Contained in our release of version 3.87 of iCarol we have loads of enhancements across different areas. Stay tuned for more, and save the date for our next Enhancement Review Webinar tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, September 27 at 2pm Eastern (registration opening soon) to learn about all of them.
For today, though, we wanted to share one big and exciting upgrade to our Messaging services — several items that enhance and improve the experience for your Live Chat visitors who are using mobile devices, as well as tools that allow you to further configure the overall branding and appearance of your Live Chat service on your website.
What’s New?
Chat widget
Traditionally, your iCarol Live Chat invited someone to chat with you using an image embedded into one of your web pages that, when clicked, took the visitor to an iCarol-hosted registration page and the visitor held a chat conversation in an entirely different window outside of your website.
The option to have that workflow remains, however now you can choose to have your chat appear in what we’ve come to recognize as a more typical and modern chat workflow, by offering an icon and option to start a chat from the bottom right of your website as pictured here:
Once opened, the chat widget presents your optional pre-registration questions to the visitor. When those are entered and submitted by the visitor, the chat comes through to your iCarol Messaging queue as it has in the past. Then once the conversation is accepted by your volunteer, staff member or counselor, they’ll handle the conversation within iCarol as they always have, meanwhile the chat visitor will continue to use the widget. Perhaps best of all, this widget is even more mobile friendly to better accommodate your website visitors using devices such as smartphones or tablets to visit your website and begin a chat with your organization.
Chat Widget Configuration
Along with our new widget option is the ability to configure the widget to blend in with your website, matching your color scheme and branding. This includes:
Uploading a logo
Enabling Safe Exit and assigning the exit website
Setting background colors
Selecting font types and colors
We hope you and your website visitors enjoy these new options. We think that your website visitors will enjoy the ease of use and intuitive style of the chat widget, along with how nicely and seamlessly it blends into your site!
The new settings can be found within the Messaging module of your iCarol system and is accessibly by Admins and others with the appropriate security permissions. Please visit the iCarol Help Center to look through our new knowledge base article about these settings and tips on how to use them. If you need additional assistance, you are always welcome to reach out to our Support Team during their normal hours of operation by opening a ticket, sending an email, or starting a chat with them from the Help Center.
All the data shows that it is critical for your organization to offer consumers more ways to reach you than just by phone. Phone calls are declining in popularity and offering SMS/Texting and Live Chat to connect with your services is crucial if you want to reach everyone in need, stay relevant, and help more people.
For a limited time, you can add a first or additional Live Chat or SMS/Text Portal to your iCarol system and save 50% off the usual setup costs!
When you integrate these important channels into their iCarol system, you can:
Reach populations of people who either can’t or prefer not to make phone calls
Build rapport and trust by offering a more private way for someone to share their story
Streamline data collection and reporting to include Live Chat/Text
Have complete control over Online/Offline times using your iCarol shift schedule
Access additional reporting on SMS/Text such as offline texts received and overall usage
Plug resource and referral information from your database into the messaging conversation
Triage Live Chat conversations using pre-conversation survey data
Use pre and post conversation information to measure your impact
And much, much more!
This offer is only valid for a limited time — If you haven’t checked out iCarol’s Messaging tools in awhile, now is the time! We have exciting new enhancements coming to Messaging at the end of this month so stay tuned for more information! Also check out these resources to learn more about iCarol Messaging:
The Pre-Chat Survey Queue Indicator gives your organization the ability to include questions in your pre-chat survey that, depending on the answer selected, triggers a corresponding indicator with the conversation when it’s under ‘Waiting in Queue’ and ‘Your conversations’ (found on the main Messaging page). This can be used to aid your volunteers and staff to quickly triage/identify which conversation they should join next based on how the help seeker has answered specific questions set up by your organization.
Your organization may wish to use this feature to indicate any of the following for your conversations:
Needs: Add one or more questions for the help seeker to identify their need or concern (e.g. mental health, finances, relationships, etc.)
Contract Type: Add one or more questions for the help seeker to identify what contract/service they are inquiring about (e.g. mobile crisis intake, tax assistance, health insurance navigators, coordinated access, etc.)
Risk Level: Add one or more questions for the help seeker to answer that can be used to gauge their risk. (e.g. suicide, self-harm, or runaway/homelessness risk)
For example, you may wish to include a question like the one you see highlighted below:
Depending on how the help seeker answers that question, when the conversation appears on your main Messaging page, you’ll see the indicator associated with the answer that your organization setup:
Notice in the screenshot above the text box with some additional information about the help seekers’ concern; this appears when your vols-staff hover their mouse over the indicator and can help them further prioritize which conversation they should join next.
In the example we’ve been looking at, we chose to include just one question that is used to determine which indicator appears for the conversation. But, you have the option to include multiple questions to determine which indicator appears for the conversation. Let’s look at one possible way you could set up multiple questions to use for this feature. For example, you may wish to ask the three questions highlighted below to assess a help seeker’s risk for suicide and create corresponding indicators for High, Medium and Low Risk. Values you assign to each answer will determine the ultimate risk level that appears on the main Messaging page:
The Pre-Chat Survey Queue Indicator feature is included with all Live Chat Messaging subscriptions. If your organization is interested in finding out more about this feature or wants to get started with the setup, sign in to your iCarol system and click here to read the related help article to learn more.
Are you concerned that the volume of Chat or Text traffic coming through to your service is lower than you were expecting it would be? Or, are you in the planning stages of adding a Chat or Text service to your center and want to develop a plan for alerting the community to this new way to access your program?
Join us on Monday, April 9 at 2pm EDT for a Q&A webinar with a panel of staff members operating successful Chat and Text programs to hear about how they communicated their service offerings to their communities. Can’t make it? Fear not! We’ll have the recording available to watch at your convenience.
Have you been considering adding on popular and in-demand communication channels like Live Chat or Texting to your organization’s services? Are you curious to see how these channels are handled in iCarol, and how they fit seamlessly into the rest of the functions of the software? I hope you’ll join my teammate Mary and I for a live demo on Thursday at 2pm EDT so we can show you!
To find out more about this webinar and what we’ll cover, visit our registration page.
Adding on new communications channels people can use to reach your helpline is a critical element of providing effective service to your community in the 21st century. But, while the addition of such contact methods is important, it brings with it a unique set of challenges that crisis centers must be ready to address. Online emotional support, particularly Live Chat, can be extremely anonymous. In fact, that’s part of the appeal for users — the ability to confide in someone without revealing one’s face, voice, and identity sets exactly the stage that many people prefer or need in order to truly open up and reach out for help. In instances where emergency rescue might be needed for a person in imminent danger, the same exciting technology that allows so many in need to access help in the way they prefer can create anxiety and headaches for crisis workers who want to help.
Join us for our next webinar where we’ll delve into the topic of active intervention in the online space, and how this aspect of crisis intervention continues to evolve.
When: Thursday, January 25, 2018 Time: 2:00pm Eastern
Our Presenter:
Beau Pinkham
Director of Crisis Intervention Services
The Crisis Center of Johnson County
About Beau:
Beau has been part of the crisis intervention/suicide prevention field since 2002, when he started volunteering at his local crisis line. Subsequent experience being a flood recovery outreach counselor after the devastation of 2008 and working with the homeless population after that led him to a staff position with The Crisis Center of Johnson County, where he currently directs crisis intervention and suicide prevention services. He is a current board member for Contact USA, an accrediting body for crisis centers across the United States, and is part of the American Association of Suicidology’s Strategic Media Response Task Force. He has been involved in panel discussions on the intersection of video games and suicide at SXSW and other conferences, and has presented on how tech trends have affected and will continue to affect crisis intervention services.
iCarol is thrilled to attend the National Sexual Assault Conference (NSAC) in Dallas, TX, June 7-9, 2017. Over the past few years, iCarol has helped more and more agencies working in the sexual violence support space, especially as the need to offer chat and text to survivors increases. We couldn’t be more honored to help these agencies in their missions, and make the work these vital agencies do easier, and save them time and money along the way.
For some, like the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, the agency is focused on sexual violence prevention and survivor support. For many other iCarol clients, sexual violence support work is part of a multi-faceted agency.
In particular, providing survivors options for texting and live chat during the crucial hours following a sexual assault ensures they have options other than calling on the phone to reach out to the supporting agency. Many survivors have questions about getting a SANE nurse exam, or need support. Some agencies even explain how an advocate can meet the survivor at the hospital and explain the processes over text messages or live chat. In many states, the sooner evidence is collected in an exam (often within 72 hours), the better. The support work for survivors surely does not end there.
Here are a few other highlights of iCarol’s work with sexual violence support agencies:
Ensure hours/funding are accounted for and seamlessly administer and track:
Advocate/SANE hospital & mobile responder activities
Outreach/presentations at schools, events, training
Case worker/advocate follow-up — no one gets missed
Instant reporting for funders:
Advocate and staff training hours & certification (also with expiration alerts to staff)
Monthly & quarterly reporting of interactions (calls, chat, text, in person), stats built right in
Better volunteer/advocate/staff shift attendance:
Clear and web/mobile accessible organized schedules
Seamless tools for volunteers to get help to fill a shift
Text and email reminders about upcoming shifts
The conferences is “A Conference for People Who Want to End Sexual Violence,” according to their website. It also states: “The purpose of the conference is to provide a national training opportunity for 1,500+ workers from rape crisis centers, state sexual assault coalitions and other allies (medical professionals, law enforcement, campus rape crisis programs, public health department workers, and others) from across the United States and its territories.”
If you are going to be at the conference, please stop by the iCarol booth! Have questions or want to set up a time to meet? Please !
In December of 2016, iCarol announced a suite of enhancements for Contact Forms and Messaging. These enhancements include the following benefits:
Greater Productivity
Faster completion of forms
Faster onboarding of new volunteers and staff
Quicker geographic suggestions
Widen your volunteer pool
Improved accessibility
User friendly interface
Improved Connection to Help Seekers
Faster delivery of chat and text messages
Better Documentation
Report form opens with chat or text conversation
Quicker, more accurate referrals
Improves outcomes
Streamlined, powerful resource search tools
For more information about the enhancements, please refer to the Help page in iCarol, by clicking Help in the left hand menu. There are two documents and a training webinar available in the “New” section of the Help page with information about the enhancements.
It is our goal to upgrade all clients to the new version of the Contact Form and Messaging by the end of 2017. Therefore, this upgrade is mandatory, and all clients will be upgraded. We began this work by sending out a survey to iCarol Admins which asked which quarter they would like to be upgraded in. We used the responses to this survey to begin scheduling clients for the upgrade. Those who did not respond to the survey have also been scheduled for the upgrade. The timing of the upgrade for each client is based on the features they are using in their Contact Forms. Not all features are available in the new version of the Contact Form yet, but these features will be added throughout the year.
iCarol staff will be in close communication with clients who are being upgraded, and will provide all the information needed to successfully complete the upgrade. Timely responses from clients throughout the upgrade process would be greatly appreciated so the upgrade can proceed in an efficient and effective manner. Clients will be informed of when the upgrade will occur, and if the timing does not work for them, they can request to be rescheduled for a later date. Please be aware, we will do our best to re-schedule clients to a time they request, but we cannot guarantee this. We must balance the requests with the availability of iCarol staff to complete the upgrade.
For those not using Messaging, and therefore only upgrading Contact Forms, and those using Messaging with Messaging portals (please note, Contact Forms not related to Messaging will also be upgraded at the same time), the upgrade process will proceed as follows:
1. During each month in 2017, iCarol will send an email to all clients scheduled to be upgraded the next month.
2. A case will be created by iCarol staff to track the upgrade process.
3. A member of the iCarol Support team will respond to the case and provide the following information:
a. Which week the client is scheduled for the upgrade
b. Where to find information about the enhancements
c. Which forms, if any, are ineligible for the upgrade, due to special features which may not be available in the new version of the Contact Form yet
d. Information about adding demo forms to the client system
4. A member of the iCarol Support team will add demo forms to the client system. These demo forms will be copies of the client’s Contact Forms, upgraded to the new version of the Contact Forms.
5. A member of the iCarol Support team will respond to the case when the demo forms are added. The demo forms will allow clients to preview and play with the new version of the Contact Forms prior to completing the upgrade. They can also be used to train staff and volunteers on the new version of the Contact Form.
6. A week prior to the upgrade week, a member of the iCarol Support Team will respond to the case with the exact date the upgrade will be completed.
7. On the day of the upgrade, the upgrade will be completed, and the demo forms will be deleted. A member of the iCarol Support team will respond to the case to indicate the upgrade is complete. If there were Contact Forms not eligible to be upgraded, iCarol staff will reach out later in the year to schedule the upgrade of these forms.
For those using Messaging without Messaging portals, the upgrade process will be a little different. Please note, Contact Forms not related to Messaging will also be upgraded as the same time. The upgrade process will proceed as follows:
1. During each month in 2017, iCarol will send an email to all clients scheduled to be upgraded the next month.
2. A case will be created by iCarol staff to track the upgrade process.
3. A member of the iCarol Support team will respond to the case and provide the following information:
a. Which week the client is scheduled for the upgrade
b. Where to find information about the enhancements
c. A detailed list of steps to upgrade to Messaging portals
d. Specific questions that the client will need to answer so the iCarol Support team member can begin setting up Messaging portals. Please note, the process cannot continue until these questions are answered, so it is very important that a timely response be sent.
4. Once the answers to the specific questions noted above are received, the iCarol Support team member will begin to set-up Messaging portals in the client system. Once completed, they will respond to the case with instructions on the next step in the process which the client will need to take, which is to assign Vols-Staff member to Portal Programs.
5. Client assigns Vols-Staff to Portal Programs, and responds to the case to let the iCarol Support team member know they have completed the task. Again, the process cannot proceed until the iCarol Support team member receives confirmation that this task is complete.
6. Once confirmation of the task outlined above has been received, the iCarol Support team member will complete the set-up of Messaging portals.
7. The iCarol Support team member will respond to the case and provide instructions on next steps, which include:
a. Setting up Shifts for Portal Programs
b. Updating website with new URL(s) for Messaging
c. Editing Standard Messages
This response will also include which week the upgrade process will be completed in, and information about adding demo forms to the client system.
8. A member of the iCarol Support team will add demo forms to the client system. These demo forms will be copies of the client’s Contact Forms, upgraded to the new version of the Contact Form.
9. A member of the iCarol Support team will respond to the case when the demo forms are added. The demo forms will allow clients to preview and play with the new version of the Contact Form prior to completing the upgrade. They can also be used to train staff and volunteers on the new version of the Contact Form. If there are Contact Forms that are ineligible to be upgraded at this time, these will be noted in this response.
10. A week prior to the upgrade week, a member of the iCarol Support Team will respond to the case with the exact date the upgrade will be completed.
11. On the day of the upgrade, the upgrade will be completed, and the demo forms will be deleted. A member of the iCarol Support team will respond to the case to indicate the upgrade is complete.
If there were Contact Forms not eligible to be upgraded, iCarol staff will reach out later in the year to schedule the upgrade of these forms. If there are any questions about the upgrade process, please feel free to submit a case to the iCarol Support Team via the online case management system, accessed by clicking Help in the left hand menu in your iCarol system.
In response to the increased use of alternate communication channels for help seekers, many iCarol clients are adding Messaging to their iCarol systems. Using Messaging, you can communicate with your help seekers via chat or text. As with other areas of iCarol, sometimes issues can arise that require making a report to the iCarol Support Team. The preferred method to communicate with the iCarol Support Team is to submit a case via the Online Case Management Tool. Please click here for more information on how to submit a case. When the issue is in regards to iCarol Messaging however, there is another tool that we encourage you to use to report issues with this area of iCarol.
This tool is called the Report Incident Tool and is found at the bottom of the counselor’s screen when addressing a Messaging conversation.
Any user can us this tool to report an issue. When one clicks Report Incident, a small form will appear in a pop-up window. Please enter a concise Subject that describes the issue, and then use the Description text box to further describe the issue in as much detail as possible.
Once the security code is entered, and the “Report Incident” button clicked, a case will be created and sent to the iCarol Support Team. This case will also appear in the Online Case Management tool. All cases created in this manner are named “Messaging Incident #xxxx: Subject”. For example, the name of the incident shown in the screenshot above might be “Messaging Incident #2650: Strange symbols appearing in chat conversation”. The case will be appropriately attributed to your agency. The first available member of the iCarol Support team will respond to the case and begin the investigation of the issue.
The benefit of submitting Messaging cases in this manner is that this tool conveys additional details about the specific Messaging conversation the user was addressing that helps the iCarol Support and Technical teams immensely when investigating issues. Some of the details conveyed include browsers being used, platforms being used, and whether the visitor was using a mobile device. The details can be extremely helpful in investigating and ultimately resolving an issue.
This quick and easy to use tool can be a benefit to you by conveying details “in the moment” so they are not forgotten. It can cut down or eliminate conversations or emails between the user who experienced the issue and an Admin user who wants to report the issue to iCarol Support. It can also mean that issues are reported faster, which could lead to faster investigation and resolution of the issue.
As always, if you have any questions about the Report Incident tool, or anything else, please do not hesitate to contact the iCarol Support team!
We’re getting ever so close to releasing the powerful enhancements to your Call Report Forms and Live Chat and Texting features in iCarol. Take a few minutes to watch our new video!
