In business speed is incredibly important but getting information to your teams in a clear, effective manner is a major challenge and are presented with dozens of high-tech communication channels with which to manage teams.
The good news is that with the boom in mobile technology a lot of businesses are using ‘ancient’ tech to ensure their people receive information quicker and more reliably than before.
What is the ‘old school’ tech? Text messaging.
It’s evolved since the 90’s and is commonly referred to as online SMS messaging (in the context of business) and it allows you to send SMS message from any device that has an internet connection.
The power of text messaging is that virtually everyone has a mobile phone and almost everyone reads their text messages in fact 97% of people open and read their SMS messages making this a powerful way to reach an person or groups of people to send instructions or deliver fast updates so everyone can pivot if need be.
How are businesses using SMS?
- Broadcast Safety or Weather Contingencies
In business things happen that were not anticipated and they happen regularly enough that you need a system in place that can reduce the amount of time from an unforeseen event happening and making changes to adapt and/or resolve that situation.
For example, if you’re a freighting company and weather conditions become unsafe for your drivers’ team or the weather is changing quickly then you can send out real-time updates while conditions are changing.
- Installation of products
Logistics has a lot a moving parts and the having the ability to send a quick text message update to your drivers or teams about any delays or destination updates can be worth tens of thousands of dollars (or more) annually as well as reduced frustration, internal conflicts and wasted time.
- Segment Field Teams for Targeted Communications
The great things about online text messaging is that you can create groups which means you can segment your teams based on their roles. This means that you can quickly select the team that you want to message, write the text and hit the send button, seconds later everyone on that team is updated.
- Relay Industry News
SMS text messaging is a useful way to alert your teams about important updates like housekeeping notifications, changes to rules or requirements, reminders about vehicle or maintenance. Since texting has a such a high open and read rate it can easily grab their attention and get them to take action.
- Inform on Technology Updates
Today, most trucks and transport fleets are highly connected for example, software for navigation, digital logging devices, ELD’s are now heavily integrated into the freighting industry. However, these devices and software’s are highly complex in nature and so it doesn’t take much to break the system.
A simple update error can render that software useless until resolved causing a lot of unnecessary delays and confusion.
SMS text messaging is nowhere near as complex, there’s not updates, or a confusing interface to deal with, and no steep learning curve.