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Efficient and Nearly
Instantaneous Communication |
Text messaging has come into its own, growing from essentially a toy young people use to chat to a potentially life-saving tool in emergencies.
An increasing number of colleges, businesses and even communities are adopting text messaging, or "texting," as a way to alert large numbers of people about impending danger.
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Business Uses for Texting |
Increasingly, businesses are text messaging with their customers and clients. Here are six ways it is used as a flexible communication system:
1. Travel agencies send out information about events, promotions and airline schedule changes.
2. Internet Service Providers use texting to notify engineers when systems go down.
3. Recruitment agencies send messages about potential temporary work.
4. Doctors, dentists, and other businesses that operate on an appointment basis, send automatic text reminders. Clients and patients can also postpone or reschedule using text.
5. Auto body shops text customers when their cars are ready.
6. Charities use texting to send out alerts about fundraising activities or to allow individuals to make pledges. |
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| During the recent horrific shootings at Virginia Tech University, emergency communications included e-mail but not cell phone text messages. While observers debate whether university officials could have more quickly closed the campus and canceled classes, it is clear is that the institution lacked a means of quickly and efficiently alerting approximately 33,000 students, staff and faculty to an emergency.
As a result, increasing numbers of organizations, including businesses, are headed back to the drawing board, reviewing their safety notification procedures and considering text messaging as an integral part of the process.
An example of how text messaging can be used in emergencies comes from the University of Texas at Austin. Last January, on the eve of an ice storm, university officials sent an urgent message to all its students, staff and faculty warning them to stay home.
The university's alert was comprehensive and included text messages on cell phones, e-mails on computers and messages on staff pagers. The university also issued the warning on local radio and TV stations.
Other educational institutions that have implemented text-messaging systems include the University of Southern California, Penn State, Florida State University, and the University of Cincinnati.
Businesses have also been heeding the need for quick, efficient notifications of emergencies. For example, APS Healthcare Inc., a health management service provider in Silver Spring, MD, and ATA Engineering Inc., an engineering test company in San Diego, CA, both use an alert system that costs them about $9,500 a year to send unlimited messages to 10,000 users via e-mail, cell phones, pagers and the Internet.
In addition, local communities are turning to text messaging. Residents in Westchester County New York can opt into a text message alert system that is activated in cases of emergencies. On a more macro governmental scale, the Department of Homeland Security is reportedly looking into a text messaging system to warn citizens nationwide of potential terror threats.
The advantage of warning individuals using a texting system is that the messages arrive on cell phones, which means a large number of people have quick and easy access to the alerts. In fact, as of the end of February 2006, there were an estimated 204 million cell phone users in the U.S., more than 65 percent of the total population.
The consensus is growing that texting may be the most efficient method of disseminating information. Whether on their way to work or class, out to lunch or at home, people tend to have their cell phones close at hand.
Perhaps most importantly, text messages are often able to get through to cell phones during power outages or when landline and mobile networks are overloaded, which happened after Hurricane Katrina and on 9/11.
When it comes to emergency text messaging, the systems generally work this way:
Individual organizations generally establish protocols about what constitutes an emergency.
The protocols are distributed to everyone affected so they know what to expect.
Participants are generally given the option of opting in or out of the network.
Messages tend to be limited to no more than 160 characters so warnings or announcements are concise. And since the message size is small, it requires significantly less bandwidth than a cell phone conversation.
Message emergency notification systems are administered by a growing number of wireless providers. While some cater only to large educational institutions or businesses, there are several that serve small and medium size organizations as well. Some messaging service providers charge on a per message basis, while others charge a flat fee based upon the number of message recipients.
The next logical step beyond utilizing text messaging as a business emerging warning system is to leverage the technology in daily business use. Whether you want to send updates about events, meetings or deadlines, text messages are instantaneous and generally gain more attention than messages in crowded e-mail in-boxes. (See right-hand box above for other ways that businesses are using the technology.)
Text messaging is a part of daily life and as a result, it might be wise for your business to consider it during emergencies and as part of your customer service and in-house communication systems.
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