Text Alerts Need An Overhaul

I've mentioned this before to the admins, but text alerts really need to be changed as due to the limitations they can't carry the information that is needed.

I posted a job earlier, ashford to preston and clearly put in the comments that this is a backload over the next 7 days but members are receiving the text and ringing me up because they don't know that bit.

My suggestion, send a text alert that instead of saying:

mtvan job: Small Van, Ashford 01/05/2013, 13:00 to Preston (295 miles). Contact Preston Courier... On...

Send an alert that says

mtvan: Small Van, Ashford to Preston, [link]

You could use a different more mobile friendly page, use a shorter URL to give more initial details something like this:

mtvan job: Small Van, Ashford 01/05/2013, 13:00 to Preston (295 miles) [link]

Member gets text, if interested clicks link, gets all details, enters quote.

Thanks for your input. I think there's 2 separate issues.

1. The indication that a job is a backload or hotshot. We're working on that so bear with us.
2. Yes, a link would be nice, for some people... We'll bear that in mind but it's likely to come later if it does.

Patterson Couriers said:

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members are receiving the text and ringing me up

Pleased to hear it, even if it's unwanted in this case. Hopefully some improvements will get you more relevant calls.

An update about our text alerts:

1. We now indicate what type of job the job is. If you have a non-urgent backload, please select 'Sameday Non-Urgent' when you book the job and 'Non-Urgent' will be shown in the text.
2. I think it's important not to replace all details in the text with a link (for those with flaky or no web access), but we now include a link to more details and to bid online in every text.

Here's an example text below...

Urgent Job: Small Van, TA1 (Somerset) 03/12/2013, 09:00 to EC4M (London) - 167 miles. Contact SOMERSET SAMEDAY LTD on 07739****** or online mtvan.co/7Ta.

(My *'s in the phone number for forum post only)

Same day, non urgent?

No wonder I only use this site for the forum lol

How can sameday be non urgent?

Well, on this site its the only way vendors can differentiate between Dedicated Urgent jobs and jobs that can be co loaded with no time specific delivery.

Website Admin said:

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An update about our text alerts:

1. We now indicate what type of job the job is. If you have a non-urgent backload, please select 'Sameday Non-Urgent' when you book the job and 'Non-Urgent' will be shown in the text.
2. I think it's important not to replace all details in the text with a link (for those with flaky or no web access), but we now include a link to more details and to bid online in every text.

Thank you for bringing in this update, it's a big improvement IMHO :)

Website Admin said:

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An update about our text alerts:

1. We now indicate what type of job the job is. If you have a non-urgent backload, please select 'Sameday Non-Urgent' when you book the job and 'Non-Urgent' will be shown in the text.
2. I think it's important not to replace all details in the text with a link (for those with flaky or no web access), but we now include a link to more details and to bid online in every text.

Here's an example text below...

Urgent Job: Small Van, TA1 (Somerset) 03/12/2013, 09:00 to EC4M (London) - 167 miles. Contact SOMERSET SAMEDAY LTD on 07739****** or online mtvan.co/7Ta.

(My *'s in the phone number for forum post only)

Also bear in mind that many of us use text-to-speech so we get text messages read to us while driving, obviously a link is of no use in that situation. One improvement I could think of might be when composing the text message, if the date is today's date then replace with the word "today", and if it's tomorrow's date, replace with the word "tomorrow". That would make it very clear when the job is to be picked up. It would also read quicker with text-to-speech.

Who else uses text-to-speech?

Well i could if you want me too as i have just invested in a 21st century android phone! Now i can get 2 mile same-day retail alerts in glorious technicolour

Patterson Couriers said:

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Thank you for bringing in this update, it's a big improvement IMHO :)

No prob, sorry for the wait.

A more mobile-friendly booking detail/quote page will probably become a priority I expect.

Martin Logistics said:

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Also bear in mind that many of us use text-to-speech so we get text messages read to us while driving, obviously a link is of no use in that situation. One improvement I could think of might be when composing the text message, if the date is today's date then replace with the word "today", and if it's tomorrow's date, replace with the word "tomorrow". That would make it very clear when the job is to be picked up. It would also read quicker with text-to-speech.

Neat idea, I'll bear this in mind when I review the pickup information we send (which I think could be improved).