California?s Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) has launched a text-messaging program to reduce call-center volume and costs.

Powered by marketing service provider ExactTarget, the public transportation agency?s addition of text messaging lets passengers send a bus stop number and route number to the short code OCTAGO to receive arrival times of the next three buses for that stop. The text-messaging program is expected to reduce the nearly 2,000 bus status and route inquiries received daily, reducing total call-center volume by as much as 25 percent.

?OCTA?s ?Text for Next? program not only provides an easy and convenient option for people to access bus schedules, it also helps mitigate the ever-rising cost of our call center,? said Stella Lin, department manager of marketing and external affairs at the Orange County Transportation Authority, Orange, CA.

OCTA is a multi-modal transportation agency serving Orange County, CA, with countywide bus and paratransit service, Metrolink rail service, the 91 Express Lanes toll facility, freeway, street and road improvement projects, motorist aid services and by regulating taxi operations.

ExactTarget is a global provider of on-demand email and one-to-one marketing services. Clients include Expedia.com, Aurora Fashions, Papa John?s, CareerBuilder.com, Gannett Co. Inc., The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, The Home Depot and Wellpoint Inc.

Text for Next
The Text for Next initiative is targeting OCTA?s bus customers. OCTA?s bus system operates with 80 bus routes and carries more than 210,000 boardings per day.

According to a recent customer survey, 75 percent of OCTA?s bus customers have mobile phones and 64 percent use text-messaging capabilities. The bus customer?s average household income is around $30,000.

The text-messaging program is designed to give OCTA customers added flexibility to confirm bus schedules on-the-go while reducing the agency?s overhead expenses.

The immediacy of text messaging cuts costs and increases OCTA?s efficiency by communicating schedule changes as they occur, faster than its team can access the 6,500 bus stops around the county with revised printed materials, according to Ms. Lin.

Using ExactTarget?s Advanced Edition, the agency?s Text 4 Next text-messaging program relies on ExactTarget?s triggered messaging to automate SMS responses to customer inquiries and builds on the agency?s email marketing initiatives powered by ExactTarget.

OCTA is the latest corporation to add text messaging to its one-to-one marketing efforts aimed at keeping in touch with consumers on-the-go.

From event-triggered texts to conversational messages, companies are quickly finding value in the mobile venue, according to ExactTarget.

OCTA is getting the word out about the SMS platform via on-bus communication, email communication, social media sites and outreach to bus customers at major bus stops.

?The main challenges ExactTarget addresses for OCTA are money and time,? Ms. Lin said. ?With reduced budget and strong demand for bus information, ExactTarget was able to deliver the Text for Next for OCTA under budget within a short timeframe.?