Breaking news here from Texpert Towers, where our partnership with BAA has been recognised by the Customer Contact Association in their Excellence Awards.

Texperts and BAA have been working together since March 2008, when Terminal 5 opened.  With dozens of airlines moving around the airport in the intervening 18 months, BAA and Texperts brought the full strength of the Texperts platform to bear for Heathrow passengers, enabling tens of thousands of customers each month to get to the right terminal on time.

Customers just text the flight number, or whatever flight details they have, to 64222 (64BAA) and Texperts do the rest.

We are really pleased that this innovative solution has been recognised by the prestigious CCA Excellence Awards.  Thomas will be going to Edinburgh to attend the ceremony; fingers crossed he comes back with another award for our growing cabinet!

Comments from the judges included:

• “Innovative, unique and leading edge, benefits both financial and in terms of the customer experience … This submission stands out from the crowd and in itself is clear and comprehensive.”
• “There is clear evidence of a partnership working together to find a solution which has improved customer service in a new and accessible way. Tangible results are shown and valuable data is being utilised to further improve the service, including customer feedback.”
• “The advantages of this service to the time-pressured customer are very clear. What’s great about this service is that it is simple to use, responsive, evolving and potentially, invaluable. What’s more, it demonstrates the commitment BAA has to ‘going the extra mile’ to help its customers. This is a very original solution to a very old problem - how to find out what you don’t know quickly and easily.  A great submission.”

We couldn’t agree more!

The Sunday Times asks if Texperts CEO Sarah McVittie and CPO Thomas Roberts have what it takes to be the next Bill Gates…

Oliver Bennett reckons that broadband has turned Britain into a nation of entrepreneurs, and reasons that if the entrepreneurs he profiles made it, “so could anyone with a bright idea and a laptop — pensioner, housewife or student.” In this extensive article, Texperts is held up as a business that has managed to tap a previously underutilised labour market who can now work from home via broadband.

Along with a number of other innovative businesses, Texperts receives the following profile:

START-UP: TEXPERTS (QUESTIONS ANSWERED)

Sarah McVittie, 30, and Thomas Roberts, 30, set up the company in 2003 as 82ask, and recently gained investment to give it new life as Texperts. It is based around the text-messaging of questions to experts, who come back with a rapid answer for £1. It is valued at around £7.4m

The article follows Sarah McVittie’s recent receipt of a Businesswoman of the Year award, and her shortlisting as the Rising Star of the Year award at the inaugural MediaGuardian Awards. Mr. Gates, watch out…

Texperts’ intrepid CEO Sarah McVittie was recently profiled in The Telegraph after meeting Dominic White at the annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. In this extensive piece, White gives an extensive history of the company and Sarah’s role in changing the face of mobile search. White writes,

“Tall, blonde, female and 30. It wasn’t hard for Textperts founder Sarah McVittie to stand out amid 60,000 delegates at the annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this month. But that’s not really the point. Among the jargon-heavy and sometimes downright silly business ideas that littered this geeks’ playground, McVittie’s company, Textperts, was perhaps the simplest to understand.

Forget your 3Gs, WiFis and what-nots for a minute, Textperts does exactly what its name suggests: text any question you can think of to McVittie’s army of experts and they’ll text you back with the answer, pronto. It will cost you a pound, charged to your mobile bill, and you’ll need a mobile with a UK SIM card.”

Read on…

Our very own Théo D. has made his small-screen debut on ITV’s This Morning in a segment about novel ways of earning cash. Theo strutted his Texpert stuff and basically announced to the world what a fab job he’s got and how its a flexible way of generating income. Well done Theo - the camera loves you!

An interesting (though hardly surprising!) upshot of Theo’s cameo is that our website traffic spiked, generating more than four times our highest-ever volume, and ten times our regular volume. A fantastic result for the service and for our HR department.

We’re really delighted with this coverage from ITV and we’re working on more ways to get the service onto the small screen. Keep your eyes peeled!

The Texperts message continues to spread amongst mainstream newspapers with two articles published recently. The Sunday Times (December 30th 2007) has an article on how to find accurate information on the internet, and gives the option of enlisting the Texperts to find the answer:

If you’re in a hurry, or simply can’t find what you are looking for, you can always ask an expert. Texperts (www.texperts.com, or 66000 from your mobile phone) is a service that delivers answers to mobile phone; a response to the old chestnut “Why is the sky blue?” was concise, prompt (given within three minutes) and, most important, correct. Answers cost £1, but if you are unhappy with them you can follow up free of charge, and if the Texperts can’t answer your question you don’t have to pay the next time.

The Daily Mirror (January 2nd 2008) features senior Texpert Claire H in an article on earning extra cash in the New Year. Claire talks about the advantages of working from home and the flexible hours, and I have to agree it is totally different from a 9-5 office job.