7 Ways a School Notification System Benefits You

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A school notification system has become integral to school administration in recent years. Let me tell you why with an example. In 2018, a school at East Tennessee State University (ETSU) found itself in the middle of a controversy when it went under lockdown, but none of the parents received any notifications. Panicked students contacted their parents to be picked up, resulting in a complete atmosphere of chaos.

Only once the issue was resolved and the lockdown lifted did parents receive an “all clear” message. But that alert was too little, too late, stressing out both students and parents. In the school’s defense, the issue was resolved when they sent out the lockdown notification. However, this incident highlights the need for an effective, quick, reliable school notification system.

A sound school notification system will alert schools and all their stakeholders of emergencies, provide daily updates, and automate processes such as the hourly bell, making life smoother for the school and its administrative staff.

The average school in America today has a few hundred students. Many schools are turning to automated school notification systems to communicate effectively and timely.

Let us explore how a school notification system benefits K-12 schools and universities.

What can a school notification system do for a K-12 school?

While coming to the aid of a school during emergencies might be the first thing that comes to mind when we think of the benefits of a school notification system, emergencies are (thankfully) very few and infrequent. This could lead many schools to prioritize other expenditures over investing in a good alert system—especially schools with already tight budgets and many needs.

However, school alert systems have more everyday uses that ensure smooth functioning and justify costs. How valuable is it? Let’s explore:

1. Bridges the communication gap

First and foremost, a school notifications system bridges the communication gap between teachers, students, parents, staff, and the school.

Parents can easily communicate with the school, contact teachers, and receive notifications about attendance, report cards, field trips, and more. Students can receive assignment updates, exam alerts, and event notifications.

Essentially, it makes the school’s network of parents and students more open and robust.

2. Multi-channel notifications

Since notification systems help you coordinate with a wide variety of people, it is only natural to assume that these groups have different communication needs, roles, responsibilities, and preferences.

For example, students might respond more positively and actively to text alerts, while parents, especially those working, might be more prone to responding to calls and email alerts. Figuring out which style works for which group, how to execute it, and whether your school notification system allows for the integration of multi-channel notifications is imperative to implementing it.

Different channels that you must consider are:

Automated and personal text messages
Email alerts
Social media
Mobile app push notifications
Phone calls
Direct mail

Depending on how you intend to use the alert system, you can prefer one or two critical channels over the others.

3. Mass outreach

With increasing school sizes, the number of stakeholders who must be communicated with also increases. It is counterintuitive to opt for traditional communication methods like individual calls and texts over newer outreach methods that make work easy. The former does not optimize time and exponentially increases your administrative staff’s efforts. However, even traditional communication methods have undergone a much-needed transformation with automation.

CallHub is one such text marketing solution that automates your outreach. It is designed to send out personalized texts to a large group and enables open and close-ended responses. If your school only occasionally needs such a mass texting solution, we have a pay-per-use model that ensures you don’t overpay for the tool.

Using a school alert system that reliably and securely sends alerts to hundreds of people quickly is highly effective and beneficial, especially in a 911 emergency or lockdown situation.

4. Encourages two-way communication

For the most part, school alerts, such as attendance notifications or school closure alerts, are informational and do not require a response from the recipients. However, there are times when two-way communication channels are necessary. These instances could be feedback messages, permission forms, bullying helplines, etc.

Allowing your audience to contact you in an emergency expands the scope of security the school can provide to individuals. Schools can promote an emergency number that anyone related to the school can use for help.

Through texting features such as CallHub’s peer-to-peer texting, administrative staff can respond to these messages immediately and at scale. CallHub can validate phone numbers in advance for inbound calls and text messages to your emergency number.

Additionally, communication with schools can also suffice with close-ended requests and replies. Some examples are result announcements, lunch money balance, anti-bullying hotline, etc. This can be done using SMS opt-in or mass texting, which we will discuss later in the article.

5. Data privacy

School data is susceptible, considering the age range with which the school operates. Data privacy and security are non-negotiable aspects of a school alert system.

A good school notification system will have a good track record of data security, proven by its previous clients. Ensure that the tool has taken up the Student Privacy Pledge, which mandates the protection of student data and is a requirement that you could ask for from school service providers and vendors. Note, however, that it is not a legal requirement yet.

The pledge is a set of commitments that service providers can undertake, specifically those working with schools and students. The Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general can enforce these commitments.

6. Location mapping and geofencing

While we hope emergencies are few and far apart, location mapping ensures that the administrative staff can locate the area most in need of aid on campus. They can mark a virtual fence around the emergency area and specifically send alerts to students and staff in the line of fire. The school can also send instructions for people in such situations to ensure maximum safety.

Leveraging location data to increase security in high-risk situations is a great feature to look for in a school notification system.

7. Emergency attendance

In the case of an emergency evacuation due to unfortunate events such as a fire or intruder within the school, it becomes critical to determine how many people got out and their last seen status. Emergency attendance helps you quickly identify the number of people yet to be evacuated and those who have safely escaped the threat.

A great alert system brings a lot of value to a school. But if you’re still wondering how your school can maximize its benefits, we have you covered.

Luckily, at CallHub, we’ve discovered ways your school communications system can work efficiently and securely to ensure all your alerts reach their intended recipients. Let’s explore some features you’d love to have on your school communications system.

How CallHub’s texting and calling features aid school notification systems

Callhub’s range of autodialers, texting methods, and other auxiliary features are perfect for a school notification system. Here’s why:

1. Texting

Texting has an incredible open rate of 91% within the first five seconds of delivering a texting campaign! Try texting if you want a guarantee that it is being read.

CallHub’s texting features offer you different ways in which you can launch a text alert that enables both one-sided as well as two-way communication, such as:

SMS opt-in: Perhaps one of the most valuable features of a school communication system, SMS opt-in allows schools to create keywords that parents, students, and staff can use to confirm their opt-in to receive notifications from the school. CallHub will enable you to create automated responses for each keyword, reducing your team’s time responding to each message individually.

For example, if someone wanted to know about your admission process, they could text ‘ADMISSION’ to your registered phone number. They will receive an automated response with files that might aid them in their decision.
Peer-to-peer texting: P2P text messaging enhances your internal communication strategy and is valuable to any school communication system. It is excellent for conversations around admissions, recruiting, and involving students through school communication.

Especially since many schools are discovering and trying to implement a hybrid learning model, where classes will be conducted online and offline, staying connected via SMS enhances class participation. Real-time, informative text messages from real people (teachers or school staff) can improve their engagement with the educational institution, increase motivation, and serve as a great channel to clarify doubts and ask questions.

CallHub’s P2P texting feature allows your staff to send up to 3500 texts in an hour, with data collected from conversations instantly syncing with your CRM

Mass Texting: Schools have used mass texting for a while now when sending out text blasts that do not require a response (or only close-ended and prompted responses). CallHub’s feature allows you to reach out to thousands of recipients within seconds. We also offer an MMS plug-in for notifications that are best sent with images, videos, or gifs (an event invite, for instance).

2. Voice broadcast

Voice broadcasts allow each recipient to receive messages as a pre-recorded phone call. This will enable schools to relay messages without worrying about the character limit, one drawback of SMS notifications.

CallHub’s voice broadcasting software will be a great addition to your school alert system. You could record a voice message and send it to hundreds of recipients.

Voice broadcast messages are best used for school closure alerts, bad weather updates, class cancellation notices, and other emergency alerts.

3. Autodialers

callhub.io/predictive-dialer/↗

Autodialers address all your calling requirements. They allow you to make five times more calls than you can with manual dialers. Does your staff have to reach out to each student or parent in the school individually through personal phone calls? Autodialers are perfect for such occasions.

If you prefer live conversation between staff and parents (or your use case is such), CallHub offers a range of auto dialers. These dialers can dial numbers and skip over unanswered ones, connecting your staffers directly to answered numbers.

The auto-dialers have several features, such as a referring script, automated merge tags, caller history, etc., to enhance your calling experience.

CallHub offers three types of autodialers: power dialers, fast-click dialers, and predictive dialers. Each dialer has its advantages, depending on your needs.

A power dialer connects an agent to one call at a time, lets them fill in notes after the call, and automatically connects them to the next person when they indicate they are ready.

A fast-click dialer is TCPA compliant and ideal for lists with a mix of landline and mobile numbers that haven’t consented to your communications since they operate through human intervention. This is best used for outreach to prospective students (or their parents)

A predictive dialer increases efficiency by automatically dialing contacts ahead of time. It then connects them to calls that are answered, skipping through calls that weren’t answered. This dialer is best used in high-volume campaigns, with at least six staffers available to make calls.

Calling parents seeking their child’s admission to school is a great use case for autodialers. With the volume of admission requests and the need to represent the school’s brand, calling is an excellent way to provide personal attention.

Teachers can also use dialers to speak with parents, discuss results, inquire about their students’ well-being, and provide feedback.

4. Database management

With CallHub, you can attach ‘tags’ to each contact – a feature that helps you sort out your list. You can tag contacts as ‘student,’ ‘parent,’ ‘staff,’ or ‘teachers.’ You could further divide these groups by labeling the class, section, subject, etc., they belong to.

This helps in instances such as when sending messages to Grade 8 students. You can filter your contacts, select tags corresponding with Grade 8 students, and send messages only to them. Similarly, if you only want to alert parents, you can filter them out through the ‘parent’ tag.

Targeted outreach is now easier than ever.

5. Integrations

CallHub integrates easily with CRM systems. You can connect your CRM system with CallHub, and all your data collected through text and calling campaigns will automatically sync with your management system. This will inform your future texting and calling campaigns, ensuring you have updated information whenever you communicate.

6. Maintain updated lists

Maintaining updated lists helps your school ensure data security and better open rates. When you have updated and clean lists, you know that any alert you send out through your school notification system is reaching the intended recipients and reaching them on time.

There are two ways in which CallHub can help you maintain quality lists. They are:

Plug-ins that detect ‘bad’ or invalid numbers. They can also divide your list by identifying mobile and landline numbers so you can plan your outreach to each (text or call) accordingly.
Tags are used to identify contacts that have been unresponsive or turned out to be wrong numbers and are deleted.

Sharing links is an exciting way to use text messaging to engage with parents. Imagine if all of that payment, from fee payments to lunch balances, could be made online!

Through Callhub’s text features, you can send parents a link to click and pay fees or refill lunch money. Alternatively, most forms, such as event RSVPs, field trip permission slips, admission forms, etc., can all be sent via links directly to the parents’ messaging app.

Conclusion

The CallHub software offers many more exciting features that will make a great addition to your school notification system. If calling and texting are your preferred modes of communication for a school notification system, create an account on CallHub today!

Feature Image Credit: Cristian Dina

How Effective School Notification Systems Help K-12 Schools