Despite your efforts to keep your business safe, it’s likely that your company will face a crisis at some point. In fact, 59% of business decision makers have experienced a crisis in their current or previous company, and 79% of leaders believe they are only a year away from a potential crisis.
In the age of social media where news can spread like wildfire, being prepared to handle a crisis is necessary to minimize the adverse effects on your company, shareholders, and customers. When creating your crisis management plan—especially in the cases of security-related incidents–including an SMS communication aspect can help prevent the crisis from worsening and facilitate recovery.
Why Use SMS Messaging for Crisis Management Communications?
When your company is facing a crisis, you want to ensure that your communications to customers and users are read as soon as possible. While only 20% of emails are read in the first minute, text messages will be seen by 90% of recipients in the same time. Additionally, over 4 billion people use SMS, so your messages will reach people through a channel you can be confident they use.
When to Use SMS for Crisis Management Communication
In the event of a data breach
If your company is breached and hackers have control of your data, SMS can be used to notify customers of the breach. In addition to informing customers, your business can also use SMS to send them a link to reset their passwords and turn on two-factor authentication to protect their unauthorized access.
To notify of service issues or outages
If your service or website is down and customers can’t access their data, your company can inform customers of the service disruption with SMS. Sending an SMS when the service is down and updating customers when it’s back up will save your customer service team the headache of dealing with panicked customers who can’t access their account.
To communicate a change or cancellation
Sometimes, factors out of your control will force you to cancel a big event or switch the location or time. SMS can be used to communicate to attendees the change or cancellation, and provide them with updated details about the event.
When an account has suspicious activity
There may be a time when your customers’ online accounts show suspicious activity, whether it’s a transaction in an unusual place or a login from outside of their normal location. SMS allows you to immediately alert the customer of the suspicious activity and provide them with next steps to protect their account in case the activity was fraudulent.
To send alerts about community dangers
Unfortunately, disasters can happen. Whether you’re dealing with a forest fire, severe weather event, or active shooter, SMS can be an invaluable tool for communicating with and keeping affected parties safe and informed. Use SMS to communicate emergency procedures, areas to avoid, safety measures, and updates on the situation as it unfolds.
To alert of product safety issues
If one of your products is causing a safety issue, don’t wait until the story hits the news to communicate with your customers. SMS messages containing information on the problem and what to do to resolve it can be sent to customers to minimize the negative effects associated with your product’s safety issue.
Telesign Can Help With Your Crisis Management Communication
No matter your business or industry, Telesign’s easy-to-integrate APIs can help in crisis management communication with timely, personalized information in the form of SMS alerts, reminders, notifications, invites, and other automated messages.
We offer global coverage in over 200 countries and 87 languages. Our system automatically formats phone numbers to ensure greater global delivery, and our direct-to-carrier routes allow for high delivery and conversion rates.
Are you ready to take control of your crisis management communication? Contact us today or sign up for a free trial.
