April 17, 2018 Improve Employee Safety with SMS Alerts

When a crisis occurs, immediate communication is vital. With a 90% read rate within 3 minutes, see how a text can assure everyone’s safety.

When you run a big company, the safety of your employees and customers is vital to your success. While emergencies aren’t going to happen every day, you have to be prepared for when they occur. With response strategies in place and the ability to communication in an instant through SMS, you will be able to better manage each crisis as it occurs. When you want to maximize your reach during a crisis, it’s time to discover how SMS can help you and your company.

With 90% of text messages read within three minutes, it is the fastest way to reach people in the event of an emergency. While an email or phone call might work, the read rate alone of emails is low. Why leave the safety of your employees and customers to chance? When you implement text messaging to reach out to your employees and customers, you will improve security and safety in the ways below.

Get Instant Answers After Sending a Critical Alert

You can’t guarantee that your employees are going to have access to a computer during an emergency. Chances are higher that your employees or customers are going to have a mobile device nearby. More than 90% of adults have a smartphone or other mobile device close by constantly, making text messaging the most consistent way to reach out in an emergency. Keep your phone lines free and quickly notify your employees during a crisis through SMS in order to confirm everyone’s safety. For individuals you don’t hear back from, you can use phones and email as a secondary form of communication. You will be able to identify who needs help and who is safe almost instantly after sending out a text blast.

Discuss Security Problems or Concerns

When the safety and well-being of your employees is at risk, your employees may feel unsafe or nervous. You can use text messaging to share information and help reduce the panic that can occur during an emergency. If your employees are feeling calm, they are going to be more helpful during the emergency. Ask questions during the crisis to develop a response plan. When you have information about what is going on, you can share this information with those who may be at risk. In addition, you’ll be able to answer questions if you have gathered enough information about the situation.

Give Advice While People are On the Move

When you need to warn employees or customers who are on the move, mobile devices are the only way to consistently stay in touch. For example, if you need to tell everyone to shelter in place because of a security risk, you want everyone to have this information fast. If the danger becomes more prominent in one area over another, you want those who are not in immediate danger to know how to escape the danger completely. Consider an event where there is an active shooter in your building, and you can see how a constant stream of two-way communication can be essential to everyone’s safety.

Use Automated Technology to Improve Security

You can set up your text messaging system to respond to specific events automatically. For example, if there is a fire in the building, you can automatically send out a text blast that discusses fire evacuation protocols. It is likely that you already have specific responses for a variety of disasters that can strike at any time. Use technology to alert your customers or employees faster, and this will help improve the safety of everyone involved. Once automation sends out a text blast, two-way communication can begin case by case to help those who may be panicked or in need of additional help.

Inform Everyone During an Emergency

Once a text blast is sent out, you can ask for everyone to check in with a text back. If you don’t hear from all of your employees, you will be able to identify quickly who is at risk. When you don’t want to leave anyone behind, text messaging is going to give the ability to reach the largest group possible. While you can also make a call in an effort to reach missing employees, the most likely response is going to come through a text message.

Stay focused during an emergency by implementing a response plan. Use SMS to send out critical alerts and keep track of everyone involved. Send out updates through text messaging about what is going on and keep everyone as safe as possible while you manage the crisis.

Author Biography:
Joel Lee
Joel Lee is the SEO marketing specialist at Trumpia, which earned a reputation as the most complete SMS solution including user-friendly user interface and API for mobile engagement, Smart Targeting, advanced automation, enterprise, and cross-channel features for both mass texting and landline texting use cases.

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