Tuesday, July 8, 2014
How Text Messages Can Save Lives - IRIO Blog Post
How Text Messages Can Save
Lives
The world is always unpredictable. From sudden, inclement
weather to deranged and violent terrorists, danger lurks around every corner
and can affect anyone, anywhere. What if there was a way to warn all the
residents in your community of a sudden storm or a criminal on the premises
instantly? There is.
IRIO’s text messaging platform allows you to send texts to
your residents instantly and from a computer or your own phone. When your
residents opt-in to receive text messages from your community, their phone
numbers are stored on the online IRIO platform, and they are able to receive
messages from your community. This is called our Text-2-Community service.
While the community can send messages about anything to the residents using
this product, the most important feature is the Emergency Text option.
In an instant, you can warn your entire community to take
cover from a tornado, to stay indoors away from a gunman, or evacuate the
premises because of a gas leak. Those are actual Emergency Text situations that
have been sent over the Text-2-Community platform. The emergency scenarios are
endless, and the Emergency Texts are 100% customizable to your immediate needs.
Plus, they send instantly. In a matter of seconds, your text could save
countless lives in your community. Unlike emails, which have an average 19%
open rate, texts have a 98% open rate and are delivered to individuals on a
device they check 150 times per day and keep with them constantly – their
mobile phone. Your residents are almost guaranteed to see and read your text
message – that’s pivotal when a threat to safety arises.
When a sudden emergency strikes, your warning needs to be
just as quick. It also needs to be easily accessed, easily understood, and sent
en masse. Text messaging covers all of these bases.
Another great feature of the IRIO platform is the ability to
send a text to your community from your personal phone. Incoming texts will
still show that it is from the community, but the person sending it could also
be taking cover from a dangerous situation at the same time. No more huddling
by a computer trying to send an email before a tornado touches down. No more
struggling to tell residents of a power outage without a computer to send an
email from. You can send a message warning residents to take precautionary
measures while doing the same. The Emergency Text feature
allows everyone to stay safe and still send and receive vital information.
What is an emergency situation you’ve used the Emergency
Text feature for? Tell us at sales@IRIO.com.
How Text Can Keep Your Residents Happy - IRIO Blog Post
How Text Can Keep Your
Residents Happy
Everyone knows happy customers are repeat customers. The
housing industry is no different. If your residents are happy, they’re more
likely to renew their leases, keep their community clean, and contribute to
society, which in this case is your apartment community.
IRIO’s Text-2-Community program allows you to send a text
message to all of your residents at once instantly. That means you can easily invite your
residents to community events and later remind them to join in on the fun.
One of our communities used Text-2-Community to invite
residents to a Lease Renew Party with pizza and games. First they sent out an
invite a few days before with the details, and on the afternoon of the party,
sent out another text saying the party was on and inviting residents to come right
then. This is a great example of
connecting with residents as well as building excitement. It’s important to
tell your residents ahead of time about any social activities going on so they
can plan to attend, but it’s also a great idea to remind them to come within a
couple hours of the event to drive some last minute attendance.
Another property used Text-2-Community to gauge interest on
possibly building an intramural field. By asking their residents, “Would an
intramural field rock?! Let us know by replying ‘YES’ or ‘NO,’” this community
was able to glean if adding the field would be a good idea and be used. They
were also smart and only asked a “yes” or “no” question. If the question had
been open-ended, it would have been very difficult to really judge how people
felt on the issue. On the other hand, it’s much easier and quicker to see if
your question got more positive or negative responses by counting yeses and
nos.
Text-2-Community offers our customers the ability to text a
small group or even an individual if they don’t want to text the entire
community. A community in Louisiana uses Text-2-Community to text residents who
have maintenance done in their homes and asks them to rate their service on a
scale of 1 to 5. What an ingenious way to show you care about your residents
and your customer service! By texting an individual about their maintenance
experience, the community is showing that they are aware of what their
employees are doing and care that they are performing well.
These are just a few easy ways to update your residents, keep
them informed, and let them know you care. Not to mention, it makes your
community more human and inviting. You can’t have a relationship with an
office, but when that office is given the friendly face of an unobtrusive text
message, that human element is added, and relationships are forged. Relationships
are the building blocks for loyal residents, and we want our customers to have
great resident bases.
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