Many companies deploy a business model in which their employees are spread out across a wide geographic area. Staff at home and customer service businesses work in the field—addressing customer’s needs in their homes or business locations. For example, a residential dishwasher repairperson works in various homes, a commercial landscaper visits multiple businesses, and a scooter rental company works wherever they need to as they retrieve scooters when riders are finished.
Additionally, many larger businesses have retail locations outside of the corporate office, which can span multiple regions and time zones. In these organizations, it can be challenging to communicate effectively. Field and retail workers on the go can’t always check for email, which means communicating on this channel often causes delays. To share information with retail locations, communicating with all of them simultaneously via phone call isn’t practical. As a result, many organizations with distributed locations and staff are turning to text messaging to keep in touch.
Using a texting platform to communicate with employees in distributed locations enables a business to benefit from the advantages of text. Because texting is so intertwined in their everyday lives– with a native app for text on every mobile phone– employees, being human, are far more likely to check text than email. Businesses use text in a variety of ways, depending on their field and size.
Text Strategies for Field Communications
Text is ideal for communicating with employees spread across multiple locations. SMS messages can be sent to a single employee from a dispatch center, for example, or to custom groups, such as a specific branch location. Text platforms can partner with other services to send custom information to employees as well. One mobile scooter company cut down on inventory loss by integrating their business text platform with a forecasting service. When a report fitting certain criteria emerges, it triggers an SMS alert aimed at employees in the affected area and instructs them to pick up scooters and keep them out of the elements until the weather event passes—keeping their inventory intact.
Getting Started
There are many reasons for a business to choose text messaging as a primary form of communication. Text is by far the most convenient channel for field communication and can provide timely information to employees. If you are interested in discussing the benefits of text messaging in your business, contact us, or download our eBook to learn more.
