SENDING SMS ALERTS

Easily add feature rich SMS communications
to you mass notification solution

Why sending SMS alerts is
a notification channel of choice

When there is a need to send and even receive critical communications SMS alerts are a preferred choice. SMS is one of the quickest, intrusive and easiest channels to use. For younger generations it is certainly the preferred and often primary form of communication over more convention channels such as email – growing in popularity in older generations too.

Perhaps of equal importance is the accepted conversational etiquette associated with SMS alerts and messages – direct and to the point. A well-crafted and concise message can ensure an important message is understood instantly. Better yet it is delivered directly to a device that is always close to hand.

To understand just how effective text messaging is, recent studies show that SMS messages have a 98% open rate – 90% of which are read within 3 minutes of receipt!

How SMS alerts are used across industry sectors

At a glance

Retail

Delivery notifications

Order notifications

Surveys

Promotions

Healthcare

Appointment reminders

Prescription reminders

Patient transport

Health alerts

Education

Weather alerts

Safeguarding alerts

Homework/exam reminders

School events

Finance

Account alerts

Application status updates

Statement alerts

Utilities

Scheduled maintenance alerts

Meter readings

Statement alerts

Integrating an SMS alert capability into your solution
key considerations

Without doubt SMS alerts and notifications bring many benefits. However in the context of delivering critical notifications, careful consideration of a number of factors will ensure vast volumes of messages are sent, quickly; that the message sent conveys and contains all the key elements required to ensure a message is seen, believed and acted upon; that you can schedule messages – dates, time, frequency; and finally you can monitor the delivery status – trackable SMS alerts. Using the simple Alerting Hub API all these factors are addressed to meet the specific requirements of your solution.

Trackable SMS alerts

For an SMS alert message to have maximum impact and generate the desired response, a number of different message components may need to be included. Through Alerting Hub’s API you can incorporate all of them into your solution.

Sender ID – Instil confidence in respondents that the message being received is genuine and deserves attention.
Multi-part message – Enable longer messages to be concatenated rather than split into multiple SMS messages
Reply address – Where it is vital that a recipient provides confirmation that they are okay or perhaps require help a reply address (mobile number) can be provided.
Embedded URLs – include links to event specific landing pages, where recipients can gain further information and guidance.
Embedded phone number – Include phone numbers within the message to enable recipients to call for assistance.

Volume & speed of delivery

Alerting Hub partners with a number of SMS service providers to ensure messages are sent out as quickly as possible – at a minimum you can expect to send 100k messages within a 5-minute time frame.

Scheduling mass outbound calls

The ability to schedule when an SMS alert is sent brings greater flexibility to your solutions and helps safeguard against alerts being sent by mistake. Using the Alerting Hub API you have a number of options.

Immediate – the system administrator either creates a message from scratch or selects from a template – and then hits the send button.
Confirmation – to help ensure messages aren’t sent in error, scheduling is incorporated into the process enabling a “Are you sure you want to send this” request prior to the system administrator confirming the message is to be sent.
Scheduled – An SMS message can be schedule to go out on a particular day, time or date. In the event of a hazard – an incoming storm – a system administrator can create the alert and then choose when the alerts are sent. Different alerts being sent according to where the storm is. Alternatively it enables the sending of prescription reminders – what should be taken, when and quantity.
Cancellation of scheduled alert – finally you need the ability to cancel a scheduled alert

Monitoring the delivery status of SMS alerts

In the event of an emergency it is critical that from the point a message is sent out that you can monitor the delivery status of each message to every designated recipient. In this instance trackable SMS alerts. The system can then trigger follow-on actions in the event a message doesn’t get through or a recipient hasn’t confirmed that they are ok. With Alerting Hub this data can be gleaned in two ways – polled or real-time (event driven)

Event driven – notification of when something has happened (real time) – we will report on every state change on every message sent – delivered to a designated end point such as a web server
Polled – at any point you can poll for updates on delivery/task completions

Integrate SMS into a multi channel alerting solution

SMS alerts and notifications bring many advantages to a mass notification system, but sending alerts through a number of different channels is often the best way to ensure the message gets through. For this reason it is important to use a platform that has access to multiple channels of communication. Alerting Hub can support alerts being sent via SMS, Voice, email and more.

Full capability

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