Personal preferences, technology literacy, and mobility all impact which communication channels kin can use. If you are only using one method to reach kin, such as mailing physical letters, you are not reaching everyone you need to find.
How to do this
Conduct user research with kin to learn about their contact preferences.
Collect contact preferences for kin, and write them down where everyone can see.
Enable employees to use email, text messaging, social media messaging, and telephone calls. They may even need to make in-person visits. While employees may need the ability to send physical mail occasionally, it should not be your most common method of communication.
Anticipated costs and benefits
Costs
Benefits
Time to develop policies and practices for document retention, records discovery, privacy, data sharing, and other concerns for new communication methods.
Suggested message templates adapted for each medium. An email will be different from a text message which will be different from a voicemail.
Find more kin
Who's doing this
Some agencies use customer service tools to communicate with kin via email, text message, and social media. These tools can often handle the security, document retention, and discovery needs of an agency, while also providing a convenient single interface for an employee, as well as the ability for teams to collaborate (e.g., one employee can easily jump into messaging with kin when another is on leave).