Every year approximately 2 million of the 2.5 million calls that are made to the 999 emergency service number should not have been directed to 999. This results in valuable resources not being available for those involved in genuine emergencies. Most people are aware of the 999 number but few are aware of their local borough police number, or when to use it.
Email offered us a solution that could create both impact and immediacy within the tight budget constraints we had.
An initial email was sent out to 225,000 Londoners inviting recipients to decide if scenarios they were being shown were worthy of a call to 999 or not. In fact none of the scenarios were 999-suitable. Instead, users were invited to enter which London borough they lived in, so that they could be served up their specific local police number via instant pop-up.
The correct police number was then displayed and could be forwarded straight to the person?s mobile phone and stored in the phone?s memory ready to be used in the future if required.
Results showed that 43% of the audience felt motivated enough to open the email (vs an industry average of 25%). Of the people who viewed their local number, 37% felt comfortable enough to proceed and request that the number be sent via SMS to their mobile phone (massive considering an industry average of 5% and an increasing scepticism regarding handing over such personal details).
This activity now marks the start of a new relationship programme that will enable the Met Police to recontact those Londoners that opted in with other useful information. A true step forward for an organisation that has never enjoyed a one-to-one dialogue with its audience before.
"Targeting Londoners via email and SMS offers an alternative way of reaching our audience over our more conventional methods. It provides awareness of the problem and an innovative approach to tackling the issue around misuse of the 999 facility."
