Manning the phones with composure and compassion: Salesforce software enables better support for helpline callers

Background

Guiding a person through a crisis requires training, understanding, and composure. Counsellors and psychotherapists manning a helpline for male victims of domestic abuse face difficult conversations with every call. Our job was to provide technology that could make these conversations easier, helping the charity to build understanding and trust with callers in crisis.

We arrived to help facilitate the launch of the Male Advice Line, operated by Men’s Development Network, which provides confidential advice and support to men who are experiencing domestic abuse. The charity would need clever infrastructure which integrated with its phone system and provided helpline staff with fast access to editable data, alongside stringent confidentiality settings and easy reporting tools.

Solution

Our first step was to understand the needs of the people manning the phones, as well as ways of working at the charity, and scope for future development. At Cirrico, we take great care to provide technology that plays to the strengths of an organisation, providing automation that eliminates repetitive administrative tasks, freeing time and energy to focus on making an impact – in this case, helping men in crisis. By taking a future-focused approach, we ensured that the new system wouldn’t just grow with the charity but could steer it towards its most impactful potential.

We used Salesforce Service Cloud alongside NewVoiceMedia to provide a system that would recognise any known caller and display their key information. This means that if a service user has previously given any information the charity, they don’t need to repeat it. Staff can view caller details ranging from their age and employment status to notes from past calls, the type of abuse they have suffered and even an agreed safe word. While the service could not operate without the experts at the helm, this technology amplifies their efforts, allowing them to act swiftly, knowledgeably and with an all-important air of compassion and understanding.

The system also facilitates several necessary elements of a helpline. There is one phone number for multiple call handlers, supervisors can listen in on calls, calls can be recorded. It’s also essential that sensitive information is stored safely, and so we established two-factor authentications for utmost security. What’s more, we also ensured that the charity’s courses and events were supported by the right technology – providing a solution that could track attendance rates and log completion of courses or programme stages.

Summary

Technology empowers people. We guided Men’s Development Network on every step of this journey and left the team fully trained and motivated to use their new state-of-the-art software to its maximum potential.  The helpline is salvation to callers, often during the lowest moments of their lives. We take pride in the knowledge that we have provided the best possible tools to the experts that provide essential support to men in crisis.

Our goal at Cirrico has always been to use technology as a force for good, to care for each other and world we live in. Our work with Men’s Development Network is the epitome of this vision, a true example of the innovation impacting lives for the better.