10 Day Tune Up for H1N1 – Day 5: Test Your Call Tree

During an emergency or a planned organizational event, call-down trees are simple and effective methods of alerting large groups of people with a small amount of effort. Today we’ll review call-down trees and provide a way to improve your planning and utilization of this tool.

Telephone Call-Down Tree 101

A call down is a series of telephone calls from one person to the next used to relay specific information. A call list has the following information:

• The name of the individual and title
• A primary and alternate phone number

When calling, the person at the top will start the tree by calling the second employee. It can be helpful to have a brief script complete with specific action items.

• Ask the person to get paper or pencil to write specific information
• Give facts about the event
• Confirm who they will be calling next on the list
• The last person on the list should call the first person on the list to close the loop

Today’s To-Do: Test Your Call Tree

The telephone numbers on this list should be reviewed and updated quarterly in large businesses, and at least annually in smaller organizations. You should test your call-down tree periodically.

Today’s To-Do is to schedule a test of your call-down tree and then to test it. You can download a Word Document that can be a template for your organization.

Here are other articles I have written on this topic:

• 10 Day Tune Up for H1N1 – Day 4: Notify Stakeholders
• 10 Day Tune Up for H1N1 – Day 2: Your Message
• 10 Day Tune Up for H1N1 – Day 1: Influenza Update
• Writing a Strategic Communications Plan: Evaluation
• Why You Should Be Proactive with Bad News
• Three Things People Want to Know in a Crisis
• New Campaign for Will County Health Department
• The Art of Cleaning Up a Mess
• 10 Day Tune Up for H1N1 – Day 10: Team Briefing
• 10 Day Tune Up for H1N1 – Day 7: Social Media Checklist