Group text messages can be a useful strategy for communication within the workplace. While some careful planning is required for maximizing the effectiveness of your internal messaging program, thoughtful implementation can lead to increased efficiency and clearer workplace communications.
Some specific scenarios are particularly well suited for group messaging.
Top Reasons To Send a Group Message
Sending a group message can be a great way to ensure that critical communications aren’t lost in your recipients’ inboxes and that they’re opened in a timely manner. Situations like these are ideally positioned for collaboration over group text message.
No. 1: Emergency Notifications
If you’ve ever received an emergency notification via SMS, you know how quickly it can capture your attention and provide truly crucial, timely information.
Speaking about San Francisco’s use of SMS for emergency communications related to COVID-19 updates, Julie Ask, a vice president and principal analyst with Forrester, clarified some of the benefits that could also be applied to using group text messages for these kinds of mass communication. While she notes that she’s being intentionally dramatic, there’s definitely some truth to the claim that SMS “always works, and it works for everyone on every phone all the time.”
The pandemic has impressed upon many business leaders the need to be flexible, agile and adept at responding to rapidly shifting circumstances. If you need to quickly notify your staff that the office is going to remain closed due to a last-minute report, for example, you can be relatively certain that they’ll receive a group text message in time to change course.
No. 2: Exceptionally Time-Sensitive Updates
It’s no secret that modern workplaces are sometimes strained under the weight of emails. Citing a contemporaneous study conducted by Adobe, a 2019 article from CNBC reported that, on workdays, respondents spent, on average, about 3.5 hours checking their work email.
In addition to email, time-sensitive messages may have to contend with notifications from collaboration software.
Given the deluge of communications that the typical office worker experiences, it’s a fact of the modern business world that employees have to prioritize their communications and set some limits on how often they check their inbox — after all, they have other tasks to accomplish, too!
That said, there are certain situations in which communications need to rise to the top, and there are some requests that truly require an immediate response. Say you have a group that’s traveling for a series of important client meetings, which may keep them on the road for a week or more. It’s likely that the normal chatter from their emails and collaboration tools won’t stop. Sending a group text message can help you stand out among the noise so they know what’s truly urgent.
No. 3: Specific, Ongoing Projects
In the lead-up to a logistically complicated, ongoing endeavor that requires the coordination of multiple team members, group text messages can prove to be an invaluable tool for ensuring alignment on the finer details. For example, if you’re hosting a conference or other large-scale meeting, sending group text messages internally can help you make sure that everybody’s on the same page not only during the event, but as preparations are put in place, too.
In this environment, the key to using group messages effectively is to verify that all group members know why the group was created and the reason they were invited to it. Ideally, in this kind of scenario, sending a group text message will not be a substitute for other communication channels, but it will complement them nicely. Email and scheduled meetings should still be used for handling the broad strokes as well as the overarching vision and predictable planning requirements. For handling surprises and managing less formal coordination, however — like ordering lunch together or arranging a carpool — sending a group message can make all the difference.
Choose the Right Group Text Message Platform For Your Needs
Have you identified situations in your workplace that could benefit from the streamlined communication facilitated by group text messaging? GREXT is a web-based messaging app that can help you establish groups and send recurring, scheduled or one-off text messages as needed. From emergency communications to challenging logistical coordination, GREXT can help you reach team members quickly and efficiently. Best of all, this solution can scale with your needs. Learn more about GREXT today to find out how this service can help you send group messages and coordinate teams internally with ease.
