As the UK finds itself in the throes of uncertainty during the Coronavirus outbreak, businesses are having to make quick and crucial decisions to protect the wellbeing of staff and customers, ensuring a level of business continuity.
As the situation and government advice changes day-to-day, even sometimes hour-to-hour, how are organisations sharing this crucial information with staff, customers and patients to ensure everyone’s safety?
As no business is exempt from the effects of this crisis, finding a way to broadcast messages quickly with confidence in delivery (and the message being read) is vital, and SMS is playing a huge part in making this happen. As a channel that is widely welcomed in day-to-day life as we receive dentist appointment reminders, school closure notifications in bad weather and bin collection dates from the council, text messages are now an expectation during times of uncertainty.
High delivery rates
Textlocal’s direct connections with UK networks gives the highest level of assurance that text messages will be delivered within seconds, unlike other grey route providers who cannot offer guaranteed delivery, let alone at the right time of day. This means that sharing amended opening times, temporary closures or cancellation alerts can both reassure and enable all recipients to adapt their plans with minimal inconvenience.
Pre-planning
Messenger also comes with a templates and scheduling feature, so messages can be pre-prepared and scheduled for the most effective time. This is ideal for informing staff not to come to the office, parents not to drop children at school or reminding patients not to visit their GP. As there continues to be questions over large scale events taking place, sometimes right up until the last minute, SMS can play a crucial role in contacting all attendees with relevant updates.
Sharing complete information
Don’t feel restricted to 160 characters either. Attachments and short links can be included in all text messages, so directing contacts to documents or web pages containing further advice and information is do-able at the same cost of a standard text message.
Two-way communications
National news has been extensive in reporting the strain on the NHS, particularly GP surgeries where critical staff resources are being occupied with phone calls to patients to asses symptoms and advise accordingly. Two-way SMS communication can be carried out directly from a Messenger account to a mobile phone, or even using Messenger’s Email to SMS feature. This type of communication can be done on a mass basis, saving huge amounts and time and via a channel that is native to all mobile devices, even the humble feature phone.
Start sending now
Textlocal’s Messenger platform has been built to meet the quick demands of businesses. A self-serve, pay-as-you-go platform means it fits within the fluidity of dynamic organisations. From deciding to adopt SMS communications to broadcasting a message to hundreds, or hundreds of thousands of contacts, the time-frame is minutes.
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