Inefficient systems and tedious, time-consuming tasks can be extremely frustrating. So, when a group of social workers is presented with innovative Salesforce solutions that streamline processes and boost productivity, you can understand why they might be emotional. In fact, when Provisio unveiled its powerful new technology platform for this state family welfare agency, staffers actually cried because of how much easier their jobs had become. Here’s the story behind that moment of joy and relief.
Provisio worked with the department office that responds to complaints about, and helps elevate suggestions to improve, this state welfare agency. While its legacy system may have recorded data on complaints, it didn’t actually harness that data to tell a holistic story. It was not simple to spot troublesome trends, keep track of interventions, or even report on the work being done. Now, it is, following Provisio’s custom implementation of Salesforce Service Cloud and Experience Cloud.
Auto-Populating Forms for Faster Intake Process
The key to this department’s innovation is a portal that prevents staffers from having to do more work than is necessary. First, if someone called to file an advocacy request, staff could search if that person already exists in the system. If they did, the intake form for the new request would auto-populate with that person’s information. Staff could also see if there were prior interventions for this person and detailed information about those incidents. This cut down on tedious data entry and instantly gave staff the background information they needed to fully understand the history of the situation.
Spotting Trends & Flagging Catalysts
Once staff had a holistic view of the situation, the system allowed them to tag the situation with a possible contributing cause. Possible catalysts could include current events or trending issues like recent legislation or departmental policy changes. This highlighted trends that could explain spikes in complaints, empowering the department to dig to the root of a wider issue.
Adaptive Functionality to Foster Compliance
The new system also empowered the department to be more responsive by confirming that every intervention is addressed within a certain time frame. For callers younger than 21 years old, their intervention had to be assigned and responded to within 24 business hours. For those older than 21, the time frame jumped to 48 business hours. Since the system could calculate the current age of the caller based on their date of birth, this functionality adapted the timer on a case-by-case basis, ensuring the department complied with its own standards on responsiveness. Separately, staff received reminders if an intervention was left unfinished.
Robust Audit Trails & Reporting Metrics
An audit trail was also created so it was always clear who made changes to a case file and when. After a supervisor approved the outcome, the system would then lock down the intervention file so it can never be altered again, ensuring its integrity. Crucially, the reporting of data is much easier now, too. A comprehensive dashboard provides robust metrics on call volume, open interventions, and closed intervention times, dates, categories, and more.
An Emotional Response to Technology Innovation
Change is hard, particularly when it involves a technology system that is the linchpin to your operations. So, seeing that difficult investment pay off with drastic improvements is certainly a reason to let the tears flow. These social workers have a lot to look forward to as well, knowing that this technology is nimble enough to scale in the future depending on growing call volume or changing department requirements. Best-in-class technology that evolves with you breeds best-in-class solutions that will never fail your constituents.
Tom Moran lives in Highland Park, IL and spends much of his summers in Green Lake, WI. Besides content writing for Provisio, he also teaches a broadcast writing course at Columbia College Chicago. Tom loves jam bands and extended guitar solos.