Imagine it's a city-wide emergency. Perhaps a flash flood, forest fire, or active shooter. More and more emergency organizations are now including an emergency text messaging service, and for good reason.
Without an emergency text messaging service, how are you going to get in touch with all residents when time is of the essence?
During an emergency, there is nothing worse than wasting time. Imagine having to call every resident individually or using a phone tree to inform everyone of an ongoing emergency. By the time you get to the end, the information you're distributing is likely out-dated.
Rather than waste precious time, choosing to incorporate an emergency text messaging service allows you to send up-to-date information and alerts to contacts with just a few clicks of a mouse.
Still not convinced? Here are the top five benefits of leveraging the power of text messaging for emergency alerts:
Utilize pre-created messages
Instead of needing to spend time crafting a text message when the occasion arises, you can save time by having pre-written messages ready to go within the text message service. This allows you to think of every possible scenario ahead of time and then launch pre-written content when needed.
Have higher open rates
Usually, this statistic is really popular in the marketing world, but it's also very important for emergency communication. Pretty much all text messages are opened within the first three minutes of being received (98% to be exact), making an emergency text messaging service a great way to get your message into the right hands quickly.
Get the information you need quickly
Need to gather information from the field, but maybe it's not safe enough to call or there's too much going on? Send first responders simple yes or no questions straight to their phones that only need a quick text back to respond. You're still able to gather the information you need without disrupting what's happening in the field.
Know who saw your message
Especially in an emergency situation, it is very important that you know who has seen your message. Leverage an emergency text messaging service that allows you to require contacts to confirm they received your message. This way, you know exactly who has seen it and who needs to be contacted again.
Have an emergency text messaging service as part of a larger platform
As great as text messaging is for emergency alerting, it's still important to leverage a platform that has access to multiple channels of communication. In an emergency, you never know what can happen so it is important not to rely on a singular channel.
SimplyCast's emergency communication platform, EmergHub, includes an emergency text messaging service component, but also allows you to connect over voice, email, and fax as well. Leverage the Alerts tool to send mass notifications, collect information from the field through Live Survey, gather suitable responders to an incident with Recall — and more! The best part? You can leverage the power and immediacy of text messages as needs, and use other channels when they are better suited.
Learn more about EmergHub and all its capabilities, or contact us to learn more!
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