Do you feel disengaged from your customers?
With an overwhelming amount of work coming through the funnel, we bet there’s a serious disconnect with your customers more times than none.
You need to notify them of important updates and they need to reach you – sometimes at a moment’s notice – about their concerns, or incidents they see throughout your property.
If our suspicions are correct, then you’ll need to get a solution in place…quickly. You’re going to need to turn on a web-based text notification system ASAP.
By doing this, you’ll be able to empower your customers, your staff and yourself to handle issues and mitigate hazardous incidents while they’re occurring.
You don’t have time to waste – Let’s get to it.
How a Not-So-Complex Text Notification System Works
A text notification system isn’t complicated at all. They’re easy to learn, easy to operate and easy on your blood pressure.
Your communication process will start with a text message being sent into the system via a designated number together with a keyword.
Your text notification system is a time of need system. So, it’s important to display visible signage throughout the property for your customers to see.
If you don’t put signage in place or send a clear message to your customers about its availability, it won’t get used! What’s the point of having a system people don’t use?
Putting signage in place throughout your property is vital. Patrons will know the system exists and how to properly use it. Make the needed information available to your customers and – trust us – they’ll gladly begin to participate.
Don’t fret, your keyword is only associated with your property. Other properties will not be able to create the same keyword if they’re using the same solutions provider. Keywords are created specifically for a property…that’s the unspoken rule of text communication. (No unspoken rule, but it sounds cool if there were one.)
We like to role-play example scenarios, so without further ado…
A customer sends in a text message while witnessing loitering on your property. They’ll send a text message using your number and keyword (i.e. ISS). The message about the loitering will follow the keyword.
Check out what it might look like: “ISS there are 6 teenagers loitering by the maintenance storage door.”
Now the magic happens.
Act Quickly to Advance Your Operation’s Effectiveness
Managing a single or multiple properties can be unrelenting! A text communication solution is a quick fix to your management woes…like your loitering problems. Act quickly and you’ll reap the benefits faster than it’s taking us to write this article. OK, we’re exaggerating a tad...BUT we’re not too far off!
From the moment the loitering message is sent from your customer’s phone, to the closing of the incident, your system provides a serious collection of features and benefits solving your communication challenges. With a well-organized system in place, the effect will be operational efficiency, which translates into savings!
The benefits are direct, especially when using a solution that includes all of the following characteristics. Almost immediately after implementing your texting system your property will be empowered with these 6 gains.
- Messages color coded by status.
A solution starts with color coded messages giving staff a full picture of all messages by status so that nothing coming into the system gets overlooked. All messages can be prioritized and examined in real time to know which stage in the communication process they’re in.
For example, when the new loitering message comes into the system it will be labeled in ‘red’ as opposed to your pending messages that will appear in ‘yellow.’
- A conversation thread provides the ability to view text messages linked to one another.
Your system will generate a conversation thread based on your customers’ telephone number joined with their message. A thread will display the time and date of the conversation for historical reference and useful analysis. Let’s face it, no one has the time to pick through a queue of text messages to try and link a conversation together – what a waste of time!
Your conversation thread will also provide a visualization of the 2-way conversation in an organized format so all message flow can be reviewed for vital information. Now you’re getting big benefits from your system, because the thread replaces unclear information with hard facts.
- Customized response templates can be used when a message is received by the system.
Response templates give you the ability to respond to the message with a single click of the button directly from the centralized text panel. It allows staff to quickly request additional information about loiterers, based on insight from previous related incidents – with complete efficiency in mind.
For example, if the details of the loitering message do not provide your team with enough information, they can respond to the sender with a template requesting more information. This allows your team to approach the issue or incident appropriately.
- Create unlimited internal user groups to text important alerts or messages to staff.
Create messages in advance to be scheduled or send on-the-fly to staff members. Create a group so that you can easily communicate information in one step. Need to make sure that all your staff needs to know to do something next Tuesday and want to text the group? Perfect!
Loitering on your property is an issue and you have a security team in place. Send out a staff alert when there’s loitering on your property as soon as the first report comes in. Have the peace of mind to immediately initiate protocol.
- Reports can be generated with a few clicks.
The reporting and analytics feature gives you a method to study details of daily operations for your property. All messages and incidents are digitally stored in most web-based systems.
Reports can be produced for you to chew over the data. The here is that it lets you measure the data in an organized fashion…to prevent your head from spinning. Remember, it’s all about peace of mind. Using your analytics with purpose will help you achieve this.
- Create groups for sending property alerts to provide yourself with convenience for communicating specific information to customers.
Have customers opt in to receive your alerts by text or email. This process is fully automated...once the required data is entered into your account.
Automatically or manually send property updates, weather information, or news alerts directly to your customers. Text messaging is also the last to stop working during a cellular failure so it’s a great value when phone lines are down to be able to communicate.
Your customers can now be on the same page, all of the time. No surprises.
Do You Want Peace of Mind or to Operate ‘Down to the Wire’?
As a professional you’ll have all the tools necessary to apply a communication strategy. But every day that passes, you’re losing another race.
At any moment an incident could occur where the result puts a major stronghold on your property. Act now to realize these 6 benefits of using a text communication solution.
Be proactive in managing your property. Don’t make crucial decisions when you’re down to the wire.