Seattle-based Zipwhip was the first company to bring cloud-texting to your desktop via your mobile number, and now they’re doing it for business landlines.
“This is one of the biggest announcements we’ve made in Zipwhip’s history,” CEO John Lauer told GeekWire. “We will be the world’s first text carrier. That’s a new term because of how unique what we’re doing is. Anyone with a landline, regardless of what carrier they use, can come to our site and text enable it in five minutes. That’s powerful.”
So what does “text carrier” even mean? Essentially, if you have a landline, you can add a texting feature through Zipwhip without adding anything to your existing phone plan.
That means restaurants can allow customers to text them reservation information, or dentists and doctors offices can have their patients text them cancellation notices.
“I’m really excited for what this means for the texting industry because it is one of the biggest shifts that has occurred in texting for several years,” Lauer said.
The cloud-based technology mimics that of Zipwhip’s Android app. Users sign up for Zipwhip, text enable their existing phone number and from there, they can “text” from a laptop, tablet or PC within minutes.
The company is hoping the new service helps businesses build better relationships with customers based on the fact that people check texts more often than email. Zipwhip cites a Neustar study that found more than 90 percent of text messages opened and read compared to less than 40 percent of emails.
The service costs $19.95 per month and Zipwhip is offering an introductory 14-day free trial.
When they’re not busy helping customers text in the cloud, the folks at Zipwhip are busy doing cool stuff at their Queen Anne offices like building Textspresso machines and celebrating customer wins with automatic flag-raising.
Previously on GeekWire: Video: Zipwhip’s ‘Textspresso machine,’ now with edible ink
