“Today has been a nightmare,” you whisper to yourself right before you take a deep breath.
It’s Tuesday, and right after the holiday weekend.
“Did we run a marathon today,” you ask your operations manager sarcastically.
You’re both exhausted from today’s crisis management.
“The calls and complaints won’t end,” Terri tells you.
Several incidents took place that you’re only learning about now.
Too many incidents.
This lack of awareness is unacceptable, but you can’t figure out how to counter this issue.
You run through what you know:
- We have plenty of resources
- We use an incident management system
- All personnel arrive on-scene quickly
You continue to talk through your process to figure out the issue.
You know something is missing.
“How do we increase our awareness of these incidents,” you turn and ask Terri.
But, Terri doesn’t answer because she’s being scolded through the phone by an unhappy customer.
“Do you guys live in the 90s? Why don’t you get a text messaging software already?”
Terri gives you a look.
“That’s it,” she exclaims.
Your current operation is limited.
Although you may have all the tools to respond to issues and incidents efficiently, incidents and customer issues simply may not be coming into your system.
Think about how information currently gets reported and realize that your customers may not have a convenient way to communicate information to you while on your property.
Hence the surge of complaints after the fact.
You need to use text communication to increase your awareness.
Proactive operations use these solutions to help mitigate incidents as they occur.
Are you ready to be proactive?
You're at a Disadvantage Without Text Communication
You look at your response time reports each evening.
Things look good.
Since implementing your incident management system, your employees are communicating and getting to incidents quicker than before you implemented this advanced technology.
Here’s the problem, though: you can’t manage what you don’t know exists.
It puts you at a disadvantage.
Yes, you’re responding efficiently to the incidents that do come into the incident management system.
But, that’s not everything that’s occurring, is it?
You’re not aware of everything that slips through the cracks because you have a deficiency in your operation.
Your ‘awareness’ is either nonexistent or limited.
You find out about issues or incidents the next morning.
But it’s already too late, right?
- Do you see a decline in customers on your property?
- Do you see an increase in complaint calls?
- How do your loyal customers respond?
- How does this affect your bottom line?
- Does your boss know there’s a solution to solve this that you’re not using?
You’re at an acute disadvantage because you’re unaware of what’s happening on your property:
- A customer saw your staff stealing items
- Disgruntled employees are making a scene
- Paper towels are running low in the restrooms
- Smoking takes place on your property
Do these scenarios sound familiar?
If not, that’s because they’re occurring and you’re not aware of any of it!
We’re sure the list goes on and on too.
This problem can be solved.
It needs to change.
You must implement a text alert system to increase your awareness.
More Eyes Enhances Proactive Operations
Yes, your staffing levels are acceptable.
You have enough security personnel to manage their posts.
Your operations center personnel oversees the incident management process, and they’re excellent at ensuring everyone responds to incidents efficiently.
You’ve got everything you need to manage your issues and incidents.
But, now you need something more.
You need to have a proactive solution.
Implement text communication, which lets you take advantage of all the eyes on your property.
That’s right; now your customers add to the safety and security of your property.
You empower them to contribute to the safety of their family and others.
Text communication helps you, your staff, and customers mitigate incidents that occur on your property as they are happening.
This ability shouldn’t be taken lightly either.
Even better is the cost of these solutions are minimal to implement compared to the cost of running your operation or struggling with liability suits because of missed issues or incidents.
Save time and money, but also understand the long-term impact using an easy-to-use solution has on your operation.
A Simple Process for Increased Awareness
Implement the text system, display signage throughout your property, and watch how quickly the messages start rolling into your software:
- A customer sends a text message with vital information and location details of an incident happening now: “Person fell near the front”
- The color-coded visual representation of every message by status (new, pending, closed) lets your team respond to the high priority issue without delay.
- Your team sends the incident to your incident management system, identifies appropriate resources, and communicates it to the need-to-know responders.
The chances are that you would have never known about this incident prior.
Proactive Operations understand how powerful these solutions are.
But, you must realize that they are only as effective as the teams using them.
This point is critical.
Your team must be determined to deliver an exceptional experience for customers.
If they drop the ball, then the whole operation suffers.
- Text messages are overlooked
- Incidents slip through the cracks
- Employees don’t do their job and don’t get caught
- Upset customers call and complain
- Your boss blames you for everything
You don’t want or need this adverse ripple effect.
You need Proactive Operations.
A texting solution is your answer.
(Do you need ideas on how to promote your system to customers? We’ve put together a comprehensive eBook on all the ways you can promote your system, which you can access here.)
Analysis Can Help You Improve & Optimize
We value data.
So, we can never stress enough the importance of analyzing data to manage how your system helps awareness of issues and incidents better.
Not only can you address the increased number of incidents reported, but you can also use this information to reduce response times.
Your increased awareness positively impacts the other areas of your operation.
You have useful data, which helps you make informed operational decisions.
Do you see the importance, now?
Over to You
Look at your operation. Are you catching everything that happens? Probably not, right?
Step up your awareness.
Implement text communication to improve your ability to find out about incidents before they’re no longer manageable.
Increase your customers’ experience by giving them an easy, barrier-free way to report incidents and issues directly to you as they’re happening!
Editor's note: This post was originally published in September 2016 and has been updated for comprehensiveness and freshness.
