We’ve heard all about the benefits of “being aware.” It’s often used as a compliment when someone is described as being very self-aware or when someone has a strong awareness of the world around them.
The same quality of awareness is beneficial to someone in your position where your No. 1 goal is to create the best possible experience for your guests. How can you do that? By having complete awareness of what goes on in your event space.
Due to the sheer size of your venue and number of guests, communication is at the heart of becoming more aware. And not just any type of communication—rapid communication. That’s where instant messaging software comes in.
With instant messaging software, you benefit from improved processes for emergency management, knowledge of what happens in your operation, access to past data, allocation of resources to deploy security and response teams, and improved accountability for your staff.
Take Full Control of Your Operation with the ACDA Principle™
To fully appreciate the benefits of instant messaging software, we need to take a step back to first recognize the broader operations landscape.
The ACDA Principle™, is a framework that encompasses every factor in managing and maintaining a well-run operation across 4 categories:
- Awareness: Before any team can respond to, manage, or resolve incidents, it must be aware of those incidents.
- Communication: Once you become aware of an incident, you must be able to communicate quickly and efficiently with affected guests, staff, first responders, and other parties.
- Documentation: Prompt, accurate documentation ensures vital information necessary for maximum mitigation is logged in a timely fashion and creates an auditable time-log of all corrective actions. Good documentation is the most important factor in any liability defense. Reliable documentation also provides the raw material necessary for data-driven continuous improvement of your facility.
- Analysis: All the documentation in the world is useless without analysis to transform that data into actionable insights. Good analysis helps your team to anticipate when and where incidents and guest requests are likely to occur in the future, where response protocols are falling short, and where there may be other opportunities for improving operational effectiveness and efficiency.
How Instant Messaging Software Makes the ACDA Principle™ Possible
In order to have greater awareness, communication, documentation, and analysis, you need a single platform where all relevant information is collected, promptly and accurately. In other words, the benefits of the ACDA Principle™ aren’t possible without the right instant messaging software.
You might assume this type of software is just about team chats, group chats, or automating time- and date-sensitive messages. In reality, instant messaging such as text messaging is an incredibly useful management tool, providing many benefits.
Improves Incident Awareness
You can’t solve the issues that you don’t know about. It might sound obvious, but without instant messaging software that allows your guests to quickly report an incident, that incident may not get resolved at all.
Leads to Faster Resolution
Improved incident awareness leads to faster resolution. Although we wish it could be otherwise, incidents are bound to occur in any event space, which means you need to have a process in place that quickly resolves the issue. Your guests might not be happy about the incident, but they will certainly be happy about your timely response.
Improves Guest Experience
What happens when you resolve incidents quickly? You improve the guest experience.
Instant messaging empowers guests. No one likes to feel helpless, as though there’s nothing they can do to resolve an issue. Putting the power of instant messaging in guest hands gives them the opportunity to quickly, and appropriately address an incident or other need in a safe and effective way.
Reduces Liability
Instant messaging software is more than just a communication tool. It’s also a data collection method that allows you to collect and organize every single conversation. Having documentation of communications can help you mitigate liability issues if they ever arise.
Provides Feedback
Every leader wants to find areas in their operations and teams in order to optimize processes. With a data collection function that compares performance, creates estimated response times, and manages resources, you can identify and fix those troublesome areas.
Implementing Instant Messaging Software
The number and variety of messaging apps have exploded over the years, which means people are turning to this form of communication in their personal and professional lives. For your organization, it means the difference between meeting your guests where they are versus going with outdated forms of communication.
Once you’re ready to implement text messaging software, you’re likely to have a long list of options just based on a simple Google search. So, to make things easier for you, here’s a list of necessary features in instant messaging software:
1. WhatsApp Integration
With 2.2 billion users on the platform (and projected to continue growing), WhatsApp integration is essential for any instant messaging software on your list. The sheer popularity of WhatsApp allows you to reach a much wider audience than if you were to communicate solely through standard SMS messaging.
2. Configurable Inboxes
Not all incident reports and communications are going to look the same. You need a way to configure your communication inboxes based on the type of incoming communication. By assigning short codes to different inboxes, you can ensure that each message is received by the person best equipped to address it.
3. Color-Coded Messages
Humans are highly visual creatures. That’s why we see color unlike many carnivores Color-coded messages serve a similar purpose to configurable inboxes: organization. Color codes should be based on the status of the communication so that no message is overlooked.
4. Response Templates
Not every message needs a unique response sent by your employees—the sheer number would overwhelm them to the point of burnout. Instant messaging software should always enable one-click configurable response templates that can be created and categorized by response type so that your staff can quickly respond to all types of questions, incidents, or requests in an efficient and sustainable way.
5. Conversation Thread History
All messages need to contain date and time stamps and grouped with other related messages in thread. Also, if communication gets forwarded for resolution to a specific user or linked to your incident management system, that information needs to be documented as well.
6. Event-Day Alerts
Your guests attend your event to take a break from the daily slog of work and responsibilities. Go the extra step for them with software that can send traffic, weather, parking, or news alerts to all or a specific segment of guests to rapidly notify them of relevant information.
7. Schedule Conversations
Quality instant messaging software always ensures you can schedule messages to be sent at a select date and time, or for a specific event or occasion.
Instant Messaging Software from 24/7 Software
Looking for a provent, and reliable instant messaging platform for your venue or facility operations? Our Conversations module empowers your guests to report incidents and provide feedback so that your operations team can answer questions, resolve issues, and handle requests as soon as they are reported—all on one comprehensive platform.
Ready to improve the guest experience and your operations? Request a demo today!
