Supporting Communities and Religious Groups
Textlocal is here to support you
Textlocal is here to support you
During the uncertainty that COVID-19 has brought, we understand that community groups and religious services have an even more vital role for their users. Many groups have had to change the way they offer their support, switching to online live streaming, video calls and of course mobile communications.
SMS is playing a huge part in helping groups of all sizes deliver the help their users need during this challenging period. To help your community keep in touch with those in need, we’re offering a free keyword on one of our short numbers to community and religious groups. This will play a vital role in building contact lists and ensuring users can request support or services when needed.
Here are some of the top use cases on how SMS can be used to support your service users.
Check-in with vulnerable people, those who are isolated or unable to get out and about. A daily message to let others know there is support available can really help to offer a social outlet where face-to-face contact isn’t possible. Sharing a weekly prayer or simply an uplifting update can make all the difference to people who are isolated.
Short links can direct people to online meetups, sharing the time and additional instructions. These links can be used to support one-to-one or group sessions for those with mental health concerns. Similarly, religious groups can share online services where attending places of worship isn’t possible.
SMS can support your group in gathering orders for those unable to shop, as well as coordinating the delivery of food, essentials and even medication. Resources such as minibuses or taxis can also be better directed and re-purposed to help with these deliveries. Using SMS, groups can better share workloads and ensure everyone receives the support they need.
Understand how your local community can help with a simple SMS survey. Volunteers can respond with the services they can help with, for example, dog walking, grocery shopping or simply a call to those feeling isolated. In much the same way, those who require more support can send in requests.
During times of uncertainty staying connected with those either more vulnerable or simply the members of your weekly class becomes even more important. Our virtual mobile numbers enable users to respond to messages instantly. Inbound SMS can be forwarded to your email, a group of users or your mobile phone to ensure two-way conversations are easy to uphold.
A keyword on a short code is the easiest way to set up communication with users, building your contact lists for further sends. By sharing something like, ‘Text MEET to 60777’ on community notice boards and social media pages, new users will be able to opt into your messages or volunteer their services.
Setting up your Textlocal account is the work of mere moments and with our dedicated team of experts still on hand to help, we’ll have you up and running in no time.
Every Textlocal account is assigned a free keyword automatically, we’ll be adding a second that resonates more with your group – just let us know what you’d like that to be. For existing Textlocal customers, we’ll get the keyword of your choice added to your current account.
Discover the broader benefits of SMS for your business. In our recent Why SMS guide, we explore the number of ways mobile messaging can improve customer satisfaction and response rates. Download our guide here to explore the potential of SMS today!
In our recent Back To Business guide, we explore the numerous ways mobile messaging can improve customer satisfaction and conversion rates and help your business get back to what you do best.
