US Coachways is attempting to trail-blaze the next generation of customer engagement and group tours by using mobile across its enterprise from customer acquisition to post-engagement customer satisfaction capture.

By using Gold Mobile?s GoMo Campaign software, a broadcast messaging tool, US Coachways has been able to add mobile calls-to-action on its traditional marketing pieces. Through GoMo Chat and Campaign, it has implemented text messaging throughout the customer project management process and it has used GoMo Survey, a mobile Web survey creator, to capture feedback after a customer engagement is over.

?We?re a leading national bus charter and limousine service in more than 500 cities in North America?we?re always looking at the newest hottest thing and we?re pretty aggressive when it comes to cutting-edge material,? said Ed Telmany, CEO of US Coachways, Staten Island, NY. ?We?re finding out that using text messaging in our marketing program has significantly improved our ROI.

?We use a regular CRM system, and through Gold Mobile, every quote that goes into the CRM system gets a text message follow-up, which lead to somewhere between a 12 and 14 percent increase in response rates,? he said. ?It?s grabbing customers? attention and their responses are texted back to us through the mobile chat experience.

?It has also improved our workflow dramatically.?

US Coachways is a national bus charter company that provides ground transportation services for all types of events using motor coaches and mini-coaches.

Based in Iselin, NJ, Gold Mobile is a mobile CRM and loyalty service provider with a mobile platform supported by a suite of mobile applications and development tools.

Get on board
US Coachways tapped Gold Mobile to let event organizers and tour guests text a specially assigned event keyword and be automatically routed to the assigned US Coachways customer service representative desktop PC at the call center and engage in a mobile messaging dialogue directly through their PC browser.

Additionally, the onsite or offsite event organizer can send a group message to guests informing them of a special incentive, change in schedule or real-time reminder.

GoMo enables multimedia content to be sent to mobile devices including video, images, forms, mobile Web sites and voice.

Another feature provides the ability to send a personalized mobile survey to the event organizer and guests either during or at the conclusion of the event.

This ?in-the?moment? feedback enables the event organizer to immediately see the responses and resolve any issues rather than letting any problems linger and spread amongst the guests.

The new US Coachways Mobilized Customer Service Program is fully integrated with the Lead Master CRM database.

As prospects and clients are loaded into the Lead Master system it automatically populates the GoMo Campaign System for ongoing mobile communications during the sales and booking process.

As the booking process involves many critical steps?booking accepted, bus is assigned, missing credit card info is needed?a text message via GoMo Campaign is sent automatically enabling rapid client feedback and updates while reducing time and labor cost.

?We book reservations, but before we had text messaging program, we would have a group of people calling customers to get payments and track down signed confirmations and itineraries,? Mr. Telmany said. ?It is very challenging to call hundreds of people.

?Now every client that books gets put into a group based on what is still needed, and instead of calling people, we click one button and send out texts to them,? he said. ?We?re getting paperwork and payments in much earlier.

?We?ve received a few comments from our customers via chat telling us, ?Wow, this is great that you guys have given us this option of communicating via text, it?s the best way to communicate.??

Final Take
Dan Butcher, associate editor, Mobile Marketer

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