Geographic Lookup Tool Options on Call Report Forms
Over the last year we’ve been steadily migrating eligible customers over to our new and improved Call Report Form version (aka “Version 5” or “V5”), which includes a number of exciting features. One of these features is an intuitive geographic lookup field, which allows a user to begin typing the help seeker’s known location such as zip code or city, and then an auto suggest will recommend location options to pick from. Once selected, the rest of the geographic information like county and state/province is backfilled, saving time and helping with data accuracy.
While the majority of our users prefer this auto suggest location lookup and found it to be an improvement over the traditional drop down picklist, others have lodged some valid concerns that the tool does not meet their unique needs as well as the picklist version. In listening to user feedback we’ve learned a lot about the variability in quality of the available geographic data that populates these fields, received from a variety of sources. We’ve also learned that there are strong regional opinions about location data and the unique geographic data needs that for some clients were better met by the drop down picklist version of geographic lookup.
While we hoped the auto suggest would work well universally, after listening to your concerns we understand there are valid reasons it does not. For that reason, we’re allowing users of the new Call Report Version 5 to choose to use either the traditional drop down, or the auto suggest geographic lookup tools, for each of their call reports. This setting is found in the Overall Settings for each Call Report Form. Users of Version 5 can set their geographic lookup preferences by taking the following steps:
- Sign into iCarol as an Admin
- Go to the “Calls” section
- Click “Manage Call Report Forms”
- Find the form you wish to edit in the list and click “Edit this form”
- Click the link for “Overall settings for this call report form”
- Under the “Places” heading, you can choose which style geographic lookup tool you wish to use on that form.
By checking the box, you will use the old drop down version. Leaving it unchecked will activate the auto suggest version.
Given that geographic data needs range widely from region to region and client to client, we’re continuing to look at how these areas can be more configurable throughout your iCarol systems.
We truly appreciate all the feedback and input we’ve received about the geographic lookup tool and value your opinions on how these tools impact you. We hope that by giving our V5 users this choice we can satisfy everyone’s needs as you capture your help seekers’ location data.
