Pincushion provides a customizable, integrated customer database and four core messaging services:

• Private Messaging
• Group Messaging
• Scrapbooks
• API Integration

We know that your business is unique. Rather than asking you to balance on an inflexible platform, Pincushion adapts to your needs. Customer data, history, and the content of individual text messages can determine which service receives and processes messages from customers. We work with you to determine the optimal workflow for your business and then provision as many or as few services as necessary.

Private Messaging

Like email or instant messaging, Pincushion Private Messaging connects customers to your staff one on one. You can provision one or more "queues". Staff access a web-based interface where they see customer messages sent into their queue and can respond. Pincushion can deliver customer messages to select queues based on message keywords, customer profile, ongoing conversations, and other data. Each queue has its own rules for monitoring service levels, hours of operation, staff access, etc.

Group Messaging

When a message is sent to a Pincushion Group all customers who are part of that group receive it. Pincushion can create any number of groups, and membership can be determined by elements of the customer profile or managed manually. Broadcasts to the group may be sent from the web-based interface or from a cell phone.

Any or all customers in a group may be permitted to send out broadcasts to their group. You have the flexibility to provide everything from opt-in promotions to coordinated logistics to text chat for customers.

Scrapbooks

Scrapbooks allow your customers to build up a list of things that interest them by sending text messages. Scrapbooks can enable gift registries at a store, a virtual rolodex at a convention, or an interactive treasure hunt.

You control the list of things available in a scrapbook, enter information about each thing, and publish the scrapbook keyword for each thing. Customers send a text message with the keywords of things they want to keep track of and receive automated responses if you want. At any time a customer can log on to the Pincushion web site and view the things in their scrapbook along with detailed information and tailored calls to action.

API Integration

We know you've got big ideas and other needs. Pincushion allows you to route text messages from your customers to anywhere you need. API services let us deliver messages containing certain keywords or from certain customers to any web server on earth. That server can process the text message however it wants and optionally deliver a reply to the customer.

Mobile Messaging

Pincushion interfaces with multiple SMS Aggregators to give you choices in performance, robustness, and pricing. You are free to choose between long codes and short codes from multiple providers while taking advantage of our volume pricing leverage.

Infrastructure

Higher Function maintians a fault-tolerant compute cluster in a redundantly connected, carrier-grade data center so you don't have to. Security and data recovery are managed for you, while our multi-tenant application architecture ensures the confidentiality of your very valuable data.

Mobile Connectivity

Sometimes your CSRs aren't at their desks. Sometimes their computers or network crash. Pincushion features one of the most robust multi-modal communications systems available. Messages from customers can be monitored and replied to from a web page, an email client, or a cell phone. Wired internet, wireless data, and SMS — three channels to help keep you connected.

Integration

Pincushion provides multiple integration APIs to help streamline your workflows and provide information to your customers in real-time. Depending on your needs, our technical integration staff can assist in back-end integration of customer profile and messaging functions using one of these interfaces:

• Simple HTTP push and pull,
• SOAP Web Services, or
• HTNG Single Guest Itinerary-compliant Web Services