Last week we showed you how the texting craze has overtaken the everyday lives of teenagers, but it's not only teens who are buying up all those bundles. Business people are also catching on to the texting thing.
And it's no idle fancy, no waste-of-time pastime. There are distinct advantages to texting for business. Robin Schaffer found out more when she visited some big business people who love the small keyboard.
Here's her report:..
Robin Schaffer reporting
With as many as 3 million texts sent every day, it's not only crazed teens and star-crossed lovers who are sending all those texts. Market research by the phone companies show that the demographic with the most disposable income - business people between 40 and 60 years old are becoming increasingly adept at sending text messages and attuned to the benefits of doing so.
Dione Miranda - Public Relations Officer, BTL
"Honestly, Robin, it appears that texting has no boundaries. It is a great tool for education, business, or any facet of life."
Ian Courtenay - Public Relations Officer, SMART
"Unless you need an immediate answer, you don't have to wait or worry if the person is going to get the information. Once you have sent a text message, it's like a record, 'See, I did contact you.' So, it is a growing mode of communication even within the business world. I do see it in conferences, press conferences, and that sort of thing. People are constantly being in communication with their offices, or contacts - whoever they may be texting, using it in cases where voice would be either an intrusion, rude, or something like that."
Dione Miranda
"If you're in a negotiation, for instance, and you realize that your business partner doesn't know something that you need to let them know, and you're right across the table, and that could be the defining moment in a negotiation, you text that little piece of information, and you empower them by giving them knowledge. So, I find that it works within a board room, an office, and in every possible environment. I am an avid texter. I enjoy doing it. I love being able to text to my children and find out if they are okay as well. I don't interrupt my meeting; I don't stay on the phone long. It's just a matter of saying, 'Are you okay?' So I am available 24/7, and the methodology that we use within BTL to speak to each other is definitely to text a lot."
Ian Courtenay
"In everyday life, and in business, I think that it is a tool that helps to spur on productivity."
John Woods is one of those businesspeople who believes that it does spur on productivity. At 69 years old with over 40 years of experience in business, he's adjusted himself to a new standard of business communication.
John Woods - Cisco Construction/ Kolbe Foundation/Old Belize
"I am totally a fan of texting. I find it an extremely efficient way to do business, not only here, but foreign. I can send texts while I am in a meeting and in something that is pertinent to the meeting resolved before the meeting is over."
Robin Schaffer
"Do you find that you use texting to communicate with heads of departments or people who are high the business world?"
John Woods
"Yes, more so than the telephone because sometimes they have roadblocks by telephone, but usually with a text, I can get through, even with the PM. I texted the head of the bank this morning, a little text, where as if I had a call, it would have been before she was at her office. I learned texting from my wife. She learned it first to communicate with the kids; they were teaching her how to do it. And then, I got on to it, and then the rest of the business world got on it, and we find very efficient."
John Woods is clearly impressed with the efficiency of texting, and the same can be said for BTL Executive Chairman Nestor Vasquez at 80 years old he's found texting to be an excellent mode of communication - sending up to 50 texts a day.
Nestor Vasquez - Executive Chairman, BTL
"That's what everybody is doing, and we have to remain current with the rest of the community."
Robin Schaffer
"And how much texts do you send per day?"
Nestor Vasquez
"Oh, an awful lot, I don't count them, but they'd have to be several dozen; over 60 I would imagine. I have a large number of staff at Belize Telemedia. We have over 500 employees, and I know that I text with the heads of departments on a regular basis. I text my staff here at Channel 7 occasionally, and I have other friends that I have to communicate with. My phone is always with me. I have it in my pocket. If not, I have it on my dining table when I've having lunch. I'd have it on my bed head. I am a 24/7 man. It is excellent because it's quick. They could be travelling. They could be on the road, and you get to them; they get to you. And besides that, it's a very economical way to communicate with. It's far less than a telephone call. As long as you have a phone that is working. It's just as easy on cheap phone as on a high-class phone. It's always easy to do. It's the same thing, no problem. If the children can do it, so can the adults, and so can the elderly."
And while these older business people have had to adapt, Francis Woods came of age with it. He sends up to 150 texts a day!
Francis Woods - Project Manager, Cisco Construction
"I think I have the largest package that BTL sends. I send out mass texts to all the Rotarians to remind them of commitments that we have. I send out mass texts at least 2 to 3 times a week. I text project managers on sites, PG sites: Kendal sites, and in town. For me, it's really a great way to communicate because it's non-invasive. A phone call, if you're in a meeting, you can't take it. You're worried; you don't know who is calling. Whereas you can discreetly open it, see whose texting you, and if it's an emergency, you can step out, call and talk. I think that texting is really good. It certainly helped me a lot with communicating. My texting is not for pleasure. It's really for work and to be informed. I text a lot with my daughters, and that's fun. They'll inform me where they are if they just left school or they're on their way home, because they drive to Belmopan. But, I guess I could say that yes I enjoy it because it helps me to get out a message quickly and efficiently. I can send a text to 50 people, and everybody gets the same message. They always have their phones to them. So it's really a personal buddy delivering a message from whomever. So I think that it's really a neat deal."
Robin Schaffer
"So, do you always have your phone on you?"
Francis Woods
"Always. It's by my bed side when I'm asleep, and it rings sometimes 2 o'clock in the morning."
So now, the art of the deal is pivots on the art of the well-written text message.
And while a lot can be said for business people who text - according to BTL's statistics - 99% of all text messages are sent from prepaid phones, with only 1% being sent from post-paid 610 numbers. All those we interviewed had 610 numbers.
