Self-service Tools: The new age of helpline service
My former employer’s Executive Director used to always say that as long as people still used phones, our crisis lines would answer them, but if people used ESP to communicate, well, we’d use that too. While most humans haven’t yet figured out a way to use ESP for communication, our society is using different forms of communication and even non-communication to get information, assistance, and support.
Text and chat communication has grown exponentially across most age ranges within the past five years. On top of that, a growing trend has also arisen with the internet: self-service tools. There is a big opportunity for helplines of all kinds to use self-service tools to promote their services and increase partnership agreements.
Because we here at iCarol are committed to providing helplines and others the tools they need to reach people across multiple platforms, we created Online Forms. With Online Forms, website visitors can submit information which comes into your iCarol system as a completed report form. Since the forms are essentially a public facing version of an iCarol report form, you can view, edit, and report on the form in the same way as all of your other report forms.
Several possible applications exist for using iCarol’s Online Forms. Let’s explore two use cases:
Assessment and Program Intake
Elmdale Crisis Center (a fictitious organization) operates numerous crisis lines through various contracts with mental health authorities, public and private health providers, and local municipalities. Elmdale’s management team is looking at ways to increase contract amounts by providing additional services without adding too much burden on their staff. After reviewing their current service offerings, they found a few contract required assessments that could be offered through an additional avenue, Online Forms.
They designed the following workflow:
With this workflow, Elmdale Crisis Center can extend the service offerings of the contract with the goal of increasing the number of people who request an assessment and intake into the service provider’s programs.
Consumer Satisfaction Survey
Elmdale Crisis Center’s management team wants to capture a consumer’s satisfaction and risk levels after using their crisis services so that they can report on outcome achievements and demonstrate their social return on investment, necessary for future funding requests. They decided to use iCarol’s Online Forms so that the consumer’s responses and information comes into their system automatically and their front line staff is notified if the person submitting the form would like additional follow-up.
Elmdale placed the consumer satisfaction survey on their website and created an iCarol resource record containing the online survey link, so that their consumers can receive the link directly via a texted or emailed referral from the iCarol system. They instructed their workers to provide the survey link to consumers at the end of their conversations.
The management team designed the following online survey:
Pre-screening question – if answered “no”, visitor cannot complete the survey.
-
1. Have you contacted Elmdale’s crisis services? Yes/No
- Today
- Yesterday
- This week
- Last week
- Earlier this month
- Last month
- Longer than two months ago
- Call
- Text
- Chat
- Other, please specify
- 1-10 Scale
- 1-10 Scale
- 1-10 Scale
- Yes, definitely
- Yes, possibly
- No, probably not
- No, definitely not
- Yes, definitely
- Yes, possibly
- No, probably not
- No, definitely not
- No
- Yes + + Contact Information
Survey Questions
1. When did you last contact Elmdale’s crisis line?
2. How did you contact Elmdale?
3. On a scale of 1-10, how upset were you at the beginning of your conversation with an Elmdale crisis worker?
4. On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate the level of empathy and understanding the Elmdale crisis worker demonstrated during your conversation?
5. One a scale of 1-10, how upset were you at the end of your conversation with an Elmdale crisis worker?
6. Will you contact Elmdale’s crisis services again?
7. Would you recommend Elmdale’s crisis services to a friend or family?
8. Would you like an Elmdale crisis worker to contact you regarding this survey?
First Name ________________
Phone Number __ (____) ___________
Best time of day to call _______________
The versatility of iCarol’s Online Forms opens up entirely new methods for those in need to contact you. Using Online Forms provides additional opportunities to increase and improve service offerings, which can translate into more funding to support your helpline.
Do you have other ideas about how Online Forms can be used? Leave a comment below. Want to discuss some of these ideas with an iCarol staff member? Contact us.
