By Tanya Borthwick
When an emergency occurs, the need to communicate is immediate and often quite challenging. Miscommunication has been named as the reason for many loses of life at major disasters such as September 11th and Hurricane Katrina.
Even in small scale incidents, responders need current and accurate information to ensure an effective response strategy. First responders need to immediately alert other personnel and maintain communication.
During an emergency, access to phone lines can be limited and not reliable. In the Government of Canada’s Get Prepared strategy, they recommend that during an emergency you “use non-voice channels like text messaging, email or social media, as these use less bandwidth than voice communications and may work even when phone service has been disrupted.”
By using a group text messaging system, multiple users can work together to communicate and respond to an incident regardless of their physical location. You can ensure messages get out to everyone who needs the information without loss of information.
During an emergency, responders need to juggle both the management of the incident as well as passing along information to everyone who needs it.
By using a group messaging system, communication can be streamlined so messages can go out to everyone at once, or be grouped as needed – i.e. messages directed to the Corporate Office or stay at the Incident Site. This type of group messaging can save critical time during an emergency, and reduce miscommunication.
Want to ensure your company has a strategy to effectively communicate during an incident? The BGGoPlan™ can help ensure your responders are prepared with a group messaging system that will help during any size incident.
