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Types of Surveys (and How Text Messaging Helps)

Photo by Emily Morter on Unsplash

There are various types of surveys you can choose from. Basically, the types of surveys are broadly categorized into two: according to instrumentation and according to the span of time involved. The types of surveys according to instrumentation include the questionnaire and the interview. On the other hand, the types of surveys according to the span of time used to conduct the survey are comprised of cross-sectional surveys and longitudinal surveys.

According to Instrumentation

In survey research, the instruments that are utilized can be either a questionnaire or an interview (either structured or unstructured).

1. Questionnaires

Typically, a questionnaire is a paper-and-pencil instrument that is administered to the respondents. The usual questions found in questionnaires are closed-ended questions, which are followed by response options. However, there are questionnaires that ask open-ended questions to explore the answers of the respondents.

Questionnaires have been developed over the years. Today, questionnaires are utilized in various survey methods, according to how they are given. These methods include the self-administered, the group-administered, and the household drop-off. Among the three, the self-administered survey method is often used by researchers nowadays. The self-administered questionnaires are widely known as the mail survey method. However, since the response rates related to mail surveys had gone low, questionnaires are now commonly administered online, as in the form of web surveys.

  • Advantages: Ideal for asking closed-ended questions; effective for market or consumer research
  • Disadvantages: Limit the researcher’s understanding of the respondent’s answers; requires budget for reproduction of survey questionnaires

2. Interviews

Between the two broad types of surveys, interviews are more personal and probing. Questionnaires do not provide the freedom to ask follow-up questions to explore the answers of the respondents, but interviews do.

An interview includes two persons – the researcher as the interviewer, and the respondent as the interviewee. There are several survey methods that utilize interviews. These are the personal or face-to-face interview, the phone interview, and more recently, the online interview.

  • Advantages: Follow-up questions can be asked; provide better understanding of the answers of the respondents
  • Disadvantages: Time-consuming; many target respondents have no public-listed phone numbers or no telephones at all

According to the Span of Time Involved

The span of time needed to complete the survey brings us to the two different types of surveys: cross-sectional and longitudinal.

1. Cross-Sectional Surveys

Collecting information from the respondents at a single period in time uses the cross-sectional type of survey. Cross-sectional surveys usually utilize questionnaires to ask about a particular topic at one point in time. For instance, a researcher conducted a cross-sectional survey asking teenagers’ views on cigarette smoking as of May 2010. Sometimes, cross-sectional surveys are used to identify the relationship between two variables, as in a comparative study. An example of this is administering a cross-sectional survey about the relationship of peer pressure and cigarette smoking among teenagers as of May 2010.

2. Longitudinal Surveys

When the researcher attempts to gather information over a period of time or from one point in time up to another, he is doing a longitudinal survey. The aim of longitudinal surveys is to collect data and examine the changes in the data gathered. Longitudinal surveys are used in cohort studies, panel studies and trend studies.

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VIDEO GUIDE: How to set up your live polling service for events and conferences

VIDEO GUIDE: How to set up your live polling service for events and conferences

This video quickly walks you through how to set up a live poll (live polling service) with Mosio Q&A using the Surveys feature in the system. You’ll have your audience text SURVEY to your texting number, then complete the survey you have created in the system.

For a more thorough video guide on how to use the text message survey feature, you can watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s-QD…

For more information, pricing, and to sign up for a free trial:

https://www.mosio.com/qnaplans

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VIDEO GUIDE: Creating a Text Message Survey | SMS Surveys | Data Collection | Live Polls

VIDEO GUIDE: Creating a Text Message Survey | SMS Surveys | Data Collection | Live Polls

This video provides instructions showing how easy it is to set up an SMS text message survey on Mosio Q&A. The video also includes a simple guide on how to instruct your users to take a poll or SMS survey with their mobile phones. Set up a live poll, poll questions, surveys for data collection and learn more about your users in real-time.

Mosio Q&A is web-based, accessible via device connected to the internet. You set up the SMS survey inside of the Mosio Q&A dashboard and your users/audience use text messaging on their phones to initiate the survey.

Whether you want to deploy a texting questionnaire, a live voting system, or a way to have your users respond to questions via texting to collect data.

For more information and to sign up for a free trial, visit https://www.mosio.com/qnaplans

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8 Reasons to Research Client Feedback With Mobile Phone Surveys

Before you next seek client satisfaction feedback at your agency or private practice, take a look at these eight reasons to consider using mobile phone surveys.

Have you considered utilizing the power of SMS surveys to collect client feedback?

1. Wide Availability – With an estimated 6.8 billion mobile subscriptions at the end of 2012 at an equivalent to 96% of the world population, there is no denying that conducting research with mobile phone surveys would be accessible to most clients.

2. Cost Effective – Each IM, SMS, and other web-based interaction costs 1/10th that of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and 1/100th that of a live agent transaction.

3. Keep Confidentiality – Given their personal and mobile nature, the average mobile phone rarely leaves the sight of the owner. It has been reported that over 99% of all text messages are read by the recipient themselves. More expensive smartphones are even more likely to be guarded and come with security measures to lock the device or increase the chance of recovery should it be lost or stolen.

4. Ubiquitous – Over 560 billion text messages are sent every month, worldwide.

5. Great Response Rate – SMS Surveys in particular have boasted an average response rate of 25% to 45%.

6. Prompt Responses – About 90% of all text messages are read within 3 minutes of their delivery, increasing the chances that users will respond to your survey. In fact, 98% of completed SMS surveys are collected within 24 hours.

7. Organized Data – In addition to a good response rate, collecting survey answers via mobile phone provides an immediate entry of data into a centralized database for analysis and fewer errors in data entry. This is an improvement over the interpretation of barely legible handwritten responses and far less time-consuming.

8. Proven Success – In the business sector, many businesses have turned to utilizing mobile devices more readily in the interest of competitive advantage. SMS surveys have been used to research customer satisfaction with good results. For instance, 90-94% of customers who answer the first question answer all questions asked and 60-70% of customers provide comments.

Gather data, feedback, and insights with SMS surveys.

Mosio’s SMS surveys software.

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How to Create More Sparks at Your Next Company Meeting With SMS

Raise your hand if you like company meetings? Us too! We like who we work with and try to keep them as fun as possible. Creativity helps as well, but not all meetings can be fun. Or can they? The reality is this: they’re important and absolutely necessary, but a company meeting is essentially a blank canvas. You can paint something boring on it or you can create something amazing. You can create something amazing on the canvas without even using paint! If you haven’t considered using text messaging to improve the interactivity and engagement at your next company meeting, come on in. People are going to be looking at their phones, there’s a great opportunity here to put those mobiles to other good uses.

While the ability to send text messages for company meetings is still relatively new, it seems that these days that we’re barely able to function without it. Text messaging (SMS, texting, etc) has moved well beyond the realm of friends and family communicating more efficiently. It’s being used more and more by businesses to promote products and to communicate with customers. And not just externally. Corporations are increasingly coming to appreciate how text messaging can be used to facilitate efficient team communications.

Text Messaging To The Rescue
Texting allows town hall and meeting participants to truly participate in a new way, making it a useful tool at company meetings. While a very simple technology, enabling mobile users to send up to 160 characters, it’s incredibly powerful, you just need to apply a little creativity to the medium (not unlike the blank canvas that is your company meeting).

Here are a few ideas to create more sparks at your next company meeting:

Encourage Questions
Enabling staff to text in their questions before the meeting makes things more efficient and move along faster. It also provides management with a host of questions staff might have that they can address later.

Pre-Event Surveys
Send out a survey in advance of the meeting to gather information and insights. Depending on what you ask, you can come in more prepared on the meeting approach and better strategize your format.

Raffles or Giveaways
Have people text in a key phrase to be entered to win. Pick a number randomly to see who wins and then send them a text to let them know they won. See “Award Punctuality” below for a way to combine the two.

Idea Sharing
Mobile photos are a great way for people to show or share their visual ideas about something. If you’re using text to screen software, those photos can be projected up onto a screen for everyone to see. Bonus points if the text-to-screen software provider you use support emojis. 😎

Polls and Voting
Trying to get consensus on a topic or idea? Text message polls are a great way to let everyone have a say, privately, if necessary. Making a poll is also a great way to use creativity and make it fun for people to participate. Have fun with them and others will too.

Tease and Reveal
Send an alert in advance to the team to let them know about some special guest or new piece of information. Suspense is a great way to build anticipation of something to come at an event.

Agenda in Advance
Agendas keep things running smoothly because they prepare everyone with what is going to be covered and in what order. If you’re an organization that prides itself in running short meetings, you either provide agendas for each meeting or you have a simple format. Sending out an agenda in advance (or reminder of your format) via text message keeps everyone on the same page.

Award Punctuality
We’ve read about companies that make people who are late sing. While probably incredibly motivating, everyone is late at some point, because: clients, co-workers, email isn’t sending, fax isn’t going through (people still use faxes and that still happens). You can use text messaging as a time stamp by having everyone text a word in that is written on a board for X minutes. Or you can use that same word be entry into a raffle. Or…if you’re into shaming the tardy, have everyone at the meeting take photos of those who are late, post them to a screen for the world to see. We don’t recommend this last idea, but we bet some people would rather have their photo up on a screen than have to sing to the group.

Suggestion Box
Some people love raising their hands and speaking their minds. In some of the others, brilliant insights and ideas are going unheard. By encouraging people to text their ideas and comments in, they can do so quietly, efficiently. All information can be looked at and easily shared later in it’s natural digital format vs handwritten notes on paper or written on a whiteboard.

We hope these have been helpful and wish you the best in making your next company meeting a successful and creative one. Hey! While we have your attention, did you know we sell text messaging software for company meetings? If you’re interested in learning more about it, you can visit us or sign up for a free trial to take it for a spin. All of the ideas above can be done using Mosio’s software.

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Surveys via Text Messaging = Increased Truthfulness

Surveys via Text Messaging = Increased Truthfulness

Everyone is texting. With their friends, family, coworkers, and businesses. It’s officially a comfortable communication method, used more than voice calls for the average American mobile user. But did you know it can actually help provide you with more truthful information when conducting surveys?

During elections, we hear about robocalls and the difference between polling companies because they call mobile phones as well as landlines. We consistently think “what about text messaging?” Besides the fact that it is illegal to randomly pick numbers and begin sending them text messages, we think it is a valuable medium for gathering data, especially from more people. Not everyone has a smartphone and even those who do still text.

Well a recent study from the University of Michigan showed not only that text messaging was a great method of gathering data via surveys, but respondents were also actually more truthful in their response. A quote from the researcher “so far it seems that texting may reduce some respondents’ tendency to shade the truth or to present themselves in the best possible light in an interview—even when they know it’s a human interviewer they are communicating with via text.”

This is truly an amazing finding. Text messaging can help offer that additional social buffer of “safety” where another person is concerned and it is a medium that is rooted in personal communications.

If you are looking to offer surveys via text messaging, we can help you design and implement a solution that enables live “text chat” responses with interviewers or automated responses. Let us know what your text messaging survey goals are in a free consultation and we’ll put together a quick quote for you.

Gather data, feedback, and insights with text message surveys.

Mosio’s text message survey software.

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Mosio CEO on The Clinical Trials Guru – Clinical Trial Recruitment and Text Messaging

Volunteer recruitment continues to be one of the biggest challenges in clinical trials, especially in finding qualified candidates within the scheduled study timelines and budgets. The Clinical Trials Guru’s Dan Sfera interviews Mosio CEO and Co-Founder, Noel Chandler, about how mobile messaging is helping to improve volunteer recruitment efforts through advertising response, text message alerts, reminders and surveys. You can watch the whole video below or head on over to The Clinical Trials Guru website for the post, video and more great clinical research content.

Update: Here’s a summary of some of the points discussed, along with a few other facts:

TEXT MESSAGING

  • Available on 99% of phones, the largest data service in the world.
  • 90% are opened/read within 10 minutes.
  • Compared to email’s 10% open/read rate.
  • Coupons, Offers and Loyalty Programs = Redeemed 8x more than emails
  • Better response rate than other calls to action (phone numbers, web-based calls to action)
  • On average, smartphone users check their phones 150 times a day!

ADVERTISING RESPONSE

  • Great foundation, so much more can be done beyond the keyword + short code.
  • “Traditional” (even though still new) – Send additional information: contact info, mobile web links, forms, videos etc.
  • Pre-Screener surveys with filtered results sent to the nearest site asap.
  • Questions and Answers, two way interaction.
  • Opt people in for alerts and reminders lists.

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

  • Encourage people with conditions to ask questions and get responses.
  • People interested in finding out more about clinical trials in general. What they are, how they can participate.

TEXT MESSAGE ALERTS/REMINDERS

  • Helpful Info About Health: Gather subscribers to tips on living with specific conditions relevant to studies coming up.
    • Great Example from Pharma Marketing: Novartis and their Pollen Count text message alert service.
  • Surrogates: 50% of people who look up health info do so on behalf of another person. “Living and supporting someone with ______.”
  • Build Your Own List: Build your own list of people to send alerts to for new studies. Gather specific information during registration to ensure the studies are relevant.
  • Self-Serve Reminders: Create a self-serve health reminders service where people choose the type of reminders (medication, exercise, etc) they get. Use the channel to promote new studies coming up.

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How Text Messaging and the Mobile Web Improve Academic Research – Public Health, Clinical Trials, etc.

In an economy where grants and funding are few and far between, success in research trials is vital.  As blogger Mike the Mad Biologist points out, it is almost as hard to get an NIH grant, as it is to get into Harvard (6% acceptance rate for the class of 2016).  Paylines for 2013 R01 grants are currently set at 8 percentile for non-new PIs and 12 percentile for new PIs.

When academic researchers are expected to teach classes, hold office hours, and apply for funding, all while completing research, what can be done to increase the rate of overall success?

Mobile healthcare technologies now enable researchers to expedite enrollment for studies, provide automated reminders to patients, and remotely complete surveys, forms, and diaries.

mobile-software-for-academic-research-clinical-trials-public-health

Pre-Qualification Surveys

Flyers for studies can include a phone number for potential research subjects to text to complete a short pre-qualification survey.  Based on their responses, follow-up can be performed to recruit patients onto studies.  Academic researchers can then save time in the recruitment process for studies, and focus more on enrollment, study visits, and obtaining data.

Automated Patient Reminders

Text message reminders can be sent out to patients on an automated schedule, allowing researchers to increase compliance and retention effectively and nearly effortlessly.  These reminders are helpful for medication compliance, appointment attendance, diary completion, and more, especially on college campuses where, as Sprint studied, more than 98.8% of students have a cell phone, and 97% of students use texting as their main form of communication.

Text Message and Mobile Web ePRO

To minimize time-consuming, additional patient visits, both text messaging and the mobile web enable ePRO to be completed remotely and at any time of day.  Text message surveys are available with various types of formatting, such as multiple choice answers.  Mobile web surveys are also available for longer diary entries, patient satisfaction surveys, and study forms.

Mosio for Research provides mHealth support for academic research studies. To learn more, visit http://www.mosio.com/research.

Author: Emily Waller holds an Honors B.S. in Biomedical Engineering, has worked on numerous clinical trials, and as a medical & technical writer.  She writes to promote innovative ideas in healthcare, technology, and research within the online community.  She also loves photography, neuroscience, and household DIY projects.

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Reduce the Stress on Your Recruiting Call Centers: Use Mobile Surveys to Pre-Screen Research Patients

Clinical_Trial_SMS_Survey

Calling: Unknown Number.  Should you answer it?  You can just let it go to voicemail and call back if it turns out to be something important.  One less time you have to talk on the phone…

Although many people may qualify for research studies, a number of these potential study patients never receive all of the information for studies they might be interested in.  Even less are pre-screened by call centers.  In an era when talking on the phone has significantly decreased, it is hard for call centers to get a hold of potential patients, especially at a time that is convenient enough for these people to complete a pre-screening interview.  Call centers are therefore left in a difficult position.

Furthermore, when research sites do not receive the patient recruitment numbers that they need, additional stress is placed on call centers to pre-screen more patients so that enrollment can be met for studies.  With telephone calls becoming less effective, and at a time when people are texting and using the mobile web much more often, these two media are perfect for pre-screening research patients!

Forbes states that in the latest Cisco® Visual Networking Index Forecast, it is predicted that the number of mobile devices will exceed the number of people on earth by the end of this year.  This means that potential research patients are using these mobile technologies, and are more likely to complete the pre-screening process using a text or mobile web survey.

Text messaging and mobile web surveys can be used for the pre-screening process.  Not only are these surveys more effective in an increasingly mobile-connected population, they also put some of the pressure off of call centers, who simply cannot keep up with needed pre-screening numbers when potential patients do not want to talk on the phone.  They are also more convenient than mobile apps because no download is required.  Mobile surveys are a beneficial way to reach a potential patient population and complete more pre-screens, hopefully leading to increased enrollment on research studies.

Mosio for Research provides mobile surveys and mHealth text messaging technology specifically for clinical research. Learn more at http://www.mosio.com/biz/solutions/research.

Author: Emily Waller holds an Honors B.S. in Biomedical Engineering, has worked on numerous clinical trials, and as a medical & technical writer.  She writes to promote innovative ideas in healthcare, technology, and research within the online community.  She also loves photography, neuroscience, and household DIY projects.

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8 Interesting Stats from IDC and Facebook’s “Always Connected” Report

IDC and Facebook’s New Research Report “Always Connected: How Smartphones and Social Keep Us Engaged” is filled with good info-nuggets. We encourage you to read the 25 page report, but for those on the move, we’ve boiled it down for you. No pretty pictures or graphics below, but there are definitely some on the report, so check it out!

  • 25% of people surveyed cannot recall the last time their phone was not close them.
  • Today, half of the total US population uses smartphones.
  • In 2013, U.S. Smartphone Users is projected to be 181.4 Million which is 57.3% of the population.
  • Within the first 15 minutes of waking up, 4 out of 5 smartphone owners are checking their phones.
  • 79% of respondents have their phone on or near them for all but up to 2 hours of their waking day.
  • 49% of respondents feel connected when using text/message application on their Smartphones.
  • From Monday to Sunday, 84% of respondent’s time is spent on phone communicating via text, email, social vs. only 16% on phone calls.
  • Men are 75% more likely than women to seek out application on Facebook using their Smartphones.

We took a vote over here and it was closer 75% of us that could not recall the last time our phone was close by. I suppose we have “I need it for work” as an excuse, but still. 🙂

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Text Messaging News: Rwanda’s Health Care Success Story, Text Messages More Helpful Than In-Person Provider Visit, AN EFFECTIVE HIV PREVENTION INTERVENTION

Men texting

New Smartphone App And Mobile Website Help FirstEnergy Utility Customers Stay Connected

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Rwanda’s Health Care Success Story

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Report: Patients Say Text Messages More Helpful Than In-Person Provider Visit

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Health Notes: Text service for suicide prevention sees heavy use

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TEXT MESSAGING AS AN EFFECTIVE HIV PREVENTION INTERVENTION FOR METHAMPHETAMINE-USING MSM

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Compiled by Mosio mobile messaging software. All copyright belongs to original owners.

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Text Messaging News: Text Messages Used for Prenatal Education, ER Texting Service Reaches New Levels, Kiwis still big texters

Text messages: The workhorse of mobile health?

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Text Messages Used for Prenatal Education

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Baptist Health System Customer Utilization of the ER Texting Service Reaches New Levels

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Hpy Bday Txtng! (*smiley*)

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Kiwis still big texters after 20 years

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Compiled by Mosio mobile messaging software. All copyright belongs to original owners.

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Text Messaging News: Teen Sends Mind-Blowing Number Of Text Messages, SMS Smoking Cessation, Power Texting

Teen Sends Mind-Blowing Number Of Text Messages, Dad Shares Photo With The Internet

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SMS still stands up to trend towards social messaging

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Innovative practices could extend the reach of immunisation campaigns

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Evidence builds for SMS smoking cessation

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Study Will Examine Power Texting

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Compiled by Mosio mobile messaging software. All copyright belongs to original owners.

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Mobile Newsbytes: Texting Increases Survey Truthfulness, Skin Cancer Prevention via SMS, Consult a Doctor on a Smartphone

Texting Increases Survey Truthfulness, Skin Cancer Prevention via SMS, Consult a Doctor on a Smartphone

In this week of Mosio’s Mobile Newsbytes, we find out more about the growing popularity of mHealth from the viewpoint of doctors and patients, people taking surveys via text messaging are more likely to answer truthfully, skin cancer prevention via SMS (Hey U! Put on snscrn rt now!) and some more good news for mobile advertising.

Enjoy and if you’d like, you can always subscribe to our blog up there on the right to get mobile information delivered right to your email inbox or favorite RSS reader.

Half of Smartphone owners consult the ‘doctor in their pocket’

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OMG! Texting ups truthfulness, new iPhone study suggests

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OMG: Text-Message Surveys

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Skin cancer prevention via text message

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Two Thirds of British Texters Have Received Spam, But Most Are Unsure of How to Take Appropriate Action

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US and UK Consumers Choose Smartphones and Tablets for 2012 Holiday Shopping

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Mobile Connections on the Rise; Good News for Mobile Advertising

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AIRLINES USING SURVEY SOFTWARE TO IMPROVE OPERATIONS AND PASSENGER EXPERIENCE

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UK’s young increasingly using mobile devices to access the web

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Pew: Smartphone owners increasingly use their devices to get health info

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Need two-way mobile messaging software or solutions for your business? Mosio can help! Contact us for a free mobile consultation and we’ll put together a quick quote for you.

Compiled by Mosio mobile messaging software. All copyright belongs to original owners.

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Dining and Restaurant Reservations Trends [INFOGRAPHIC]

Dining and Restaurant Reservations Trends [INFOGRAPHIC]

This infographic from OpenTable has some great info about dining and restaurant reservations. Since its original creation, a new trend in restaurant reservations is popping up: text messaging. Various services are using the most popular channel on mobile phones to help guests reserve tables and to get notified when their tables are ready instead of using pagers or yelling (which is still used by more establishments than you’d think). In fact, text messaging is being used more and more for hospitality and guest services, with hotels, resorts and spas realizing the value of being able to communicate with guests on the device they never leave home without.

Restaurant owners and managers benefit from text messaging because it is cost-effective, available on almost 100% of mobile phones and enables they to send offers, promotions or collect customer feedback via text message surveys. With more guests becoming more mobile and depending on their mobile text messaging for quick communications, we see it as more than a trend, but a new method of communication that will continue as mobile consumers use messaging more than voice communications in the future.

A few fun facts from the infographic:

  • Italian is the most popular cuisine in all major metro cities except Washington DC, where it is American (go figure).
  • 30% of reservations made on OpenTable are typically booked while the restaurant is closed (really impressive).
  • 7pm is the most popular reservation time (eat earlier or later and avoid the crowds!)

Get a quote for text messaging solutions for guest services.

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