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‘We used to spend £1,500 a month on calls. Our automated system has brought the figure down to £200. The system has also saved a huge amount of admin time’
Social Work
Clinics and practices with up to 250 employees in healthcare and social work are regularly sending and receiving mobile messages day-to-day for managing patient relationships. Message content usually relates to test results, appointment reminders or requests for patients to make contact.
‘It’s so quick, we can send out 10 messages at a time. We would happily recommend it. Network operators should get their reps to promote it more. Once you start using it, you quickly see it has huge potential’
Sexual Health Administrator
Telephone interviews were carried out with business managers in organisations across a variety of sectors and locations to assess attitudes to using mobile messaging within a business context. The Healthcare and Social Work sector made up 11% of the total sample. From a base of 250 active mobile users, 36% of respondents were heavy messaging users, sending in excess of 21 work related mobile messages per week.
Organisation Culture
Generally, attitudes towards using mobile messaging for business were found to be extremely positive within the SME sample. 45% of respondents claimed that the technology offered considerable cost and time saving benefits for their own particular organisations.
‘We use our time much better now. Before we would have people coming in to pick up their results, and this system has really lightened our workload, they don’t need to call in any more.
Healthcare Advisor
Organisations actively making the most use of person to person, business related mobile messaging tended to have between 11 and 50 employees. Wider usage also appeared to be directly related to mobile phone provision for employees – 62% of respondents all had company owned mobile phones and were active mobile messaging users.
Mobile Message Usage
Heaviest users of mobile technology found in Construction along with the Healthcare and Social Work, Real Estate and Transport sectors, who are all using the technology to enhance their operations and, in some cases, for communicating with patients and customers too.
‘We can supply our patients with quick results, we get a delivery notification when a message gets there, unlike with mail. Kids respond well to it, and if they have no credit, they still get the message unlike voicemail'
Health Practitioner
Most organisations (75%) use mobile messaging for internal communication and, where this is the case, actual usage tends to be low with individuals sending less than 5 messages per week. In contrast, where organisations are using the facility as part of their overall operation or for patient management/customer service/purchasing and ordering communication, usage is much higher with more than 21 messages being sent per week.
‘Sending out group messages is much more immediate and the response rate is so much higher. There is something about SMS that makes people respond rather than a letter or voice mail; with our under 18s, we never know if they’re in school or not, so a discreet message is good and you no longer have to think about whether it’s a good time to call, as with voice messaging’
Health Advisor
Types of Message Sent
100% of respondents to the market research study actively send text messages and 14% send picture messages.
‘We send text messages to our patients. Some of the appointments are made several weeks before. The message usually reads ‘a gentle reminder…"
Dental Practice
‘We use SMS to send good results to patients and to remind regular patients under treatment to attend. I also use the medium to contact community nurses when they may be with a patient and I don’t want to disturb them’
Health Advisor
Location & Devices Used
Clearly the research highlighted that location and message purpose determined the type of mobile messaging being used. 86% of field based respondents were found to be using mobile messaging for making contact with another mobile user, whereas office based personnel often used machine to mobile facilities for group messaging to patients, customers, colleagues and consumers and, in some cases, their superiors too.
‘We use mobile messaging from the clinic. We don’t have lots of people ringing up for results any more so it’s less time consuming than voice and less hassle for the patient. We can devote our time to those people whose tests were positive’
Senior Sister, Healthcare
Benefits
The key benefits of mobile messaging for the SME sample interviewed were that it saves time, that it can be accessed globally and that it is an extremely cost effective way of communicating.
‘We had lots of our patients who would forget to attend appointments, mobile messaging has helped to reduce the drop out. It also provides a way to show our patients that we care about them’
Dental Practice Manager
Areas of Improvement
47% of respondents suggested a number of areas for improving mobile messaging facilities in the future including:- making it easier and cheaper to send mobile messages, providing more space for message content and written confirmation of messages sent and received. A big bug bear for some was found to be the current format of keypads.
‘I think the keypad puts some people off, it’s not very user friendly’
Communications Officer, Healthcare & Social Work
‘We need twice the message length’
Health Advisor
Conclusion
The MDA’s research study into how the SME sector is using mobile messaging clearly indicates that the facility has a raised profile and is being widely used for informal and brief business communication internally, as part of an organisation’s operation and for liaison with patients, suppliers, and customers.
Whilst e-mail remains the favourite communication tool for more formal and detailed business communication, evidence suggests that mobile e-mail take up by the SME community is growing fast. Offering the same flexibility as sending a text message, mobile e-mail can overcome the 160 character space restriction on message content and also the perception associated with text messaging being an informal form of communication.
‘Our chairman and director use blackberries for sending and receiving e-mails whilst the nurses and community staff will SMS as part of their work and I often text them with updates on where they have to be’
Office Manager, Primary Care Trust
Motivated by making potential savings and generating income, SME organisations now have the opportunity to improve their efficiency and profitability, and can adopt more creative and innovative ways of communicating. Looking ahead, organisations need to be aware of the full potential mobile messaging has to offer and to retain the technical knowledge and capability for successful implementation of the wide variety of business related mobile applications currently available.
‘Mobile messaging really helps preserve our resources and time and is generally our patients’ first choice of communication’
Health Advisor
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