• Home
• Solutions
  • Voice Broadcast
  • Automated Phone Survey
  • Appointment Reminders
  • Interactive Voice Services
• Markets
  • K-12 Education
  • Healthcare
  • Senior Living Communications
  • Product Recall
  • Property Management
  • Clubs & Associations
• Newsroom
  • News
  • Case Studies
  • Article Library
• Company
  • Executive Team
  • Training & Support
  • Partners
  • Careers
• Contact

• News
• Case Studies
• Article Library

Four Days, 39 States, 9.2 Million Vital Messages Delivered

Preparation Is Key

Between January 31st and February 3rd, 2011, a massive ice, sleet and snow storm rolled across much of the United States. The storm covered 39 states, with snowfall accumulations reaching over 20 inches in some areas, triggering a wave of school cancellations, early dismissals and late starts. The SchoolReach Client Service Center actively monitors national weather broadcasts and alerts. A picture started to emerge that the impending storm could be of epic proportions. At SchoolReach we have a response preparedness plan in place for periods of increased demand. We drew upon this plan and immediately put it into motion. The plan included:

• Increasing on-call and on-site staffing
• Emailing launch tips to clients
• Booking rooms at nearby hotels for key staff

School Cancellations Sweep the Nation

The wave began early on Monday, January 31st with a swell in activity. As weather worsened, schools began issuing early dismissals in earnest. Cancellations followed in clusters, continuing to surge and build for the next three days, finally ebbing back to normal seasonal levels on Friday. Over a four day period, the SchoolReach system delivered over 9.2 million messages (live or machine answer) stemming from over 40,000 individual broadcast events. Most of those messages occurred within a 2-4 hour period each day. The busiest period saw delivery of 1.8 million messages in just a 2 hour window on Monday, January 31st, from 7 PM to 9 PM CST.

Superior Technology Equals Superior Results

Throughout the storm the SchoolReach Local Switch Load Balancing* algorithm ensured the highest and most efficient delivery on all broadcast launches. The process, which balances outgoing calls with the number of available local lines, results in extremely high first-pass delivery rates. In fact, our first-pass delivery is the best in the business. Additional delivery speed was gained when our Information Technology team was able to implement an immediate modification to our broadcast management process. The solution came to light as we were able to monitor unprecedented volume levels over an extended period of time. The results of the change were dramatic and unlocked an amazing new level of capacity resulting in increased customer satisfaction and even faster delivery speeds. The fact that SchoolReach owns and operates our entire broadcasting system (we do not outsource anything!) enabled implementation of these changes.

*patent pending