BusTxt ideas

I found the excellent Wireless Wonders blog recently and read Paul's Follow-up text protocol post. His basic idea is that user's would opt-in to allowing merchants to send one follow-up text message per transaction conducted with them.

This reminded me of an idea I had when Dublin Bus had their annual fare increase earlier this year. Since I’ve used BusTxt a couple of times, they KNOW I take the bus (at least sometimes) and they KNOW my mobile number. It would be a no-brainer for them to send me a single text message with the details of any fare changes. Saves Dublin Bus 10 cents (since the driver lets you on at the old fare anyway) and saves me from looking like an idiot, giving me a warm fuzzy feeling about them (if that’s possible). Come to think of, I wouldn’t mind them sending me route or timetable changes for routes that I’d enquired about either.

The important point Paul makes in his post is that the number of follow-up texts be limited, so that people don't get spammed. I think in the case of BusTxt follow-ups, most people wouldn't mind getting the odd fare or timetable change text.