How to Solve Common Business Problems With Mass Communication Software

Can Better Communication Elevate the Entire Business?

As a business owner or leader, you’re likely faced with quite a few day-to-day challenges that are up to you to resolve. What if something as simple as a mass communication system could allow you to solve some of your biggest problems?

It may seem obvious, but communication is crucial when it comes to running a business. One study revealed that “companies with highly effective communication practices enjoy 47 percent higher total return rates to shareholders compared with firms that are least effective at communicating.” Sadly, many organizations lack modern technology they need to deliver “highly effective communications” across their organization.

We think it’s worth taking a look at a different aspect of communication–one you might not have stopped to consider. When people think of mass communication software, they often think of using the software to communicate during an emergency. Sure, that’s a major feature of this type of software, but there are other problems that mass communication software can help solve.

In this blog post, we’ve outlined some of the biggest problems mass communications software can address.

4 Key Business Benefits of Mass Communication Software

Let’s walk through a few situations where you can use mass communications to solve these common pain points.

1. A safe environment

This one is the most straightforward. Organizations must provide a safe working environment for every employee at every location. An entire government agency exists for this sole purpose. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) sets forth regulations companies must follow to keep employees safe, not only within the confines of the company buildings, but wherever employees must travel in order to perform their work duties—such as construction sites, warehouses, and company vehicles. Several of the most common OSHA violations involve a failure to adequately communicate safety risks to employees.

Your organization may be adept at securing the work environment and adhering to these guidelines, but what about the outside forces that are less predictable? This is where the mass communication system we often think of comes into play.

When there is an emergency like a natural disaster, weather-related incident, or power outage, seconds count. Whether you have employees in one location or dispersed across the globe, it’s important to have a system in place to be able to communicate with them immediately. They are relying on you to give them timely instructions, updates, and resources.

A mass communication system is the ideal solution to reach your entire workforce or specific groups of people that are in harm’s way. It can give your organization’s leaders and administrators a quick, secure, and real-time way to notify and receive critical information. You can also communicate via multiple channels such as text, voice call, app notification, desktop takeover, social media, Slack, and custom applications–to ensure your message gets through.

2. Improved efficiencies

Poor internal communications cost businesses $26,041 per employee per year in lost efficiency. Whether you’re a small company or a global organization, that’s a lot of money and productivity down the drain. Inefficiencies are always bad, but when you’re talking about communication, they are especially costly.

It may be surprising to learn that mass communication software isn’t just for emergencies. In fact, a modern mass communication software can be a perfect solution for managing logistics and operations. Many companies use AlertMedia to streamline their shift scheduling; others use the software to solve problems of inefficiency in their supply chain, notifying the relevant employees when a truck enters the loading bay.

When a company has a workforce of employees working in shifts or in the field, it can be challenging to coordinate schedules, obtain and dispatch real-time information and changes, and ensure everyone is in the right place at the right time. It can drain resources and waste time to manually perform all of these duties.

Mass communication software can automate these duties and bring much greater efficiency to these processes. It enables managers and dispatchers to efficiently communicate with technicians, drivers, and shift workers–assigning jobs, arranging schedules, and verifying locations. This can speed up service and product delivery, while ensuring shifts are always covered.

3. Reduced costs

Costs are always top of mind for organizations. In fact, a Gartner survey reveals that 62% of CFO’s are planning sales, general, and administrative cuts this year. A lean organization is more nimble and competitive than those which squander resources or fail to monitor expenses. Any cost savings a company can eke out will benefit not only its bottom line, but also its ability to respond to market demand.

Mass communication can also help to solve this problem. Because it automates many manual processes, less labor is required to perform such tasks–labor that can be directed elsewhere to more profitable duties.

Automation also lowers risks, which in turn, lowers costs. “To err is human” is an oft-cited quote that may make us feel a little better when we make a mistake. But the reality is, errors are costly. Thankfully, they can be drastically reduced through automation. Mass communication software automates many of the duties related to logistics, scheduling, and communications, saving money while reducing the risk of a mistake.

4. Effective communication

Insufficient communication during times of change has been identified as causing a 42 percent increase in misconduct. Furthermore, only 66 percent of employees open emails from their companies. And when it comes to in-person communication, 47 percent believe meetings are a waste of time. What do these statistics prove? Most companies are bad at internal communication. To their credit though, it’s not easy to know how to communicate with employees in a way that will get their attention and give them the information they need.

What is an organization supposed to do if it wants to engage with its employees on a large scale? If the studies above are any indication, it likely isn’t going to be through just email or meetings. While these channels have their place, they aren’t comprehensive enough in today’s mobile world to ensure everyone is, quite literally, getting the message.

Often, the downfall of internal communications is one of two things: Either the wrong messaging is being delivered or the right messaging isn’t reaching its intended audience. Mass communication software is the ideal tool to ensure corporate, divisional, and team messaging is received loud and clear.

How to Get Started

The best emergency notification software is easy-to-use, with simple interfaces that don’t require an IT background to understand. To send a message, the administrator will either use a pre-written message or craft a custom message based on the circumstance. Next, they choose the delivery channel—how they want their people to receive the message. Then, they decide who they want to receive the message. Those recipients should also be able to respond to any message you send them. After all, effective communication requires all parties to be involved.

Finally, the best software will provide metrics so organizations can gauge the effectiveness of their messaging, open rates, and response types. Some companies use surveys, also delivered through the mass communication software, to poll employees on how well the system worked, suggested improvements, and additional helpful feedback. This circle of communication goes a long way in engaging employees and giving them a voice.

Mass communication software may not solve all of the organization’s biggest problems. But if you combine it with your other internal systems, it can provide measurable value. The role of your organization is to provide the technology and resources your people need to be effective and productive. Give them a tool where they can interact with those in command quickly, in real-time, and on any device. It will give them peace of mind and will give your company a competitive advantage.