IVR & Field Employee Safety A Perfect Match

For over 30 years, the Algoma Health Unit (AHU) has provided public health services to citizens of the Algoma district. With offices in Blind River, Elliot Lake, Sault Ste. Marie and Wawa, AHU has a large geographical area in which to provide service coverage. Case managers, public health nurses, family support workers, health practitioners and public health inspectors work in these areas servicing a very broad constituency. Like many health organizations across North America, AHU was facing the need to continuously communicate with staff in the district, and have the ability to respond quickly and efficiently to any situation where there could be a potential public health or staff safety risk.

To address the problem, AHU embarked on a process of redesigning their communication and response processes and policies. This initiative resulted in the revision of policies and procedures and the use of automation for employee tracking, communications and response processes.

The new process required an “off-hours” call center to track and communicate with staff – a manual solution that created operational bottlenecks and increased costs.

After careful review of the manual solution by health unit management, which included consultation with the Health and Safety Committee, a decision was made to evaluate a computerized solution utilizing IVR.

A team, led by Suzanne Irwin, System/Records Manager, examined multiple employee tracking and response requirements. It was important that a staff tracking system did more than just collect data and document safety issues. Immediate alerts, notifications to management and responses to situations where an “out-call” professional may be in a precarious position, were a priority.

While it was clear that moving from a manual/people intensive system to track staff electronically when responding to potential safety situations was crucial, management felt strongly that attention needed to be paid to the work processes surrounding the solutions as well. Working closely with the Health and Safety Committee plus employees, their input ensured that the solution selection, as well as the timing of implementation, would meet the immediate need to track employees with the ability to respond quickly and efficiently to potential risk situations.

The agency appreciated that with the selected IVR solution there was continuous, open, two-way channel of communication with staff. Information was tracked in real-time, thus eliminating the need for dedicated human resources’ personnel to manually monitor, and all that was required was the standard issue, field employee mobile phone.

Today, when staff are leaving on a visit request, all they do is pick-up their mobile phone, and in less than 60 seconds they provide key information though a self-service IVR Telephone portal. When they have completed the visit, the practitioner will simply call-in and sign-out, with the option to set the parameters for the next visit. In the event a practitioner forgets to sign-out, the IVR will place an automated reminder call, with the option to postpone the sign-out time. In the event that an employee fails to respond to the reminder call, then the IVR will automatically issue alerts to the field safety coordinators on call.

 

Program Directors and coordinators can monitor who is in the field and where. Safety officers can review the logs on an historical or real-time basis and assess the effectiveness of safety policies, subsequently making improvements where required, based on “objective” data.

After the IVR solution was implemented, AHU reduced administrative costs associated with Employee Safety Tracking and Response processes by over 80%. “Our IVR solution allows us to manage by exception, eliminate the need for a dispatcher, and eliminate the need for after-hours call center support by 95% – resulting in significant operational savings.” reported AHU. “With access to field employee information 24/7 over the web or via telephone, Program Directors and safety coordinators can make decisions in real time.”

The IVR solution’s Embedded Audit Trail and management reporting allows AHU to focus on strategy, ensure compliance, and execute their safety policy.

In addition AHU chose a Software-as-Service Model, which provides AHU operations expertise with no overhead. With no need for additional infrastructure, AHU’s IVR implementation and deployment took days not months.

IVR does work, does deliver on its promises, and there is a balance between efficiency, user satisfaction and return on investment. The management of Field Employee Safety and Health Care is just one of many applications Where IVR Does Really Work.

You can access the complete series at: http://www.datatel-systems.com/Articles/WhereIVRReallyDoesWork

To Your Success,

Barnard Crespi
CEO
Datatel Inc/Datatel Communications Inc
http://www.datatel-systems.com

Where does IVR really work? In Facilities Management

Where does IVR really work? In Facilities Management

Large tenants depend on and demand quick response and resolution to, facility problems to run their business. That means when they have a problem, they need the right technician to show up on time.

Tenants don’t expect a call center agent to resolve the issue over the telephone, as there is often a physical problem, that requires an expert to fix a water leak, an electrical problem, an HVAC problem, or something that needs to be repaired quickly and a technician needs to be dispatched immediately.

So how does IVR provide a win-win solution for commercial tenants and outsourced facility management providers?

Many facility management service providers have already deployed IVR applications, which allow tenants to report problems, and management to dispatch repair technicians who, in turn, log-in and log-out from the job. But how does this really work, in day-to-day operations? Here is a real-life example:

It is 7:00 a.m. and the manager at store #326 of a national women’s apparel chain, shows up to prep for the day. On her arrival, she tries to boot up her cash registers, realizes that the electrical outlets powering the cash registers are not operational; she follows procedure, and resets the breaker, however that does not resolve the problem.

Now this becomes a major problem, as the doors will open in 2 ½ hours with no cash registers and this will cost the company $1000’s per hour if the problem is not resolved before opening.

The World Without IVR: Based on company procedure, a call is placed to the facility management outsourcing vendor, and to the regional VP of the retail chain. It is 7:00 a.m. so the facility management vendor is routing calls to an after hours outsourced answering service, who will call a company manager, who will then contact a contractor, who dispatches a technician to the job site. On arrival, the contractor will call the facility management vendor to request authorization to proceed. All this requires various people being involved for a single after business hours dispatch. This particular retailer has over 50 after hours facility maintenance requests in any given day, throughout its 700 + outlets.

Today the picture looks very different as reporting and dispatching takes minutes. The facility management outsourcing provider has implemented a fully automated IVR system which automates three key functions.

(a) Tenant Trouble Reporting: Tenants can report a facility related issue 24/7 by simply calling in to a national toll-free IVR #. They identify themselves by providing a tenant ID, and enter a problem code (each tenant has a reporting code card). The IVR transmits this information in real-time to the facility management provider’s web enabled software. Alerts get issued, and calls get placed to the corresponding technician, technicians accept the work order by providing a telephone input, and proceed to the job location.

(b) Technician/Contractor Sign-in: The technician/contractor arrives at the site, calls into the toll-free # and logs-in to the job, providing job relevant information. The technician then receives authorization to proceed.

(c) Technician/Contractor Sign-out: The technician/contractor completes the task, calls into the toll-free # and updates the status of the work order.

What happens, if there is a problem that can’t be handled by IVR automation? The customer or technician can always contact an after hours manager on call, something else that the IVR can handle through scheduled on-call routing functionality. This only has to happen 2-3 times in any given day to reduce labor related costs and accelerate the workflow exponentially, which ultimately increases customer satisfaction, and adds to the facility management service provider’s bottom line.

What happens, if a Technician/Contractor doesn’t call in on time? The IVR has the capability of initiating an outbound call to the technician, to determine their status. What happens if they don’t answer? – The IVR System can notify a manager.

In most cases, facility management service providers have in-house software that handle the tenants reporting, work order tracking, scheduling and tracking. Current IVR technology is flexible enough to allow service providers integration into a 3rd party or home-grown facility management software by capitalizing on their existing investment in web technology.

So IVR does work, delivers on its promises, and provides a balance between efficiency, user satisfaction and return on investment. Facility management is just one of many applications “Where IVR Does Really Work.”

You can access the complete series at: http://www.datatel-systems.com/Articles/WhereIVRReallyDoesWork

To Your Success,

Barnard Crespi
CEO
Datatel Inc/Datatel Communications Inc
http://www.datatel-systems.com