Critical incidents often occur with little or no warning and need to be addressed immediately and professionally. In the event of a critical incident it is important to have the correct measures in place in order to keep all parties informed and updated with all details available in real time. Failure to communicate during a critical incident can create insecurity and deeper problems right across the board for businesses.
Luckily, there is software available to keep all the necessary people updated throughout all times of crisis within a business. Mass communication software can be used to segment key groups of people and either automate or send messages instantaneously using text, voice, email and more.
By subscribing to use a mass communication software program, you give your business a ready to use platform to keep all stakeholders updated during a critical incident. Software like this can work alongside your business continuity plan and help to get your business through a crisis with ease and efficiency unparalleled by other communication options.
How Does Mass Communication Software Work?
Although all software is different, mass communication software can work through a number of stages.
Import Key Contacts into Relevant Lists
Whether you’re manually entering email addresses and phone numbers or importing contacts from a spreadsheet or email service provider, it’s great to be able to segment your audiences so that key messages reach the correct people at the right time.
In the event of a crisis, information relevant to staff and stakeholders, may not be relevant for customers and may cause unnecessary mistrust or worry if leaked to the wrong audience. Therefore, creating relevant communications lists is important for getting the right messages to the right people.
Create a New Message or Select a Template
You may have a bank or pre-created templates to choose from that you can select and deliver to a segmented audience as and when you choose. Or, you may wish to create a new message to keep all your staff, stakeholders, and customers informed in the event of a crisis. Either way, implementing software that can deliver these messages to your key audiences with ease can save a lot of time and money in the event of a crisis.
Choose your Delivery Channels
What is the most relevant form of delivery to choose that will ensure that your message reaches its intended audience appropriately and professionally? Is social media a good idea? Will this leave you open to public scrutiny? Are you a tele communications business? In that case… Is a text or voice message more appropriate for your audience? Will a simple email suffice? Or is the crisis so important that it can’t wait for a key stakeholder to check their email and open up their message?
It’s up to you and your team to decide the relevant options with which to inform all parties in the event of a critical incident. Think of how each group will react to your crisis, consider how sensitive the information that you are releasing is before choosing the appropriate method of delivery.
Select Contacts and Schedule a Delivery Time
Is your site going to be offline for scheduled maintenance? You may want to schedule a few notification emails in the days leading up to the scheduled maintenance for all customers that will be affected by this disruption. With the right notification system, you can send messages to appropriate for staff or stakeholders so they know that this is scheduled way in advance.
With any message, it’s great to have the option to select a time and a delivery method to all recipients. If you have an offline premise, you can notify all customers of closures way in advance. Similarly. You also have the option to inform all relevant parties of a disruption to normality as the result of a crisis.
Use Software to Gain Insights and Streamline Your Future Communication Strategy
How many people opened your email and were informed about your crisis in time? How many people picked up your social media messages and were made aware of the issues that your business was going through? Did anybody open up the text message that you sent to inform them of your crisis?
Mass communication software often incorporates analytics so that you can view all this data and make informed decisions of what works and what doesn’t work effectively when communicating with all your audiences. You can use these insights to streamline your crisis communication strategy and implement this alongside your business continuity plan. This will ensure that all parties are informed efficiently and appropriately before, during, and after a crisis.
Your customers, staff, and stakeholders are the backbone of your business and livelihood. It’s important to ensure that they are fully updated on any crisis if it will cause then a problem in any form. Luckily, mass communication software providers recognize the importance of such messaging and spend time and money creating software that will help you communicate efficiently
So, whatever the emergency, mass communication software can be pre-programmed with all the necessary information to keep all people informed through the best channels that work for them. Mass communication software isn’t just useful in the event of a crisis! There are many reasons your company could benefit from subscribing to a mass communication software provider in order to enhance communications and strengthen the business as a whole.
In any type of business, communication is key! It’s always important to communicate with the people that keep your business going, those that care about what you sell and those who have invested time and money into your professional organization!
