My teenage son once again managed to go over his time allotment for cell phone usage last month. After careful scrutiny (and more than a little yelling) we determined that the culprit was once again too many text messages.

And all that got me to thinking ... why is Short Message Service (or SMS, another term for text messaging) so widely used in our personal lives but not widely used by call centers when conversing with customers? One obvious limitation is, of course, the length of the messages -- you wouldn't ever want to try to have a discussion with a customer over a complex issue or complaint via SMS. It's also not nearly as "interactive" as a phone call, which further reduces opportunities for use. At the same time, though, it is great for getting out a quick message that shouldn't require any follow-up. And because it lands on someone's cell phone, rather than an email inbox or a voice mail system, it may be infinitely more valuable. Here are a few quick things I'd love to get as an SMS to my cell phone rather than the current delivery method:

• Hotel/car rental reservation numbers, which are now sent to me via email and then have to be printed out and pulled out of a file while checking in
  
• Driving directions, which could be read back to me if I had one of those new phones with voice playback of SMS messages
  
• Appointment reminders, which are always left on my home answering machine and never get played back, since I never even look at it to see the blinking light
  
• Status on a delivery item, or on an ongoing case (like an insurance claim, for instance)

I recognize these are personal preferences, and it could well be that many customers prefer other types of channels for these contacts. But why not let us have a choice? Ask me when I'm making the reservation or setting up the appointment if I'd like to get an SMS message instead of (or in addition to) the email or phone call. The more we would use it, the more opportunities we would find to enhance service. Maybe we'd even get to the ultimate opportunity -- my wireless phone provider sending me an SMS when it looks like my son is going over his allotment again!

--Jay Minucci is ICMI's VP of Consulting Services.