During the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, many cities, states and municipalities have discovered the limits of their public information call centers. Calls and other contacts have increased exponentially during a time when many call centers were finding it wasn’t safe to operate with a full staff in place. As a result, citizens have often found long waits in their search for public health information.
Pennsylvania’s Delaware County Vaccine Call Center has seen spikes in volume, with more than 1,100 people calling in each day with some experiencing hold times measured in hours. To try and alleviate the problems, county officials recently approved expanding the center with temporary staff so that residents' concerns can be addressed in a more timely manner, according to local news source the Daily Times.
Delaware County Council unanimously approved a $692,347.60 contract with Helpware Inc. to provide temporary staffing and services to expand the county's COVID-19 Vaccine Call Center beginning March 1. This expense will be funded through the county's Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act allocation.
Helpware is a call center outsourcing company that builds customized teams in customer service and back offices for government and commercial clients. The company has offices in the U.S. in Kentucky, as well as globally in Kyiv, Manila, Guadalajara and Berlin. The outsourcer’s services will add to the existing call center labor force of 12 full-time staff.
"We are being besieged by calls at our call center," said Delaware County Executive Director Howard Lazarus in a statement, noting that Helpware would provide 10 operators for 12 months. "So we worked with them to find a outsource resource that can help us get through the call volume that we're receiving and to be more responsive."
Delaware County's Chief Information Officer Frank Bilotta told the Daily Times that a key component of the contract is that it can scale either up or down based on need.
"If we see a reduced volume of calls, we'll be able to reduce the number of agents on staff," he said.