Learn Best Practices in Outage Communication for Sending IT SMS Alerts and Email Notifications
When (not, if there’s an outage) the people using your infrastructure or services need updates—fast.
But you’re not a human pager system. You can’t waste time firing off unread emails and getting sent to voicemails.
So what’s the most immediate way to reach your stakeholders?
Text alerts.
In this article, I cover:
- What a system outage notification is and what IT SMS alerts are
- Why IT SMS alerts work during system outages and critical IT events
- How to send IT SMS alerts and notifications to the right people, fast
- 7 best practices for communicating during a system outage
- IT text message templates
- IT email templates
So read on if you want to learn how to up-to-date systems information to stakeholders and improve their outage experience.
What Is a System Outage Notification?
System outage notifications are proactive communications sent to inform stakeholders about IT system outages. These notifications promptly notify stakeholders, such as employees, customers, and partners. They detail the outage, impact, expected duration, and necessary actions to take. Their purpose is to minimize confusion, manage expectations, and provide timely updates during an outage.
What Are IT SMS Alerts?
IT SMS alerts are instant notifications sent via Short Message Service (SMS) technology during IT system outages. These alerts use mobile networks to deliver concise text messages directly to recipients' mobile devices, ensuring prompt and high-visibility communication. They provide real-time updates, high open rates, and mobile access, making them effective for urgent outage notifications.
Why IT SMS Alerts Work During System Outages and Critical IT Events
IT SMS alerts are highly effective in system outage notifications for several reasons. These include the following.
1. Text messages enable near-instantaneous communication
SMS alerts are the most immediate and direct way to communicate with stakeholders.
Unlike email, texts don’t have delays or go unnoticed in crowded inboxes. SMS messages typically get delivered and read within minutes.
In fact, 74% of people report having zero unread texts.
Texts also ensure that critical information reaches recipients promptly. This allows stakeholders to take necessary actions or precautions in real-time.
2. Text alerts have high open and response rates
SMS messages have high open rates—surpassing email. SMS open rates can reach as high as 98% vs. around 20% for most email marketing.
Additionally, people are more likely to respond to SMS messages compared to other forms of communication.
This high level of engagement ensures that important notifications are not only delivered but also acknowledged.
3. Texts are accessible on nearly every mobile device
Some 5.1 billion people use mobile devices globally.
This makes text alerts particularly valuable. Especially during system outages when stakeholders may be away or not actively checking their email.
The mobile-friendly nature of SMS alerts also means people can receive crucial information and act promptly.
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4. SMS messages are concise—this makes them actionable
SMS alerts often have character limitations. This makes crafting concise and focused messages important.
It also forces organizations to prioritize essential information and communicate it clearly.
CTAs (calls to action) further make texts actionable. They clearly indicate to recipients the next appropriate steps they need to take.
5. Texts have great reach, coverage, and delivery rates
SMS alerts have broad reach and coverage. You can send a text to virtually any mobile device with a phone number.
This makes it a reliable communication channel for reaching a wide range of stakeholders, including:
- Employees
- Customers
- Clients
- Partners
- Vendors
Regardless of the type of phone or network provider, SMS messages can be delivered successfully. Getting approved for carrier-verified 10DLC text messaging can further ensure high message delivery rates.
6. Text alerts can provide redundancy and increase reliability
IT SMS alerts can serve as a redundant communication channel during outages.
In situations where other systems or services may be affected, you can still rely on SMS messages for critical notifications.
They provide an additional layer of messaging and help ensure that important information reaches stakeholders. This happens even if other channels aren’t available or experiencing disruptions.
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IT text alerts vs. email alerts
Many businesses and organizations use email as their primary means of business notifications.
This is mainly due to its reliability and high adoption rates.
However, more businesses and organizations are converting to SMS alerts to send critical information to stakeholders.
The main reasons IT text alerts work better than email alerts are because:
- Text messages have a 98% open rate, compared to 20% for emails.
- IT text alerts don't get flagged as spam.
- 45% of people respond to emails, as opposed to 6% of email responders.
- Text alerts reach people without internet access, and emails don't.
IT text alerts vs. phone calls
Phone calls are essential in business communications. You can use phone calls to establish an emotional connection with customers.
But they lack the advantages that IT text alerts offer in business notifications.
For example, 76% of people won't answer their phones due to the substantial spike in spam robot calls. And you are seven times more likely to get a response from a text message than a phone call message.
Telephone calls also aren’t a scalable way of communicating with people during an outage. IT SMS alerts provide the reach your need.
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How to Send IT SMS Alerts and Notifications to the Right People, Fast
As you can see, text messages have advantages over email and voice - especially in urgent situations.
But what steps do you need to take to set up an IT SMS alert system?
Below is a step-by-step guide for evaluating your options and getting started.
1. Choose an IT SMS alert system
The first step is choosing the right SMS solution provider. There are a bunch of SMS IT services available. But there are several key features you’ll want to look for when evaluating solutions.
The first key feature is high-volume, carrier-verified, mass texting—also known as 10DLC.
This feature makes it possible to register a campaign and get near 100% delivery rates. Without this, you can only send a limited number of texts, and delivery isn’t guaranteed.
Note: MessageDesk’s text message broadcasts do support high-volume, carrier-verified 10DLC messaging.
The second grouping of features you’ll want to look for are:
- Text message scheduling
- Support for templates, tags, links, and media
- Keyword-based autoresponder texts
- Contact list management and custom fields
- And integrations (depending on your messaging needs)
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2. Create a free account or start a free trial
You’ll want to start a free trial once you've found a text alert system. This gives you time to get answers to questions and test the platform's capabilities and reliability.
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3. Select your SMS alert phone number
Most text alert providers also offer a range of text-enabled phone number options. In most cases, you can:
- Get a new business text number for sending alerts
- Port or host your existing business number for alerts
- Text-enable an existing business landline or VoIP number for text alerts
Note: MessageDesk supports all of the above phone number options. It also allows you to text from a local 10-digit number or a 1-800 toll-free phone number.
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4. Import and segment your contacts into groups and lists
Once you’ve got your SMS phone number configured, you’ll want to upload contact lists. MessageDesk makes this easy with built-in CSV upload and custom fields.
It’s also easy to segment and add emergency contact lists for quickly sending emergency messages and different types of alerts.
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5. Create IT outage communication templates
Text message templates save you from the tedious task of typing the same message each time you broadcast a text alert. They also allow you to keep a queue of outage messages ready until needed.
A business texting service like MessageDesk makes it easy to customize and personalize your text messages. You can even:
- Send links in texts
- Text photos
- Or use tags to auto-insert {{ FirstName }} or other contact info into a text alert
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6. Schedule broadcasts
Many text alert services, like MessageDesk, make it easy to schedule text messages to individuals and groups of contacts.
Scheduled text messages to groups are often called broadcasts or text blasts.
This feature makes it possible to reach everyone at a scheduled time with an emergency notification, alert, or update.
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7. Set up autoresponder automation
Autoresponders are a type of automated text message. They work particularly well for SMS text alerts and SMS emergency alerts because they’re activated with keywords.
For example: you could set up a keyword like UPDATES or ALERTS and use that as a prompt.
Someone can text that keyword prompt to your number. Then, they’re automatically subscribed to emergency messaging or notifications from your organization.
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8. Connect your text alert systems to integrations like Zapier
Integrations like Zapier can help you send automatic text alerts and emergency messages.
Zapier has its own limited SMS option (SMS by Zapier). But you can also integrate it with an SMS notification system like MessageDesk. This further enables emergency mass text messaging with more advanced workflows and features.
With MessageDesk and Zapier you can do the following and more:
- Add or update a contact: sync contacts and text-enable a CRM as an IT SMS alert system.
- Add contacts to a group: This option includes adding outside contacts to MessageDesk.
- Send a message: This feature allows you to trigger a text message to launch when an action happens in another app. You can also automatically send a message before an event occurs.
7 Best Practices for Communicating During a System Outage
I’ve covered what IT SMS alerts are and how to get started with SMS information technology.
This next section clears up any questions you may have about text message etiquette and outage communication strategy.
1. Be prompt and define outage severity levels as part of an IT outage communication plan
Notify your stakeholders as soon as possible about a system outage. Prompt communication helps manage expectations and minimizes confusion.
Establishing severity levels can also help you to prepare for a planned or unplanned system outage. You can reference these codes when sending out alerts.
Consider organizing outage SMS alert templates according to severity levels.
2. Coordinate and segment messages across your communication channels
Utilize multiple communication channels, such as IT SMS alerts, email notifications, and social media, to reach stakeholders effectively. Coordinating the messaging across these channels can help ensure consistency and avoid confusion.
You’ll also want to consider tailoring communication to different stakeholder groups based on their roles and responsibilities.
This ensures that stakeholders receive information that is specific to their needs and reduces unnecessary noise.
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3. Take responsibility, acknowledge the issue, and empathize
Sincerity, openness, and honesty can help you manage stakeholder expectations during a system outage. Personalized SMS templates with tags for details like {{ FirstName }} can help you keep a more personal tone.
Setting realistic expectations around resolution timelines also helps. Is the outage expected to last longer than expected? Communicate the updates promptly and explain the reasons for the delay.
Being transparent about the situation helps manage stakeholders' expectations and reduces frustration.
4. Clearly communicate the scope and impact of the outage and avoid technical jargon
Craft clear and concise messages that convey the necessary information without overwhelming recipients.
Clearly state the affected system or service, the nature of the issue, and the expected impact on users.
Avoid technical jargon and use language that is easy for non-technical stakeholders to understand.
5. Utilize a CTA to point people toward contacts, communication leads, or designated support channels
A call to action can improve your text alert’s effectiveness.
You can make your CTAs more effective by including an SMS link in the text message with a prompt phrase like:
- OPT-IN for Updates
- Learn More
- For Further Assistance Contact…
Your CTAs can direct people to emergency contacts, customer support teams, or help desks for additional assistance.
You’ll also want to ensure that support channels are adequately staffed to handle increased inquiries during an outage.
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6. Communicate expectations clearly and don't overpromise
When adding time parameters to your IT text alerts, be clear and precise.
But, in the case of an unscheduled outage, don't try to soften the blow by relaying the most optimistic timeline. This tactic often leads to disappointment for your recipients.
You’ll also want to keep stakeholders informed of the progress being made to resolve the issue.
Regular updates instill confidence and demonstrate transparency. Include information about:
- The steps being taken
- The estimated resolution time
- And any workarounds or alternative solutions available
7. Follow up and seek feedback when needed
You can optimize your IT text alert system by sending follow-up text messages when the outage is over. It shows the recipient you care about resuming regular activity.
Also consider encouraging stakeholders to provide feedback on the communication process and their experience after the outage.
This feedback can help identify areas of improvement and further enhance outage message communication practices for future incidents.
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IT Text Message Templates
Below is a list of system outage notification templates for email and SMS IT support.
Feel free to copy and paste these IT service outage notification templates. In addition, you can check out my list of 100+ text message templates.
General technical outage notification
URGENT: We are experiencing a system outage affecting [specific system/service]. Our team is working diligently to resolve the issue. We apologize for the inconvenience and will provide updates shortly. Thank you for your patience.
Planned outage notification
NOTICE: Scheduled maintenance will be performed on {{ Date }} from {{ Time }} to {{ Time }}. During this period, [specific system/service] won’t be available. We apologize for any disruption caused and appreciate your understanding.
Incident investigation update
UPDATE: Our team is currently investigating the cause of the system disruption. We understand the impact it has caused and are working diligently to resolve it. We will provide further updates as soon as we have more information. Thank you for your patience.
Service restoration update
UPDATE: The issue with [specific system/service] has been resolved. Services are now restored. If you continue to experience any issues, please contact our support team. Thank you for your cooperation.
Power outage text message template
Hi {{ FirstName }}, there is a power outage in {{ Location }}. Technicians are working to restore power. Text "UPDATES" for further hourly updates.
Text message system outage notification sample
We want to alert you that our payroll system is experiencing a system outage. An update will come as we gather more information.
Downtime notification SMS template
Hi {{ FirstName }}, our {{ Department }} has an internet outage that will cause downtime in that area over the weekend. Text "UPDATES" for further alerts.
Network outage notification SMS template
To all staff members: A network outage has blocked access to client files. We will keep you posted through our helpdesk SMS.
Text message network maintenance notification template
Hi {{ FirstName }}, our internal network will be out of service from {{ Time }} to {{ TIme }} for scheduled maintenance. Text "HELP" for more assistance.
Service disruption occurred SMS template
Hi {{ FirstName }}: A service disruption has occurred in {{ Department }}. Visit {{ URL }} for further details.
Server down text message template
A downed server has caused us to postpone today's planned activities until Monday. Please check your email for revised schedules.
IT Email Templates
System outage email template
Service restoration update email
Scheduled maintenance email notification
System down email template
Internet outage email template
Power outage notification email sample
Outage notification email template
Server-down notification email
Server maintenance email template
Service restored email template
Ready to launch a text alert or emergency SMS alert system?
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You're always free to meet with a messaging expert for an intro call to get started.