Text Messaging For Schools: Improving Communication With SMS

Whether your school is big or small, independent or affiliated with other schools, interacting with staff, parents, and students can be a difficult task. In addition to keeping an eye on the results of every communication, you need to make sure the correct individuals are receiving the right messages at the right times. Schools using an enterprise CRM like Salesforce can leverage Salesforce SMS integration to set up SMS messaging capabilities in their existing CRM.

Key benefits of school text messaging services

You're falling behind if you're a school or institution and haven't yet utilized messaging solutions. You should be aware of the following advantages of SMS messaging for schools:

Instant communication

Schools depend on timely information; SMS texts can be used to send and receive information instantaneously about emergencies, scheduling changes, and upcoming events. This facilitates flawless operations by eliminating any possibility of delays or misunderstandings.

Reliability

SMS messages are often viewed within minutes of arrival, compared to emails, which can go into spam folders or not be checked frequently. This guarantees that important communications are delivered, seen, and read by the intended audience.

Improved engagement

One of the main aspects of any educational system is immediate participation. This is facilitated by SMS messaging which fosters a more responsive and dynamic communication environment between parents, students, and schools. Schools can solicit input through SMS surveys and polls, which can be used to enhance their policies and programs.

Accessibility

Schools can make sure their communications are inclusive by utilizing SMS messaging to connect with parents who might not have access to internet services or the latest technology. In addition to ensuring that all students, regardless of socioeconomic background, have the chance to obtain support and information, this helps close the digital divide.

Save costs

Schools can save substantial costs that are typically lost on paper and phone bills. Schools can cut manpower costs by using text messaging platforms.

Two-way texting

SMS texts from the school, either online or offline, can be used to communicate graduation information, expedite emergency postings or safety bulletins, and enhance alumni relations.

Deeper connections with students

Using bulk SMS messaging solutions is more than just a way to share schedules and deadlines. It helps educators establish a closer bond with their pupils.

Attract, engage & retain audiences

The market for education is vibrant and fiercely competitive. Better visibility and enhanced learning systems are constant goals for schools that want to engage and retain students.

Keep children in school

Students must stay in school in order to obtain a proper education. Parents can be notified of impending tests, academic timetables, and absenteeism through group messaging services.

Improve internal communication

SMS solutions for schools make internal communication a breeze. Two-way text messaging allows schools to always keep staff members informed of pertinent news.

Schools are rapidly adopting SMS messaging systems as their preferred option because of their incredible open rate (>98%), affordability, dependability, and deliverability. SMS messaging for schools has boundless commercial potential, and schools striving to stay competitive know this.

How can schools use the GirikSMS platform?

Because text messages have an incredible open and response rate, they have sparked a revolution across academic institutions. Whether we’re talking about deadline reminders, text blasts, or emergency alerts; bulk SMS solutions represent the quickest, most effective way of getting your message across to a large group.

Here are a few ways that you can use GirikSMS’s SMS platform for academic purposes:

Notify students of deadlines & important dates.

Schools can use SMS alerts to remind students of crucial dates such as exams, project deadlines, enrollment, graduation, events, and book returns.

Send emergency alerts.

Schools can quickly alert students and parents about emergencies, security lockdowns, accidents, or suspicious activities, as well as send alerts about school closings, with the help of GirikSMS's bulk SMS service. As circumstances change, be sure to keep parents and students updated on instructions and developments.

Send reminders.

With GirikSMS's group text messaging tools, you can quickly send reminders for events such as concerts, club meetings, and student gatherings. This will mean that bulletin boards are no longer necessary. Reminders are another useful tool for making sure parents and students don't forget important dates such as registration deadlines, tuition payment deadlines, form submission deadlines, and more.

Provide links to course details & mark sheets.

Links to books, school reports, mark sheets, and course information can all be provided in SMS messages. In the event that reports get misplaced or lost, parents can also subscribe to text message alerts.

Raise awareness about bullying.

Bullying at school is becoming an escalating issue in the highly connected world of today. Two-way texting services can be quite effective in giving kids the support and empowerment they need.

Verify attendance with parents.

Notify parents of events, scheduling modifications, and school closings via two-way texting. Attendance can also be confirmed with parents via SMS reminders.

Attendance tracking.

When a student is absent without prior intimation, schools can automatically notify the parents. This can assist in promptly addressing recurrent absences from classes or verifying a student's location for their safety.

Assignment updates.

Provide information on forthcoming assignments, resources needed, and deadlines. In order to keep parents involved in their child's academic progress, you can also update them on their ward's progress on long-term projects or impending exams.

Parent-teacher communication.

Give teachers the ability to contact parents with customized messages regarding a student's behavior or academic performance. When scheduling conferences or meetings, parents can easily confirm their availability or request different times by using two-way SMS messaging.

SMS messaging best practices for schools

Effective SMS messaging can greatly improve parent-teacher, student, and school communication. These best practices will ensure that relevant communications are provided in a timely and secure way.

Create effective messages

To ensure that all recipients understand the content, make sure you utilize plain language and stay away from complicated jargon while creating your message content.

If unsure, add a personal touch. This might be as simple as adding the name of the student or parent or customizing the content according to the recipient's requirements or educational background.

Remember to specify any necessary activities clearly. If the message is informational, make sure the reader understands what is required of them; if action or a response is required, make this easy for them.

Get your frequency and timing right

Set up a timetable for regular correspondence, such as updates every week. To avoid information overload, don't send non-urgent communications too often. Additionally, it's critical that you send communications at the right moments.

Don't send texts in the early morning or late at night. Sending a text in the afternoon of the day before can work well if the message is relevant for the following day (such as deadlines or event reminders).

Have feedback and response collection mechanisms in place

Send out surveys or polls on a regular basis to get valuable input regarding different facets of school life and the efficiency of communication in order to gauge the success of your texts.

Select an SMS messaging service that is usable by all members of the community, including those who are disabled. This could entail being compatible with technology such as screen readers.

It ensures that you reach students, parents, teachers, or other staff members on their mobile devices instantly.

ways by which GirikSMS can facilitate engagement throughout your school.

Simplify communication with a single platform

GirikSMS is extremely simple to set up and use and is a 100% native Salesforce messaging app. You can keep total control over all of your messages thanks to its extensive capability for planning, approving, sending, and recording all your SMS activity. Its feature of sending mass emergency announcements is particularly useful for schools.

A snapshot of your SMS activity will be available to you right away. It will include charts showing the number of inbound and outgoing messages by day, the breakdown of costs by date, the credit availability, the carrier, the links visited, and much more.

Stick to strategy and budget

It can be challenging to keep an eye on every activity and make sure you stay within your budget when you have several staff members working on distributing information around your school.

With GirikSMS, you can set up access limits for staff members sending SMS messages by user or group and build authorization criteria, allowing all messages to be verified before they are sent. This will help you stay on top of which communications are sent out and when. Messages can be authorized individually or in batches, and permission can be easily granted via email for greater convenience.

You can create expense profiles and set budgets by user or group, with restrictions defined on a daily, weekly, monthly, termly, or annual basis, to help with your budgeting.

Track all communications

You can verify that every detail is accurate and within your budget before sending any messages by checking the cost of SMS delivery and viewing a preview of how each message will be shown. Additionally, all cost breakdowns, including the counts for outbound messages, can be filtered by month, user, and department. In addition, you can get comprehensive details regarding the logging of every message, which includes the sender's identity, recipient, author, content, credit, cost, status, and more.

Leverage versatile functionality

We know how crucial efficient communication is to any school's smooth operation, which is why GirikSMS by Girikon is designed to improve your school community's experience. This includes having the option to make customized message templates and distribute pre-written emergency notifications to all staff members, students, parents, and other groups as needed. Additionally, you can attach permissions as needed and create any number of distinct sender identities.

Furthermore, you may strengthen two-way communication for your various school audiences by accepting incoming messages, which will promote conversations around the school.

Send SMS messages to a global audience

GirikSMS is fully native to Salesforce and was created to improve the availability of important school data, wherever in the globe each member of the school community may be at any given time. With the capacity to function with multiple carriers and the support of multiple languages, GirikSMS facilitates worldwide accessibility.

Using GirikSMS for School SMS Messaging

GirikSMS makes it simple to send SMS messages to students, parents, and staff. You can compose and send messages from your computer using the intuitive user interface. You have complete control over external system integrations (such as CRM), scheduled messaging, and message threading. Dedicated numbers make it easy to distinguish between several departments, and GirikSMS can be used with a spreadsheet, a web browser, or even an email app.

GirikSMS collaborates with schools regardless of their location or size. It is affordable, scalable, and supported by an organization with over 10 years of experience as a Salesforce partner.

To learn more about GirikSMS and how schools can benefit from the platform, schedule a free demo today.