How many people can you call in an emergency? Maybe 3 in a minute, and that’s if they answer quickly and it’s a short message. This form of communication might ensure the person receives the message, but it certainly restricts the number of people you can contact in a short space of time.What if hundreds or thousands of people needed to be warned in an emergency? Calling them all on the phone simply isn’t reasonably going to work. It never has, where the radio used to be the medium of choice, no longer are people tuning in. Emailing is also unlikely to be read in time, with an average response time of 90 minutes and that’s if they open it at all; only 22% of emails are opened.This is where SMS comes into its own. It is a highly opened medium and one that is quickly read; 98% open rate and read within 3 minutes. By sending bulk SMS in Australia you can quickly contact a bulk of people and be confident that they will have received the message.Here are just four examples of when an Australian bulk SMS service is the perfect emergency communication tool.School emergenciesTraditionally, letters are sent out to parents for bulk communication needs, this, however, is unacceptable in today’s technological society. There are far quicker and easier forms of communication available and when a serious matter occurs, like the recent series of threatening phone calls were made to a school last week, where parents did not receive any updates of this. It is for this reason that the Government of Victoria has made changes and adopted new strategies for dealing with emergencies, such as implementing an SMS strategy to be carried out in all emergency situations.Australia’s bushfire seasonAustralia is prone to bushfires. It’s an unfortunate occurrence but one that has to be addressed with the utmost importance. Lives have been lost due to poor warnings. It is imperative that as many people as possible are warned early and quickly when there are fire threats, and no tool comes close to SMS in regards to this. When a fire starts, residents in certain areas can be sent an SMS alert and be informed to activate their evacuation plans.Tsunami warningsAs recently as last Wednesday, 2nd March, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the south-west of Indonesia, initially causing concern for a Tsunami to hit the Australian shores, however, in this case The Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre said evacuations were not required. Regardless, it is not something that can be taken lightly. In the event that a Tsunami is a threat, residents of potentially affected areas need to be warned quickly to make every necessary arrangement to evacuate. Sending a bulk SMS message to all residents of these areas is by far the best medium for such warnings.Employee flood warningsCompanies often have to deal with emergencies, some of which can affect their staff. If this is the case, like with recent Queensland floods, sending a message to employees to inform them not to come into work, using a bulk SMS service, is the most effective way of providing staff with updates. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of other emergency situations that could benefit greatly from sending bulk SMS in Australia. The general criteria being the need to contact a lot of people in a short space of time and being confident that they read the message. If those three criterion are important to you, invest in an Australian bulk SMS platform. Obtain the mobile numbers you need and create an emergency database. In fact, many bulk SMS platforms, including Esendex’s, can send bulk SMS to landlines in the form of a voice call, so even if you can’t get hold of mobile phone numbers, landlines can be used as a back up.Don’t wait until an emergency situation occurs, be proactive and create an emergency plan now by calling us on 1300 764 946 to set up an account, or sign up for a free trial now.
