How text can be your best companion for emergencies and helplines

SMS Text – Your Business Companion For Emergencies 

Emergencies are inevitable and can emerge at a moment’s notice. But a heads-up at the right time can save people from bearing repercussions. Nothing has made this more evident than COVID 19. So in this issue, we examine how organizations can scalably use SMS text for emergencies and helplines.

Organizations frequently come across emergencies and last-minute changes that they need to convey to stakeholders. To address this, they need to arm themselves with a prompt and reliable means of communication to tackle such situations constructively without panicking.

Use text to manage Emergency Communications effectively

During emergencies, organizations need a reliable and quick mode of sending information that can outreach a large volume of the audience in no time, and users will surely consume the content sent.

Best of all, texts are capable of resolving both conditions simultaneously.

The ubiquity of mobile phones has enabled texts to reach anywhere, anytime. It’s made text messages your best bet to disseminate information and advice in case of emergencies.

Let’s find out how texts can serve to be your valuable asset for emergency communications.

1) Information On Last-minute Cancellation

In many industries, last-minute cancellation is a run-of-the-mill scenario that often comes around. It can include cancellations of a fight, lecture game tournament, seminar, or any other event. 

The most challenging part is to apprise people of last-minute cancellations without causing inconvenience and wastage of time. With the help of text messages, one can outreach a large number of recipients in one fell swoop and inform them of last-minute cancellations and postponement, preventing them from a lot of chaos.

2) Rescheduling for Event Managers

Many open space events are entirely dependent on weather conditions. These may get postponed or rescheduled for some other day if severe weather is forecasted. 

In such a situation, organizers can use SMS to contact their audiences or clients. Within minutes, you could let them know the event won’t go as planned or may get rescheduled. 

Besides, SMS is your best companion to warn about a natural disaster like a tornado, cyclone so that residents or attendees can take preventive measures. 

3) Information & Announcements By The Human Resource Department

Now and again, organizations need to reach out to entire teams of employees, staff, or remote workers simultaneously. 

For time-sensitive information that needs immediate attention, an SMS is the best way to get closer to an employee’s notification bar.

HR teams could push reminders asking to submit documents, make special announcements, remind of the last date to register for any events or insurance enrollment. This way, you can convey helpful and accurate information at the right time without letting employees miss any urgent updates.

4) Alerts on Fire & Local Emergencies

Schools, college campuses, multi-story buildings, large businesses, or organizations can also avail of text benefits for emergency communications and disaster alerts.

In case of fire, it is necessary to make people aware of the situation before the situation deteriorates due to the spread of fire. No matter which corner of your place has caught fire, its impact can be disastrous.

With SMS, you can shoot emergency alerts in bulk (even to millions), apprising employees, staff, and students of a fire in the building or even in a neighboring structure, if that’s the case. 360 SMS does this by sending SMS from Salesforce reports.

Apart from this, the government bodies can circulate crucial information on local emergencies like roadblocks due to construction, power breakdown, transportation, or any other issue, using SMS.

5) Instant set-up, scale, and reliability for relief work by Non-Profits

Disaster relief organizations can afford to spend time onboarding each volunteer. Instead, the messaging platform would need to be pre-configured.

SMS is also the only mode of communication expected to work if internet connectivity gets affected, making them perfect for receiving distress messages.

Helpline responders also can’t hope to respond to each message individually. This is especially true if a large number of people are affected and asking for help. Instead, responders could automate conversational texting to qualify serious cases and redirect the less serious ones to voice instructions. 

Then, messages can be processed to filter all messages that have keywords (such as URGENT or HELP or SEVERE) reserved for serious cases. You can then directed these serious cases to voice support for more help. 

6) Out-of-the-box accessibility

Without a doubt, text is an effective means to send people emergency communications and keeping them well-informed. But text messages in emergencies can be a life-saver for the impaired ones.

Those with speech and or hearing problems can seek help contacting emergency numbers through text.

Bring emergency information in plain view with accessible SMS notifications   

Since recipients read 98% of the text messages within 3 minutes of receiving them, SMS secures the highest open rate. This makes SMS text the best fit for emergency communications and helplines. It’s a reliable and quick means to put out urgent information right in people’s hands through mobile devices. 

Even better, with pre-defined templates for various emergencies, your business can reach people much faster and much more conveniently, sidestepping the need for hand-written messages.

For more information on what 360 can do for emergency communications, helplines, lowering call volumes, and relief work, reach out to us at  info@360smsapp.com or contact us here.