Warnings: What Works, What Doesn’t and Whyand Why

Dr. Robert Chandler, Ph.D.Director, University of FloridaMarc LadinChief Marketing Officer, Everbridge

About Everbridge• Everbridge empowers better decisions with

interactive communications throughout the incident lifecycle to protect your most important assetsassets

• The world’s recognized leader in incident notification and management solutions

• Everbridge helps more than 30 million people communicate in a crisis and connect on a daily basis.

• The company’s notification platform is backed by an elastic infrastructure model that delivers near infinite scale, advanced mobile connectivity, and real-time reporting and

l tianalytics.

• More than 1,000 organizations in over 100 countries rely on Everbridge for their emergency needsemergency needs

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Part 1: Presentation• Best practices for message construction• Communication planning tips and goalsCommunication planning tips and goals• Message delivery strategies

Part 2: Q&A

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Bracing for the 2010 Hurricane SeasonWarnings: What WorksHurricane Season

Dr Robert Chandler

Warnings: What Works, What Doesn’t and Why

Dr. Robert ChandlerUniversity of Central Florida

Warnings Often Fail to “Work”Warnings Often Fail to Work• Scientific research on the efficacy of warnings of risk

began in the 1950s greatly expanded in the 1980sbegan in the 1950s, greatly expanded in the 1980s

due to the increasing number of product liability cases

• In general, the empirical research findings bear

out the theoretical and conceptual studies carried

out by communication studies scholars as well

as sociologists anthropologists and designersas sociologists, anthropologists, and designers

• They demonstrate that the effect of a warning message on a person's behavior is unpredictable: although a warning can be noticed, read, and acted upon it is just as likely to be missed ignored or have an effectacted upon, it is just as likely to be missed, ignored, or have an effect opposite to the one intended

• Compliance is rarely found above 50% of participants, and in some cases it i l th 25%is lower than 25%

No Automatic Compliance For WarningsNo Automatic Compliance For Warnings• Studies demonstrate over and over again that there is no “sure fire” warning

message that consistently ensures compliance• Risk warning communication — whether on consumer products, labels,

signposts or documents —a re too often inadequate and ineffective, because their design does not take into account the many psychological and socio-psychological factors involved in producing an effective warning message

These include (and there are others):These include (and there are others): • the number of warnings a person is exposed to • the past experience of the person • the motivation and interest of the personthe motivation and interest of the person • the person's perception of the likelihood of the risk • the person's attitude toward risk • the perceived cost or effort involved in compliance• the perceived cost or effort involved in compliance

(including actually reading the warning notice itself)

Guidelines and Key Message FactorsGuidelines and Key Message Factors

• Risk communication messages are an important

aspect for any response. Such messages are

designed to communicate warnings, threats,

consequences dangers and specific/generalconsequences, dangers, and specific/general

behavioral guidelines/requests to key audiences

• These messages typically seek

comprehension, understanding,

and some level of behavioral

compliance from the individuals

targetedtargeted

Risk Warnings Often Fail to WarnRisk Warnings Often Fail to Warn• Unfortunately, warnings often fail to change people's behavior. Either the

warning goes unnoticed or as increasingly happens the warning is seen but

• For many years designers focused their

warning goes unnoticed, or, as increasingly happens, the warning is seen but ignored

• For many years, designers focused their concern on sensory aspects of warnings: color, shape, location, pictures vs text size and so onpictures vs. text, size and so on. However, research suggests that effective warning messages depend as

h th t t f th i 'much on the contents of the viewer's head as on the contents of the warning message

Analyze the Target AudienceAnalyze the Target Audience

• You can’t communicate effectively without understanding your intended audience and are able to predict how they will understand and respond toaudience and are able to predict how they will understand and respond to your messages:• Languages

V b l• Vocabulary• Interpretation (including reading between

the lines)C h i d d i i ki• Comprehension and decision making processes

• Valence and Salience

• There is no substitute for assessing and analyzing the people in the intended target audience how they would interpret a message, before

l i it t th ldreleasing it to the world

Never Withhold Key Warning InformationNever Withhold Key Warning Information

• One often hears "experts" predict mass panic in an emergency. Yet

studies since the London blitz during World War II through the 9-11

events have shown that people behave responsibly, even bravely, in

crisescrises

• The duty for risk disclosure outweighs the fear of negative response

• Transparency and honesty builds your credibility and increases the

likelihood that your messages will be received and considered

Warning EffectivenessWarning Effectiveness The problem with warnings is that they often fail to actually warn those at risk

• Key for Effective Warnings• Deliver the Warning• Attention to the Warningg• Selection (elaboration) of the Warning

• Valence• Salience• Salience

• Perception/Processing of the Warning• Language

V b l• Vocabulary• Decision-making orientations

• Behavioral Reponses (Action) to the Warning

Ensure That You Connect With Your AudienceEnsure That You Connect With Your Audience• Achieving and sustaining effective communication with your target audiences depends (in part) on selectingaudiences depends (in part) on selecting channels (modalities) of communication that will reach them and allow them to reach back to youreach back to you

• There are options to enhance the effectiveness and success of communicating risk warning messages including new emerging modalities

• Consider both your messages and your target audiences in selecting the most appropriate communication

tifi ti tnotification systems

Perception/Processing of the WarningPerception/Processing of the Warning

• Once the warning is

perceived, the respondent

must properly understand its

meaning

• Warning messages should be

clear and easily understoodclear and easily understood,

but it is difficult to ensure

clarity for several reasons;

Sentences may be poorly

constructed or contain words

that are unfamiliar

Sometimes People Ignore WarningsSometimes People Ignore Warnings

• Another reason that warnings are often

ineffective and misunderstood is that they

are designed by people who already know

about the hazard and are highly familiar withabout the hazard and are highly familiar with

the events, processes, and procedures

• These designers are too often unable to put

themselves in the place of a naive user who

approaches the product for the first time

W i h ld b t t d t i l• Warnings should be tested on typical

audiences in advance of an actual crisis or

disaster

Behavioral Reponses to the WarningBehavioral Reponses to the Warning• Even if the respondent understands

the warning they still may not comply• One common reason is that people

perform a mental cost-benefit analysis where perceived likelihood and severity of the hazard are weighed against cost of compliance

• Any factors which increase• Any factors which increase cost or reduce perceived risk (such as product familiarity) will hurt compliancecompliance

• It is imperative to understand the decision making orientation of your target audiences in order to create messages with higher propensity to g g p p ytrigger appropriate behavioral responses

Overload and FamiliarityPeople who have experienced events or warnings many times with no

ti ( d iblnegative consequences (and possibly know of other people who have had similar experiences) will be less likely to

l ith icomply with warnings

Psychological DispositionsPsychological Dispositions

• People who see a warning must decide whether or not to comply, however, "warning targets" (people for whom the warning is intended) are not blanks slates but rather start with a mental framework that leads them to process information in particular ways

• Warnings must “fit’ the gpreconceived assumptions and expectations and frames of the audiences

More Effective Warning MessagesMore Effective Warning Messages• There is more to creating effective warnings than choosing the right

modality format color size location and font or even the right messagemodality, format, color, size, location and font or even the right message

• It is imperative to understand what the target audience member is trying to

achieve and how the warning affects attainment of those goalsachieve and how the warning affects attainment of those goals

• Crisis communication planners must consider the decision calculations that the

respondent is likely to perform

• Crisis communication planners must consider the audience experience and

knowledge and how they interact with their social world

Tailor the Warning Message to Target the A di

It makes little difference if you headed your warning with:

Audience

or

and put the wording of the warning in big bold print and placed it within a black-bordered box

These graphic devices may seem to you to make your warning noticeable to people, but it does not appear to do sop p , pp

Perception is RealityPerception is Reality

• A warning message is only

perceived as a warning- when it is

part of the “conversation” between

the message and its audience

• A warning must speak to the

reader taking into consideration:reader, taking into consideration:

• The context of the warning

• The placement of the warning• The placement of the warning

• The content of the warning

Incident Notification

Marc LadinChief Marketing Officer, Everbridge

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Incident Notification Solutions Address C C i ti Ch llCommon Communication Challenges

• Reduce miscommunications and control rumors with

• Communicate quickly, easily, and efficiently with largeand control rumors with

accurate, consistent messages

• Satisfy regulatory

and efficiently with large numbers of people in minutes, not hours, making sure that the lines of communication are openSatisfy regulatory

requirements with extensive and complete reporting of communication attempts and t k l d t f

• Receive feedback from your messages by using polling

bilititwo-way acknowledgements from recipients

• Deliver refined prepared

capabilities

• Ensure two-way communications to get• Deliver refined, prepared ,

timed messages to each pre-designated audience group, by scenario

communications to get feedback from message receivers

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The Everbridge AdvantageExisting Competitor’s Infrastructure:

• Static algorithms based on capacity li it ti t t l ll llimitations, not actual call volumes during a disaster

- Failure-prone from unexpected volumes of message outputg

- No ability to burst to meet wide-scale system usage

The Everbridge Advantage:The Everbridge Advantage: • Near-infinite scale achieved

- Multiple redundant VoiP & PSTN providersp

- Elastic capacity accommodates highest volume of outbound calls in the industry

Everbridge’s Elastic Infrastructure ModelWhat is it?• Elastic infrastructure integrates

with multiple, redundant on-demand communications providers

• Provides near infinite scale, capacity, performance and processing resources

• Dynamically looking into performance and proactively enhance the performance of

tifi ti d li dnotifications delivered• Provable, measurable performance

through Everbridge’s mass recipient em latorrecipient emulator

Key Evaluation Criteria for an Incident Notification SystemNotification System

• Infrastructure scale and resilience

• Experience and expertise

• Ease of use

• Ability to reach all contact paths including• Ability to reach all contact paths, including voice, email, native SMS (over SMPP and SMTP), IM, and more

• Ease of integration

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Q&A Note: Presentation slides are available on our Slideshare account at: http://www.slideshare.net/everbridge

Use the Q&A function to

b itsubmit your questions.

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Contact InformationEverbridge ResourcesOn-Demand Webinars:www.everbridge.com/webinars

White papers, case studies and morewww.everbridge.com/resources

Follow us:

Dr. Robert ChandlerRobert.chandler@ucf.edu

www.everbridge.com/blog@everbridgefacebook.com/everbridgeinc

Marc LadinMarc.ladin@everbridge.com

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