Parents want transparency and clear communication with their child’s schools at all times. And landline texting delivers that open two-way communication. From school alerts to scheduling parent-teacher night, many administrators within elementary schools have taken the jump and integrate business texting into their operations.
While the idea may seem foreign, the same schools have experienced an influx of positive feedback. If you’re interested, read down below how schools can make the most out of business texting.
Reasons to Implement Business Texting
Texting, in many ways, is the main mode of communication in our modern times. 81% of Americans text daily. Besides this, on a national scale, people send 6 billion texts back and forth every day. But how does this benefit you as an educational institution?
For one, this makes communicating with parents more efficient. You have higher confidence that parents will read your notifications and alerts. Secondly, this makes communication efforts easier. You don’t have to wait until you’re at a computer to draft a formal email to parents or go through the hassle of collecting emails.
Besides, business texting provides much more benefits than using a personal cell number. For teachers, this allows them to:
- Keep personal numbers private
Enabling landline texting with your school’s number will allow educators to use their phones without their personal numbers being accessible to parents. Teachers can conveniently send alerts, reminders and share information without compromising their private number.
- Liability
The system will store all messages on one central software. This holds everyone accountable and makes messages accessible to administrators as well.
How Schools can Utilize Landline Texting
When you sign up with Text My Main Number, you’ll have a variety of ways to connect with parents. Here are some ways you can use landline texting below:
- Mass Emergency Text System
Parents want to know about the safety of their children at all times. If an incident has happened near or within the school, you can send a quick message to parents, ensuring them of their child’s safety. These updates will help put parents at ease.
Additionally, in emergencies, you may need to connect with other educators and administrators in the school. Signing up with Text My Main Number gives you access to sending mass text messages or individual texts. These options make it easier for you to communicate with parents or staff. Overall, landline texting in dire situations helps strengthen the communication efforts between all parties
Example: EMERGENCY ALERT –
currently a recent fire broke out in a nearby building. The fire department is present, and all students have been instructed to remain where they are.
- Meeting Reminders
Teachers can use landline texting to remind parents of upcoming events or interviews. For example, you can send out a mass text message reminding everyone to attend their parent-teacher interview time or send out individual messages depending on your class size.
How could this be better than sending an email? Across the board, SMS open rates are much higher than email open rates. On average, people open up 98% of their text messages while open rates for emails remain at just 20%. This is a staggering and notable difference that should prompt educators to switch to landline texting for reminders.
Example:
“Hi Mr/Mrs. Brown. Please arrive 5 minutes before our parent – teach night interview tomorrow at 6 p.m. Thank you!”
- Auto-reply
In some cases, parents may directly message the landline number to reach you. You can set up an auto-response to inform them of when you’ll be available in the office or what specific times they can call your number as well. This saves the time necessary to respond individually to parents.
Example:
“Hi there, thank you for your message. I am currently on leave for 1 week. Once I return, I will schedule a phone call with you at your earliest convenience.”
- Parent Surveys
Engaging with parents and listening to their feedback will likely strengthen your job as an educator. The best way to understand their concerns or where they would like to see improvements made is by setting up a survey for parents to fill out.
At Text My Main Number, we offer survey text messages as a part of our services. This way, with a simple touch of a button, parents can express their thoughts and share their opinions. To parents, it shows how caring you are as an educator.
Alternatively, you can create a specific group chat meant for parents to freely ask any questions they might have. For example, parents may ask questions about school trips or the additional textbooks they need to purchase. Whenever you have the time, you can address these questions in the chat.
- Send out Helpful Resources
In a case where parents need more educational resources for their children, you can always send out helpful sources for parents to explore. You can send a direct link or a shared file that parents can use for future reference. If any parents have a specific question, you can also individually respond to them through your school’s number.
Example:
Parent –
“Hi there. Lucy still struggles with her fractions. Are there any resources I can use to help strengthen her math skills?”
Teacher –
“Hi Mrs. Brown, yes please have a look at the online tutorial videos created by the authors of our math textbook. You can find it here: www.math.com.”
How Parents can Sign-Up for Your School’s SMS Service
We understand that not everyone is tech-savvy. However, parents can easily sign up to be a part of landline texting if they choose to. Depending on how you set up your business number, parents can either:
- Text a keyword to the business number. This activates their ‘subscription’ to your landline texts.
- Sign up on your school website.
- Fill out a form online or in-person with their name and number.
After that, parents will receive any alerts and messages you send. Additionally, they can begin messaging you at that number.
Landline Texting Tips For Educators
- Keep it short
Save long conversations for phone calls and meetings. Like any text, messages are most effective and easy to read when it’s concise.
- Set boundaries
Parents might feel the urge to contact you on a daily. You can resolve this issue by setting up an auto-response and clarify the need to communicate during school hours.
- Be clear
To avoid continuous back and forth questions, make sure to keep your messages clear. With Text My Main number, you can also send out message templates so that you’ll only have to write a specific question once.
The Next Steps
If you’re even slightly interested, we encourage you to reach out to Text My Main Number at 1.800.797.3167 or email us info@textmymainnumber.com. We have exceptional customer support that will walk you through any questions and concerns you may have as an educator.
Alternatively, you can give it a try at our 14-day trial to see if Text My Main Number is the right fit for your school system.
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