Cell phone messaging for branding awareness

Date: 24 February 2003	Issue: 24 February 2003 (Computing S.A.)
Category: SA News	Durban correspondent

SA Breweries in KwaZulu-Natal has implemented a pilot project in which the voice mailboxes of employee cell phones are enabled with professional voice over messages, covering personal names and branding.
This forms part of a project in which SAB is enhancing its Castle Lager branding image, where callers are greeted with a rich timbre in the voice message and the beer giant’s licensed song, Africa, performed by Toto, playing unobtrusively in the background.
The successful pilot roll-out was undertaken by Continuous Communications, a Durban-based company that specialises in the message-on-hold industry. SA Breweries says it has received positive feedback from both customers and employees.
According to SAB’s depot secretary, Michele Gooding, SAB decided to brand its voice messaging facility to further enhance the professional corporate image. Branded voice messaging offers the opportunity to promote brands, whilst at the same time delivering higher levels of customer service.
“SAB has welcomed the opportunity to pioneer the technology from Continuous Communications, viewing it as a natural extension to the messaging services that are already being used.
“We view our phone image as yet another opportunity to deliver customer service. The phone is often the first point of contact and it is here that SAB’s professionalism must begin,” says Gooding.
Continuous Communications was contracted to provide the technology, voice-over solution and to download the messages to the individual employee cell phones. The company’s on-hold messaging technology is already in place at several SAB sites and depots.
It is the first time the corporate cell-based technology has been used in SA, according to Continuous Communications’ MD, Roger Robért, who says that telephones or cell phones are a customer’s first point of contact with a company, but that insufficient attention is being paid to callers.