How VoIPstudio powered COVID-19 helpline for the residents of St Helens Village

About

In March 2020, local volunteers set up the St Helens Community website to provide villagers with help and support during COVID-19. The site provided lots of information about local services, shopping, takeaway and restaurant deliveries, doctor and dental services, Government support and grants.

The Challenge

To supplement the website, villagers also set up a telephone helpline for older and more vulnerable residents, which was served every day from 9am-5pm by volunteers. The team wanted to have one central – and local – number, but with people able to pick up inbound calls on their own phones.

Luckily for the volunteers, a resident Charles Hewitt was already a long-time customer of VoIPstudio using it for his business, Pathway Analytics, which provides data, economic modelling and procurement advice to hospitals and directors of public health.

The Solution

Traditionally, setting up a system the way the villagers wanted it would be time-consuming and would need a PBX, scheduled routing and an IT specialist.

However, with VoIPstudio, users can choose from a variety of web-based comms services at an affordable monthly subscription cost.

For the St Helens' helpline, all they wanted was a local number with call routing to multiple numbers on a schedule, a central voicemail that was easy to access plus the ability to record calls, if necessary.

Charles and his team of volunteers were able to configure the service, including provisioning an inbound line, in under 30 minutes. For his business, he valued the flexibility of using the mobile app along with the option to have a London number. In contrast, for their village helpline, the primary requirement was simply a local number with call forwarding to team members’ mobile phones. VoIPstudio met both needs quickly and efficiently.

The Impact

Approximately 24 villagers participated in a rota to manage the helpline. Calls made to the central local number, provided by VoIPstudio, were automatically diverted from one volunteer to the next until someone was available to answer. Adding new volunteers to the system was simple, and it was easy to manage schedules to account for when individuals were off-duty.

St Helens had always fostered a strong sense of community, but the COVID-19 pandemic brought people even closer. The volunteer helpline became a vital support system for residents of all ages.

VoIPstudio made it possible for volunteers to share the responsibility of answering calls while also providing the flexibility to step away when needed, ensuring continuous and reliable support throughout the community.