In any emergency, communication is key both to advise people on how to stay safe as well as to minimise panic by giving people the correct information.
However, in order to deliver this information, businesses and governing bodies need to have access to the fastest and most reliable system for communicating to the public. SMS allows those who need such a system to send these emergency or weather updates in real-time.
Instant and direct communication
The reliance on mobile and high use across age, gender and location makes SMS the ideal channel to deliver emergency announcements. Text messaging transcends all group or location boundaries including different types of mobile phone, as even feature phones are able to receive the messages.
The speed and efficiency offered by SMS updates are unrivalled by any other communication method with 90% of messages read in just the first 3 minutes. The speed and reliability of SMS are just two of the reasons why SMS is already the channel of choice for weather alerts and status updates for a number of existing emergency services, including mountain rescue and safety.
A safe way to stay up to date
Just last year 250,000 people registered for a 999-text service which enabled them to contact the emergency services without speaking on the phone. In today’s modern society and with the reliance on mobile technology it is unsurprising that there has been such an uptake with many viewing the SMS option as a safer way to contact or be contacted during an emergency.
Uploading lists of numbers and contacts can be done in seconds, allowing you get the message out to large groups of existing contacts quickly. For the forward planners hoping to get ahead of the next storm or closure, getting people to sign up for an alerts service if you’re a school or employer couldn’t simpler, ask students, staff, parents and more to subscribe using a short code and keyword. Once registered you’ll have a complete list of people to contact when you have an emergency weather alert or closure notification.
