Looking small biz SMS service provider...
December 31, 2010 12:12 PM   Subscribe

Need help finding SMS service provider for small business. Particulars inside...

Looking for SMS service provider who could handle the following example (not the business I'm in, but similar scenario):

Person brings car into dealership, opts-in to take survey upon check-in. A day or two later, we send customer SMS message reminding them to take the survey they agreed to (including link to web app or (just humor me here) a link to Iphone/Blackberry/Droid app store) to download an app to answer survey.

We'd need bulk purchase discount, little to no setup fee, outgoing messages only. There shouldn't be any issues with opt-in since they'll opt-in at the beginning of the process. Simple setup and affordable.

Thanks!
posted by littleredwagon to Technology (4 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Not sure if it's against the TOS or if there are any limitations, but Google Voice lets you send SMS messages for free.
posted by wongcorgi at 12:40 PM on December 31, 2010


Best answer: Check out Tropo.
posted by purephase at 12:42 PM on December 31, 2010


A cell phone with PC/Mac control program like MyPhoneExplorer on a unlimited text only plan is another idea.
posted by wongcorgi at 3:34 PM on December 31, 2010


Best answer: There are a couple of IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) offerings in the telecom space. Tropo, as mentioned above, is one. The other "big" one is Twilio (nb: no affiliation beyond being a satisfied coder / customer).

Twilio's rates are similar to Tropo's (may in fact be the same), and they are planning on offering shortcode SMS some time in 2011, should that matter to you. You'd need someone to help code out the service for you. The bigger difference is that you'd need someone to host that service for you, which is something that Tropo can do for you if you use their tools and coding environment.
posted by clicking the 'Post Comment' button at 6:16 PM on December 31, 2010


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