By Jay Bemis | Advertising Systems Inc.
When Hurricane Helene blew its way through middle and eastern Georgia in the early-morning hours of Sept. 27, its wrath included leaving 1.5 million customers of Georgia Power without electricity, many of them for 10 days or more.
How did Georgia Power communicate with its customer base during this crisis? It turned to several forms of social marketing to assure its customers know that the company was on it and caring about them — those forms including its social-media platforms and its website, which featured a statewide outage map showing where power had thus far been restored.
But its chief social-marketing tool was one that means instant communication: Text messaging, or Short Message Service (SMS) marketing, if you will.
With more than nine of 10 people across the US now owning smartphones, Georgia Power showed that SMS marketing is almost a no-brainer as a crisis-messaging option.
Keeping phones powered is a challenge without electricity, yes, but most people can solve that by using chargers they can plug into their cars. Trips by power-starved Georgians to find gasoline, candles, food and ice would be blended by stops at stores that might sell car chargers — or at least those stores that were wise enough to be equipped with generators and remained open when times turned dark.
Georgia Power let customers know early on the tall sorts of hurdles the company faced in Helene’s wake:
- 8,300+ power poles needed be repaired or replaced;
- 21,000+ spans of wire, equivalent to approximately 1,000 miles, were damaged;
- 1,600+ transformers were zapped from existence by the storm;
- 3,200+ trees fell on power lines and needed to be sawed up and set aside before power could be restored.
“Hurricane Helene had a statewide impact and Georgia Power matched that with a statewide response,” the company said in one early news release, “including engagement of every Georgia Power crew at the beginning of the storm and thousands of additional line workers from outside of Georgia.”
Because of a nationwide mutual assistance network, Georgia Power was able to mobilize crews from dozens of companies across the US to help its own full force of crews with power restoration. Those states included California, Florida, Indiana, Nevada, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Texas, as well as some crews who came from Canada.
Why SMS Marketing Can Come Through in a Pinch
Big utilities and other companies rely on SMS text messaging as a social marketing option during disasters like Hurricane Helene for several key reasons.
Those reasons, according to Textmagic, an international business text messaging service, include:
- Wide Reach and Accessibility: SMS can reach a vast number of people quickly, including those in remote areas or without internet access, because “nearly everyone has a mobile phone capable of receiving text messages.”
- Speed and Efficiency: Text messages are delivered almost instantly, ensuring that critical information reaches recipients in real-time. This is crucial during emergencies when every second counts.
- High Open Rates: SMS messages have a very high open rate, with 91% of texts being read within three minutes of receipt. This makes it a reliable way to ensure that important alerts are seen promptly.
- Versatility: SMS can be used to send various types of information, from evacuation orders and shelter locations to safety tips and updates on utility services.
- Reliability: Text messaging systems are often more resilient than other forms of communication during disasters, as they can function even when internet and phone lines are down.
Georgia Power Did Let Customers Know It Cares
Showing your customers you care about them and their misery was a prevalent social-marketing message during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Georgia Power kept that same sort of tone with its customers during the Hurricane Helene crisis.
It also announced this bit of recourse for financially strapped victims of the storm: It’s giving customers extra time to pay their October power bills, “with disconnections suspended, late fees waived, and overall collection activities paused for residential and business customers through at least December 15, 2024.”
“Our commitment to customers goes beyond reconnecting power following a storm of this magnitude — we’re focused on helping many of our neighbors as they essentially rebuild their lives and communities,” Latanza Adjei, Georgia Power senior vice president of customer experience, said.
“We encourage customers to continue paying their bills on their usual billing cycle and avoid falling behind. However, we recognize that times are challenging for many Georgians even without the impacts of Helene and we want to do all we can to support them.”
