The Simplified blog

Because they’re short, you’d think text messages would be clear. But the truth is, a hurriedly-drafted text message can cause more confusion than clarity – as one of Jozi’s gyms found out last week.

At 9am last Monday (5 March), all members of the gym got this message on our cell phones:

Dear member. Please note that [name of gym] will be without electricity until 6am on the 13th March. Feel free to use any other Club or call [number]. We apologize for any inconvenience called.

Being a regular gym-goer (or at least someone who regularly intends to be a regular gym-goer), I phoned, much perturbed. Out of electricity for a week?

The receptionist had a speech prepared. It was obvious that she had answered many of these calls already. The intended message was that the gym would open one hour later than usual on 13 March. Apparently the queries kept coming in and the gym tried again by sending this out at midday:

Due to an electricity outage, the [name of gym] will open at 6am on the morning of 13 March…

Better, but still ambiguous: the message should have been more like:

The lesson: before you send a text message to all your customers, test it with a few.