18 Dec Why is call warming with text so critical to health and human services?

You’ve seen it a thousand times, in inbound call to your mobile device, first startled, then frustrated, and finally annoyed. Robo calls are on the rise – AGAIN!  As email read rates continue to decline and phone calls continue to lose their significance with over-saturation of unwanted, unsolicited, voice calls, text is our cleanest channel. We can still rely on it to give us the most accurate, authentic information from people, entities we know and trust – our family and friends and a very select few businesses and health agencies, a very select few. So, first let’s summarize this sentiment:  We are getting too many robocalls from unwanted sources, and your efforts to cut through the morass of unwanted communication has reached a boiling point. Something’s gotta give. We say, implement a Call Warming strategy and you’ll see your response rates jump to nearly 100% (after just one text). Yes, you heard that correctly, it only takes a single 160 character text in nearly 100% of the outbound sms, to receive a response.  As a health and human services provider, you’re probably nodding your head right now. Yep, that’s right, that’s the truth.

So, how do you get your paws on such a fine communication strategy? Well, first off, there are solutions out there still that are virtually free, like Google Voice! With that service, as with all Google services/products you risk the privacy of the information but, it’s true, it’s virtually free and you can send out texts to phone numbers however, this form of communication is slowly being eradicated. This is why you’ve experienced fewer robotexts (sms spam) in recent months. The industry is cracking down, hard. In fact, if you’ve been texting people about your business on a 10 digit number (long code) your days of using that number with impunity our numbered, (pun intended).

In 2020, the sms landscape is making a shift toward “total compliance” with CTIA and FCC rules and regulations. If you’re not, (the industry refers to you as “bad actors” and if your company has been profiting from using these illegal, illegitimate “gray routes” to send your content, then there will be a reckoning).  First, the number will be un-binded from the carrier gateways – which is bad, when that happens, that number cannot be used, it becomes worthless. And you may say, well, fine! I’ll just use a new number. But here’s what’s changed. Everyone has a scorecard and if you are responsible (either fully or partially) for bad actors behaving badly, then you, as the primary content provider, and ultimately, the aggregator relaying the traffic, will be held accountable and over time, you will no longer have the option to send texts through legally provisioned channels – you’ll be blackballed and you’ll struggle to get any of your content through to carriers. So, that’s a pretty darn big incentive to play nice. The industry is finally incentivizing all parties to start behaving better.

So, what’s the solution? how can you send texts through legitimate channels? We offer a one-stop shop for all SMS services. You are able to text with one or many with the click of a button. Using text to prepare your clients for a phone call is a simple-to-use tab called the Referrals Tab and it does exactly what it’s designed for – sending texts to mobile numbers so that you can prepare the recipient for whatever comes next. In this case, it’s prepping them for a phone call.  In pilot programs and evaluation data, this has been monumentally effective, in many cases going from 20% or lower answer rates to nearly 100% answer rates (which represents an industry-shifting, game-changing statistic). So, we encourage you (DHS, HHS, Medicare, Health Department, college and university) add PreventionPays Text to your communication arsenal and watch your efficiency and effectiveness, increase exponentially.

We recommend this type of strategy for all health and human service industries. If you have care coordinators or outreach coordinators, mobile nursing, recruiters/coaches where you’re placing outbound voice calls in order to schedule an appointment, provide post-op instructions, or encourage high school students to apply to your college, this strategy will represent the single most critical advantage you’ll have in a rapidly changing industry. Oh, and we didn’t mention the following features/capacity are also supported: unlimited concurrent two-way conversations, unlimited custom groups, so when you send that text that is designed to prep the voice-call, you will also see if your client responds, like with a “¥es, I’m ready for that call!” or ” I can’t, I’m driving right now. Can you call me in 15 mins?” Whatever they send, we’re capturing/displaying their responses in your dialogue boxes, so you can always use text to warm up the call, but then mutually decide to stay with text…. that’s the beauty of a platform like PreventionPays Text.  You’re always a text away from resolution. Ask yourself? does leaving a voicemail meet the needs of your priority population? Many millennials don’t even activate their voicemail. Add enterprise text and meet them where they’re at – text is king.

We have webinars coming up all this month!  Register here:  https://register.gotowebinar.com/rt/4065942738698775053

OR schedule a demo! Just email us at “[email protected]”

As always, Happy Texting!

EMS Team

Tier 1 routes offer our client confidence with carrier grade message delivery tracking! Mind your Ps and Qs – practice safe texting!