National Paintball Fields (NPF) Bassetts Pole, the Birmingham, UK-based paintball venue, has selected an automated SMS solution from Text Messaging Centre (TMC) to provide an instantaneous marketing tool. The web-based SMS solution from TMC enables NPF Bassets Pole to engage with customers by sending the latest offers, events and discounts via SMS, as well as providing an effective way of communicating with NPF's part-time staff when recruiting for events.
NPF Bassetts Pole organises corporate events, parties and days out for businesses and individuals that seek an exciting adrenaline-fuelled combat game. It is set in 200 acres of woodland, with 12 movie set-themed game zones.
As NPF Bassests Pole continues to grow, the company identified the need to look into new ways to market its services and maximise exposure to existing and new customers. Chris Anslow, Marketing Manager at NPF Bassetts Pole, explains, Following recent business growth, we decided to implement a number of new marketing activities to ensure continued engagement with our existing customer base. By using SMS, we are able to reach a young audience in a medium that is most effective.
We selected TMCs web-based solution as it enables us to communicate with our staff and customers easily and efficiently, with little need for extra resource. Following the implementation of the TMC solution we are sending thousands of text messages per month and believe that SMS is the most immediate and effective way of marketing our paintballing activities, compared with our previous email or direct mail campaigns.
Anslow adds that there is a strong viral element to the SMS campaigns, as texts sent to existing customers offering discounts on upcoming events are passed onto friends and families, increasing the companys potential customer base.
TMCs SMS solution has also facilitated direct communication to the companys part-time staff. The venue hosts a number of high profile events which require additional staffing. Over the years, the company has built up a large database of part-time staff and would have previously had to call staff individually to find out their availability. It now uses the TMC solution to send a text to all staff enlisted on the  recruitment database to find out who is available to work.
This has saved us considerable amounts of time and money that was previously spent on recruiting and allows staff to focus their energies on more important tasks in the run up to an event, says Anslow.