar tools—or even several of these tools at once—are likely to get and keep more business than those who don't.

Offering customers more means to get in touch and stay in contact with a company is a smart measure, and companies like Text Request are getting in a great position to better offer such services more rapidly and simply to customers. That should give Text Request plenty of value in the near term, and plenty of businesses are likely to find that same value after bringing Text Request into the fold.