Customer spotlight An easy-to- remember resource for United Way Worldwide ramps up 211 capabilities essential needs and technology amid COVID-19 outbreak In a typical year, 211 receives 35,000 calls a day, platform, where the AI-assisted IVR bot built on Our goal isn’t to reduce the call connecting people to essential social services Twilio Autopilot and Twilio Flex could answer volume—it’s to increase our ability such as housing, financial assistance, food access, commonly asked questions about COVID-19. If to answer the call volume. We childcare, transportation, and more. But in the the caller still wanted to speak to a specialist, want to be able to talk to everyone immediate aftermath of COVID-19, the network they would be routed to a live agent or back to who wants to talk to us, and we (made up of more than 200 agencies and their a local 211 with available specialists to answer. need centralized, efficient, and roughly 2,000 social service specialists) was seamless technology to do that.” receiving 75,000 calls every day, an increase The system was first tested in Ohio to provide in call volume of more than 100 percent. call coverage to every county. With the entire state now covered by a connected 211 system, The 211 team at United Way Worldwide wanted 211 agencies are now in talks with state RACHEL KRAUSMAN to better connect the decentralized 211 systems to government to activate and receive funding to — SR, DIRECTOR OF 211, make it easier to load balance call volumes, engage build capacity even further, which wouldn’t have UNITED WAY WORLDWIDE volunteers, and more efficiently share information. been possible before the new technology. They quickly developed a streamlined routing For the United Way team, this is all part of their system with a front-end interactive voice desire to find any possible way to help, whether response (IVR). People could call in to a single in their already-heroic regular course of business 1-800 number or their local 211, which would or during extraordinary times such as these. automatically transfer some calls to the new