The death of text messages

Text messaging has been a valuable way for schools to communicate with parents, proving an effective, reliable way to reach parents particularly in an emergency. However, with smartphones now dominating the mobile world, many schools are turning their back on texting and embracing a new cheaper and more flexible alternative.

It’s not difficult to see why. When schools send text messages over the course of each year, the cost quickly accumulates and with a restriction of 160 characters, there is only so much that can be said. This means that text messaging has been good for short or emergency messages but when something more detailed is required, schools need to resort to other methods.

Mobile Apps and smartphones mean messages can be sent for free and instantly, and they can be as detailed as you need.  It comes as no surprise therefore that text messaging is now seen by many schools as a thing of the past.

What’s more, with more advanced technology available and the cost of text system contracts rising each year, more and more schools are switching from text only systems to a more complete communications package, allowing them to do more than simply send texts - and reach parents more effectively:

“If you add up the cost of our old text service, as well as the amount of paper we were buying, printing, photocopying and posting – it really is an astonishing amount of money we’re now saving thanks to ParentMail.”
Lisa Penn, Office Manager at Astor College

“We found that texts were quite restricting as we only had 160 characters and couldn’t send attachments, so we wanted a system in place that would allow us to communicate better with our parents and reduce paperwork and postage.”
Kerry Taylor, Business Manager at The Compass Centre

“Going from quite a basic text and email service, ParentMail offers a lot more and is a much more user friendly system. We also love that it means our parents use a school branded App to pick up messages – we’ve got 98% of parents on board and we’ve had lots of good feedback!”
Kelly Sorrell, Administrative Assistant at Glemsford Primary Academy

With an estimated 91% of adults who have their smartphone within arm’s reach at all times, more and more schools are turning to complete online communication systems which will allow them to reach parents on their mobile, without the restrictions and costs of a text only service and with a noticeable improvement in parental engagement.

If you want to know more about switching to a complete all-in-one communications system and how it can help you make annual cost savings, get in touch today on enquire@parentmail.co.uk or call 01733 595959 – we’d love to speak with you!