Best Practices for Proactive Outbound Message Script Design (part 3 of 3)

  

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We are entering into the last part of our best practices for message script design.  We hope you have found this content beneficial so far.  Read part 1 and part 2 if you missed them.  This will focus on including menu options and general considerations.  Make sure you download your copy of the message script tool kit at the end.

Best Practices for Including Menu Options:

• Relay all the information first, then the actions.  Otherwise, people may begin pressing keys before listening to all the options.
• Tell people how many choices they will have, and then tell them what those choices are.
• If numbers are included in your message, avoid confusion on the part of the recipient by clearly differentiating the numbers from the action key.  For example, use "To report a Level 3 emergency, press 2."
• Limit your menu choices to three or four options.
• Use consistent menu options and vocabulary.

General Considerations:

• Make non-emergency outbound calls between 10am and 7pm.
• If sending messages about an upcoming event, send a follow-up message as a reminder.
• Let people know when an event is over.  Send them a call to let them know, e.g. planned outage is over.
• Avoid leaving multiple answering machine messages.

View some proactive outbound communication trends in the utility industry.

We've put together a message script tool kit for your benefit.  Make sure to check it out!