Tool: Directions via text message

Editor’s Note: Tuyen Ho emailed this comment to me. Sounds like a very useful tool for small business people. I’d love to get feedback from anyone who tries it.

Hi Becky,

I read your 1/18 blog post re: Gene Marks “can’t make these technologies work” piece. You mentioned a few mobile services like Jott. I’d like to tell you about Dial Directions (www.dialdirections.com).

DIR-ECT-IONS is the first nationwide free phone service for ‘directions assistance’. Any cell phone user can dial D-I-R- E-C-T-I-O-N-S (347-328-4667); tell the voice-activated service their starting address and destination (address, business, or local event); and instantly receive a driving directions by text message. The service is free and works on all cell phones – no web plan or GPS needed. Only your carrier charges apply.

Here’s a demo of the service: http://www.dialdirections.com/video_demo.html

Small business owners have shared wonderful stories about how they use Dial Directions:

• Owners tell their new customers to use it to get point-to-point directions to the owner’s store/business, especially when someone rings them up and wants specific directions from a particular address (e.g. one UHaul franchise asked us for our free stickers and postcards about Dial Directions for his customers who are moving into a new neighborhood and need navigation assistance when they’re on the go)
• Wedding and other social event planners turn their event into a destination by plugging in the event’s name and address at our website. After that, the organizers simply tell attendees to dial D-I-R-E-C-T-I-O-N-S, ask for the event name and provide any starting address.
• Sales, delivery and contractors without access to a computer or GPS use just call D-I-R-E-C-T-I-O-N-S from their cell phones for navigation assistance
• Real estate agents tell their homebuyers to use D-I-R-E-C-T-I-O-N-S to help see multiple open houses without the need for pre-printing maps

Hope this is useful to you and your readers.

Regards,

Tuyen

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About Becky McCray

Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.

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