Answering crisis hotline calls “a quantifiable value” for non-profit

#SafeHarbors #crisishotline #non-profit #telephoneansweringservice #afterhourscalls

 By Sue Cunningham-Milito

Non-profit Safe Harbors says having Cunningham Communications operators answer its crisis hotline provides a “quantifiable value.”

Jo Cuson is an Advocacy Coordinator for Safe Harbors. The organization serves victims of sexual abuse and domestic violence in the Finger Lakes Region of Upstate New York.

“It is key that your answering service operators understand that they are handling calls from people traumatized by an experience.”

“We have a very specific script for the operators to follow. You can’t be dispassionate or un-interested answering the phone.

Your operators listen and patch through the call to our ‘on-call’ volunteer advocate.”

“Quantifiable Value”

Cuson says Cunningham Communications provides “quantifiable value” to Safe Harbors:

• It saves paying a staff member to stay up all night to answer the hotline phone.
• The money we save helps us put our resources back into the communities we serve.
• Our previous answering service charged a high fee to make changes to our staff directory.
• We are not missing calls or having calls sent to the wrong person.

Safe Harbors switched to Cunningham Communications a couple of years ago.

Safe Harbors was unhappy that its previous answering service mishandled calls. It also charged a high fee to make staff directory changes, Cuson says.

“Our team has grown from 10 to 22 people in the last five years.  It was quite costly to be charged every time we added a new staff member or volunteer.

Cunningham does not charge us for directory changes. We have actually cut our costs in half which is significant.

Cunningham’s service is way better. We are far happier for the service we are getting now.

We don’t have any instances of dropped calls, or people being missed which we had a lot before.”

Cuson says she researched many telephone answering services before switching to Cunningham Communications.

“We work very well together. I am impressed with the ease of the way they handle issues or requests from us.

Cunningham provides very good value for their service. They are very responsive. I can call any time to get done what I need to have done. I really appreciate that.”

Find out how Cunningham Communications answering service can help your business be more responsive and cost-effective.

Call us at 800-430-7880.