Calterdon, the authorised BMW dealer in Inverness, Scotland, has deployed an autonomous web-based SMS solution from Text Messaging Centre (TMC), to instantly communicate with its customers. The service has enabled the dealership to significantly reduce costly telephone bills by switching from high-volume telephone correspondence to SMS, which is both immediate and well-received by its customer base. Calterdon has also experienced significant cost-savings by eliminating missed servicing and MOT appointments, and enabling additional work to be completed on first visit.

The Calterdon BMW dealership is currently utilising TMC’s SMS solution within its Parts and Service department. “Our showroom is located near a shopping centre that customers get limited mobile reception in and we were finding it increasingly difficult to get calls and voicemails though to our waiting customers to update them on the status on their car,” explains Calterdon after-sales manager, Brian Bailey. “We were looking for an alternative way to get in touch with our customers and I was instantly attracted to TMC’s SMS service. From discussing the SMS solution with TMC we soon realised that we can utilise SMS within many of our operations to instantly engage with our customers – even in a bad reception area where a text can often make it through – and remove the timely burden of continually calling unreachable customers.”

Bailey adds that the rate of no-shows for services and MOT appointments has fallend sharply since the dealership started using the service. “The text messaging service is certainly of value to our business,” he says. “Not only is SMS cheaper than telephone calls, but we are already seeing huge cost-savings just through appointment reminders alone.”