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Call Center Serves Katrina, Rita Victims
Written by
Lesly Simmons
, Staff Writer, RedCross.org
Tuesday, October 11, 2005 — BAKERSFIELD, Ca.—In an old K-Mart building on the north side of this thriving Central California community, the American Red Cross has developed a unique response to help the victims of this year's devastating hurricanes in the Gulf Coast, by creating a call center to provide financial assistance via telephone for those who are now spread out around the country and need help getting back on their feet.
Agents at the call center in Bakersfield, Calif.,
talk to hurricane victims across the country as a
Red Cross client caseworker offers additional assistance, Oct. 10, 2005. (Photo Credit: Lesly Simmons/American Red Cross)
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"This is the first time we've provided direct financial assistance without sitting across the table from folks," said Scott Underwood, a 29-year Red Cross veteran and call center manager. "This is a good program doing good work. We have a lot of creative things going on here."
The call center concept is not new for the Red Cross, but using it to provide financial assistance is. In past instances, the Red Cross has provided most of its assistance in person to people who visit chapters or service centers in areas affected by storms, wildfires, or other disasters. But because the victims of this year's hurricanes have been spread across the country, creating a way for people to get assistance from wherever they are was deemed most effective by the organization.
"From the time we started setting up until the first calls came in was only seven days," said Underwood. "Call centers that are even a quarter of this size usually take four to six months, and that is with the agents being properly trained."
Bakersfield's call center is one of three located across the country to support the relief operation for the victims of Rita and Katrina. The other two are located in Niagara Falls, N.Y., and Falls Church, Va. Incoming calls are fielded by call agents hired by a temporary staffing agency. The size of the operation means there are always new employees coming in as others leave to return to school, move to full time employment, or for personal reasons.
"The biggest challenge is getting people to understand that this is a 24/7 operation," Underwood continued. "It looks that same at 11 a.m., 11 p.m., or 2 a.m."
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Underwood has 29 years of Red Cross experience under his belt, 19 as a volunteer and 10 as a staff member.
Getting the technology in place has also been an ongoing project. Because of the unprecedented size of the storms and the massive number of victims as a result, the Red Cross had to scale up its client assistance technology on the fly. Teams have upgraded servers and software to keep up with the needs of the operation, as have other components. Everything is in an ongoing state of assessment to make sure that the client's needs are being met as effectively as possible. Daily meetings keep the training, IT, staffing and health leads up to speed on the whole operation, and adjustments are made as needed based on that information.
On average, more than 1 million calls come into the financial assistance hotline in a 24-hour period, and agents in Bakersfield have been handling between 14,000 and 16,000 cases a day. The Red Cross has provided financial assistance to more than 1 million families and individuals or nearly 3.4 million hurricane survivors to date.
All American Red Cross disaster assistance is free, made possible by voluntary donations of time and money from the American people. You can help the victims of thousands of disasters across the country each year, disasters like the Midwest ice storms, by making a financial gift to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, which enables the Red Cross to provide shelter, food, counseling and other assistance to victims of disaster. The American Red Cross honors donor intent. If you wish to designate your donation to a specific disaster please do so at the time of your donation. Call 1-800-REDCROSS or 1-800-257-7575 (Spanish). Contributions to the Disaster Relief Fund may be sent to your local American Red Cross chapter or to the American Red Cross, P. O. Box 37243, Washington, DC 20013. Internet users can make a secure online contribution by visiting www.redcross.org.
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