Standing Out in a Clutter of Alerts: Making Notification Software More Relevant

Working in Corporate America is no easy feat. You have to stay on your A-game, be on top of all business concerns, attend to all your emails, mobile messages, calls, and personal meetings, come up with the most comprehensive reports yet brilliantly creative ideas, and look the part of a strong, independent, boss. With a lot of things going on your plate, being constantly notified on different forms of media, and always receiving urgent advisories can add to the stress and might not even boost the morale.

If you’re a company owner of stakeholder, you don’t want your employees to be burdened out by receiving updates that they probably already know of. However, you want to also guide them so they won’t slack off, thus, a notification software, properly and strategically optimized is the solution in balancing out the employees’ and employers’ preference and needs.

With a notification software, you can send customized alerts to different members of your organization using the widest possible range of communication channels—phone, e-mail, SMS, social media, instant messaging, voice mail, or even calendar alerts. It is a robust and easy-to-use software that is ideal for cascading your urgent updates. It is also guaranteed that employees receive it real-time, or when you schedule it. There's no better way to keep your employees, partners, and customers informed.  You can get your messages targeted to the people who need them the most with unequaled quality, speed, and reliability. Your important alerts will reach your community in minutes, ensuring safety, timely communications, and improved outreach.

It is good in theory but how do you practice maximizing the use of a notification software without bombarding your employees? Here are some strategies:

1. Only send two urgent notifications per day

If an employee gets five or ten notifications, it could give him/her the idea that not all of those are needed to be done right away or implemented soon and the superintendent is just making sure that s/he is reminded of those. Focusing on one or two makes those your key message for the day, thus, the employee will get the notion that it badly needs to be given focus and attention to. After all, a person can only achieve five things each day. Receiving 10 notifications from the same source doesn’t really seem productive and efficient on both sides.

2. Send that urgent notification 24 hours, 12 hours, and 6 hours before needed but in different wordings

This will show consistency in the order of importance, and ensure urgency of manner. This will also allow ample time for the employee to strategize and manage his/her time addressing said notification. Sending the same exact message will make employees auto-delete your alert but wording it differently, and with increasing intensifying and encouraging tones each message will make the employee feel just how much important the task is, and will end up focusing on that. Master your notification software by knowing this algorithm.

3. Send notifications on the most productive hours

Employees usually still feel drowsy and sleepy early in the morning, or very late at night. Send the notifications when they are fueled and pumped to get going. In the case of an 8AM-5PM shift, the golden hour is from 10:30AM-11:45AM. It is when they have recovered from the morning commute hassle, probably had two cups of coffee already, and had finished their dose of daily 30-minute morning rest.

4. If the message needs thorough discussion, notify his/her in person

A notification software is brilliant for it reduces your time and increases the value of virtual communication. However, studies and experience have continuously shown that for messages with the highest levels of importance and those that require feedback, talking face-to-face is still more dynamic and relevant.