Mass Notifications for the Education Industry

Ever have this experience? After a miserable commute in stormy weather, you get to your college campus only to find out that it’s been closed for a snow day.

Fortunately, this no longer has to be an issue! Mass notification tools enable academic institutions to send timely and urgent notifications to their faculty members or students. In this way, campus communities will always know when an event or situation will affect their academic schedules.

Here are the benefits of a mass notification tool and how it can be used for the education industry.

Urgent Event Notifications

For students, mass notification tools provide timely alerts about unanticipated events including last minute assemblies or “town hall” meetings. Further, this allows faculty to put a pause on their lectures and dismiss their students in a timely manner.

Also, in recent times there’s been a rising number of unfortunate intrusions on academic campuses. For these occurrences, academic institutions can quickly use mass notification platforms to help facilitate their emergency communication plans, ensuring that faculty and students take the appropriate, cautionary actions during a crisis situation.

Whether it’s an event cancellation or an unexpected situation, mass notification tools ensure that academic-based alerts are widely distributed, every time.

Alerts Beyond the Campus

If you’re a parent or guardian, you can rest assured that you’ll be quickly notified of any ongoing emergency happening at your student’s institution. That’s because mass notification solutions deliver alerts regarding any weather-related incident or building evacuation.

Additionally, by using templates provided in a mass notification solution, academic institutions can simply hit “send” to notify parents through desired channels including, primary email, secondary email (SMS), native SMS or phone call.

With such efficiency, parents become quickly aware of their student’s ongoing situation to take the appropriate, next steps.

Mass Notifications for University Vendors

Universities and colleges rely on external vendors for services including, but not limited to, campus catering, transportation and landscaping operations. Through a mass notification tool, universities can quickly alert their vendors about weather-related emergencies, service cancellations or other urgent issues.

As a result, universities can continue to support a transparent and communicative relationship with their suppliers. Equally as important, universities can use mass notification systems to receive audit trail information, guaranteeing that their critical alerts have been delivered and acknowledged by their contracted vendors.

Additionally, mass notification platforms such as OnPage’s BlastIT platform provide three acknowledgment options including, (1) configured replies, (2) clickable links and (3) keypad instructions via phone. In the case of configurable replies, universities can use BlastIT to create “reply options” by separating acknowledgement choices with a simple semicolon (;). This means that mass notifications can include a customizable, “YES;NO” reply option when communicating with vendors.

Alternatively, clickable links allow vendors to acknowledge university mass notifications by clicking on an embedded, email URL. For mass notifications through voice, vendors (i.e., the recipient) can acknowledge university-based alerts through predetermined keypad options (e.g., “press one to acknowledge this message”).

The Value of a Mass Notification Platform

A mass notification platform is an easy-to-implement solution that streamlines crisis and urgent communications. With such efficiency, academic institutions can quickly contact their staff members, students and vendors in a timely, precise and helpful manner to focus on resolving the incident at hand.

Want to learn more about a cost-effective, mass notification platform for education? Contact us, request a demo or reach us directly at sales@onpagecorp.com.