Mobile app 'Baby Sittor' increases customer satisfaction with SMS

Who is Baby Sittor?

For parents with young children, it’s hard to say ‘yes’ to a last-minute invitation or organize an outing on the fly. The first thought is always, “Can we find a babysitter in time?” Often, unfortunately, they can’t.  This was the realization that Pauline de Montesson had, and why she founded Baby Sittor in 2013. She was herself receiving too many requests to babysit, and couldn’t say yes to all of them.  She decided to forward them on to other sitters she knew via SMS, and the idea for the Baby Sittor platform was born. Today, her system of SMS has grown into a mobile app for iOS and Android, where parents post ads for a sitter in Baby Sittor’s mobile app, specifying the location, salary, date and time.  They then receive applications from nearby babysitters, and can tap on a button to accept the most appealing offer.

The challenge: delivering timely notifications read by teenagers

“What we really offer parents is the ability to be spontaneous – to post an ad for a babysitter at 5pm, have a confirmation at 6pm, and see a 7pm movie showing – and to have that babysitter show up every time,” explained Maxence Coisne, Co-founder of Baby Sittor. For that, they needed a reliable way of notifying potential sitters, who were often in their teens or early 20s, that their application had been accepted. “Teens often don’t open their emails until hours or days after they’re sent,” explained Maxence, “and many are opting out of push notifications, or don’t have data or internet access when they’re sent. SMS is the most reliable way for us to quickly notify our babysitters that they’ve been booked.”  For Baby Sittor, these notifications are key to their success. “It’s extremely important for us that these notifications get read quickly – nobody’s happy if a babysitter says in the app they’re interested, a parent confirms their request, and the sitter ends up not showing because they didn’t see their request confirmation in time.”

Teens often don’t open their emails until hours or days after they’re sent, and many are opting out of push notifications, or don’t have data or internet access when they’re sent. SMS is the most reliable way for us to quickly notify our babysitters that they’ve been booked.” Maxence Coisne, Co-founder of Baby Sittor

Thanks to API integration, these confirmation notifications are automatically sent as soon as a parent confirms a babysitter’s request in the mobile app.  Confirmation SMS – sent in the name of ‘Baby Sittor’ -  include all relevant information: address, telephone number of the parents, and their names. “We decided not to use anonymous numbers because we wanted each party to have each other’s real contact details – it’s an issue of trust,” explained Maxence.

Results: fewer no-shows, happier parents

“We definitely limit the number of no-shows by using SMS via CALLR,” said Maxence.  He explained that before evolving into a mobile app, Baby Sittor had been a Facebook group of members posting ads.  However, the system was difficult to manage: posts confirming babysitters were getting lost in the group’s complex web of discussion threads, or potential sitters wouldn’t check their inbox in time. Today, Baby Sittor sends as many SMS as there are confirmed babysitters.  “Integrating with CALLR’s API was easy – the actual integration took one hour, and then we took another day to configure it,” specified Maxence.  Baby Sittor plans to expand their use of CALLR internationally, since their application is popular not only in Paris, France, where it’s headquartered, but also in Geneva, Madrid, and London.