How Our Customers are Using AlertMedia During the COVID-19 Pandemic

How AlertMedia Is Helping Organizations Stay Proactive During the Pandemic

Right now, virtually every type of business is using AlertMedia to communicate with their employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. The ability to communicate back-and-forth with their employees has become an integral part of these organizations’ pandemic response plans. Essential businesses like hospitals, grocery stores, restaurants, and manufacturing facilities are sending and receiving two-way messages to manage operational changes and dispatch critical updates about the pandemic to their employees. As far as non-essential businesses go, they are using our software to communicate about office closures, reopenings, and performing wellness checks on their teams.

In just a few clicks, these organizations are sending two-way, multi-channel messages to their entire workforce. Admins are able to confirm which employees saw each message using the read receipt feature and view message responses in a well-organized platform—a feature that isn’t available with email and instant message platforms like Slack.

Whether it’s operational information regarding new safety precautions or updates about new testing facilities in their area, essential businesses are leveraging AlertMedia’s two-way messaging to keep their people safe, informed, and connected during this volatile situation.

Two-way messaging helps organizations stay connected with their people

While two-way messaging is the primary feature currently being used by AlertMedia customers, it isn’t the only one helping these organizations keep their people safe.

Recently, AlertMedia added robust threat content focused on the pandemic to our platform. Our customers are using this content every day to monitor the pandemic in the areas where their employees are working by tracking reported cases, government shelter in place regulations, and transportation restrictions. This critical insight allows our customers to be proactive in their approach to keeping their people safe–rather than simply reacting to the organizational effects inflicted by the virus.

Surveys provide organizations with a versatile way to solve problems

Another feature that is being used widely is the wellness-check survey. As the pandemic started, companies were checking on employees to see if they or a family member had traveled to certain areas affected by the virus.

Now, it is being used in a wide variety of ways including healthcare companies filling shifts, and tech companies checking in on employees working from home to assess their needs. These needs include wifi setup, home office arrangements, making sure their employees have proper childcare, and anything else their people might need to complete their work at home.

We continue to see companies checking in on the health of their essential employees out in the field. For example, several AlertMedia customers are leveraging surveys to ask employees that work in close proximity to one another if they are experiencing symptoms. If an employee responds to the survey that they are experiencing symptoms, the organization’s AlertMedia admin can then communicate back to that worker critical information like where the nearest testing facility is located and tell them to stay home—ensuring they are not risking the health and safety of their coworkers.

How AlertMedia Customers Are Elevating Employee Communication During the Pandemic

Metro Diner is using AlertMedia to communicate with furloughed employees

Metro Diner is one of 250 companies that contracted AlertMedia during the month of March to manage emergency communications in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Florida-based restaurant franchise is using AlertMedia to send daily text messages to their staff of nearly 5,000–most of whom have been furloughed due to locally mandated closures. These messages include content about how to file for unemployment, how to apply for grants, and how to take advantage of the many benefits still available to them.

“Everybody in any kind of crisis says, ‘communication, communication, communication,’” says Hugh Connerty, Co-Chairman of Metro Diner to Forbes. “And AlertMedia has been one way for us to do that.”

While Connerty sees AlertMedia as an opportunity to send updates and critical information to his dispersed workers, that’s not all he aims to accomplish with the platform. He also views it as a way to remain engaged with the people that make his company successful and to help improve morale at a time when uncertainty is on everyone’s minds. He sent the following message the first day Metro Diner began using AlertMedia: “Thank you again for everything you are doing to get through this — we will get through this together.”

PHI Air Medical is ensuring the safety and well-being of their staff with AlertMedia

PHI Air Medical is the leading air ambulance provider across the United States. They safely transport more than 30,000 patients each year, operating out of more than 65 bases across the United States. At each base, they maintain a dedicated crew of pilots, nurses, and communications specialists.

Their commitment to safety is made apparent in their mission statement: “PHI Air Medical’s mission is to maintain the highest level of safety while delivering measurable benefits to our customers, our employees, our investors and the communities we serve.”

The Phoenix-based organization is using AlertMedia to further this mission during the COVID-19 pandemic–ensuring their employees are safe before, during, and after emergency transports.

“We utilize AlertMedia on a daily basis to reach out to our employees who have come in contact with a confirmed or potentially affected COVID-19 patient,” Brad Olson, PHI’s Emergency Operations Manager told Crunchbase. “We then send a notification to monitor each employee for 14 days after the transport to make sure they are not experiencing any adverse effects from the transport. If there is an issue that our management needs to know about, we can quickly notify them through AlertMedia.”

Why Demand for Effective Emergency Communications Is Growing

While we didn’t initially create our emergency communications system for a global pandemic or health crisis like COVID-19, we realized we had a part to play when nearly 250 new customers joined in March 2020.

“A global pandemic was not what we built it for, but this was a compelling enough event for customers to decide they needed us, and our team is working harder than ever to help them,” said AlertMedia CEO Brian Cruver.

This increase in demand and usage prompted our long-time investors–JMI Equity, Next Coast Ventures, and Silverton Partners–to quickly close a $15 million round of funding.

“It’s refreshing to see a company like AlertMedia thrive financially while also helping millions of people every day,” said Bob Nye, General Partner at JMI Equity. “From an investment standpoint, that’s exactly what we want to accomplish–to support an organization that not only has huge potential for growth and a product that is in high demand, but also one that makes it their every day mission to save lives.“

AlertMedia Will Continue to Invest in Our Customers

As a customer-first organization, we plan to use this new round of funding to accelerate product innovation and continue to support existing customers with free, dedicated, 1:1 customer support.

This investment allows AlertMedia to continue to develop the best-in-class employee communications software for our customers like Walmart, DHL, Healthgrades, and Greyhound–helping them keep their people safe, informed, and connected during emergencies.

Our products are made to help organizations communicate during critical events–from approaching hurricanes to global pandemics and everything in between. That’s what separates AlertMedia from standard communications channels and that’s why we’re able to help so many organizations navigate this volatile situation.

AlertMedia’s mission since day one has been to save lives and minimize loss by facilitating timely communications when an emergency threatens personal safety. We are extremely lucky our software and our team can help organizations and their people during this pandemic. If you need a way to communicate with your people during the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re ready and able to help.