Why You Need to Have a Text Message Alert System

Emergencies happen, and sometimes they cannot be prevented. However, when emergencies do happen it’s crucial to have to right communication channel to ensure the safety of everyone that may be affected by it.

 

The Importance of Text Message Alerts

During your daily commute, you may have noticed signs on highways alerting you of different emergencies, whether it’s road closures or an AMBER Alert. Like me, you may even have gotten text messages about those emergencies.

Those text message alerts are proven to be effective and lifesaving. As study shows, as of April 2019, there have been 957 children rescued specifically because of AMBER Alerts. As of April 2018, 56 children were rescued because of Wireless Emergency Alerts.

It’s no surprise that texting is an effective channel to communicate important alerts to the masses because we now live in a mobile-centric world where we manage our lives within this rectangular device. Additionally, texting has quickly become the main communication channel due to the speed and convenience it provides for consumers as well as businesses.

 

Why You Need to Have a Text Message Alert System for Your Organization

From a business or organization perspective, having a text message alert system in place to announce emergencies as well as other important/time-sensitive information can make a huge difference.

As an example, I speak with customers regularly and one mentioned how texting saves their employees from heading into a traffic jam of over 4 hours due to sudden heavy snow and road closure, which caused a couple of accidents. If it wasn’t for the ability to quickly send a text message to let them know to wait or take a different route, it would have potentially put employees’ lives at risk.

No matter what type of organization you are, whether it’s a university or a business that sells a product or service, it’s important to have a text message alert system in place to ensure everyone gets all important information relevant to them.

 

Examples of Text Message Alerts

Here are some examples of notifications you can send to your customers, members or employees.

 

Educational Institutions (Colleges, Universities, K-12 Schools)

• Deadlines for important documentation needed (financials, physicals, payments)
• Admissions deadlines and registration reminders
• Campus alerts for suspicious activity
• Weather alerts
• School closure canceled classes

 

Service-Based Businesses (Home Repair, Financial, Healthcare, Auto Repair)

• Repair status
• Credit fraud alerts
• Appointment reminders
• Product recall alerts
• Customer feedback surveys
• Personalized marketing messages

 

Human Resources (Recruiters, Training, Compensation)

• Employee benefits deadlines
• Company or location closures
• Important events
• Building fires and hazards
• Company announcements

 

How to Choose the Right Solution for Your Text Message Alert System

Now that you understand the importance of having a text message alert system and example of messages you can send, it’s time to understand some important features your potential text messaging alert provider should have.

 

Deliverability of Mass Text Message Alerts

If people don’t receive your text message alerts, why send them?

There are many text message software providers out there, however, many of them rely on third-party vendors to support their sending of text message alerts. The problem with that is the provider is entrusting their alerts to be sent through someone else, which means there can be a delay in the messages sent along with messages not being delivered at all.

When looking at a texting provider for your organization, make sure the platform does not use a third-party system to deliver their messages. Partner with a vendor that has their own system built in-house with their own API, which has benefits like higher and more reliable message delivery rate as well as lower costs per message.

 

Two-way Text Messaging Capabilities

It’s important to allow people to respond to your alerts. Many texting providers only offer one-way messaging, which means that recipients of the alert messages cannot respond to ask questions. Having a provider that can allow people to respond to alerts can greatly improve the experience and make sure there are important questions that are not left unanswered.

Additionally, when sending out mass text messages, short codes are often used, (short codes are special 5 or 6 digit phone numbers that allow for mass texting.) it is important to have a vendor that enables two-way communication through short codes as most providers only allow one-way text messages via short codes.

 

Multichannel Alerts

Although texting is by far the best way to reach people with alerts, it’s also important to communicate your message through different channels. Having a texting provider that enables you to not just send a text message but also different channels like email alerts, voice call alerts, and social media alerts can greatly improve the chances your recipients will get the alert. In today’s omnichannel world, it’s all about being there no matter which channel people choose to communicate with.

 

System Integrations

Time is of the essence when it comes to sending an alert or notification to contacts within your organization. By partnering with a texting provider that can integrate with your CRM or other internal systems, it enables you to make the process of sending alerts more efficient by quickly targeting the people who need to see the alert and sending it directly from the system, instead of having to go back and forth with different systems.

 

Summary

Every organization should think about how they communicate important notifications and emergency alerts to their customers, members, and employees. It’s crucial to have a plan and the right tools and processes in place to quickly send out alerts and texting is by far the quickest and most efficient way. As you think about your emergency texting alert plan, refer to the examples and areas to consider mentioned in this article to ensure everyone is getting your message.

 

Want to create an emergency text alert system for your organization? Try TrueDialog for Free Today!