Insider: v11-i08

Volume 11, Issue #08: August 2020

IN THE NEWS

The Call Center's Role in Behavior Counseling

The term “mental health” refers to the condition of a person’s emotional, psychological, and social well-being. The state of one’s mental health affects how they feel, think, and behave. At times, an individual may experience one or more adverse mental health concerns. Mental health issues are common and treatable. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), 1 in 5 adults in the United States experiences mental illness in any given year.

It is crucial that people have access to mental health services. Mental illness is a disease and sometimes it may cause an individual to experience behavior that poses an immediate threat to themselves, to people around them, or to property. Unfortunately, research indicates that roughly two-thirds of people in the United States, with diagnosable mental health conditions, do not receive services.

Barriers to mental health treatment are being reduced by creating a network of care through technology. Call centers provide a critical service in this endeavor by using state-of-the-art communication systems to improve the state of mental health care.

1Call Sponsors “Innovating Through the Pandemic” Presentation at CEC

1Call customer Shelley White, MS,CHAM, FACHE, Associate Administrator at Upstate Medical University, is scheduled to present a session titled “Innovating Through the Pandemic” at the Contact Experience Conference, hosted online August 27-28. Shelley’s presentation is scheduled for Thursday, August 27 at 2pm.

In this TedTalk-style session, hear how Upstate Medical University quickly adapted its new staff on-boarding process during the pandemic. Like most, Upstate is constantly recruiting for its call centers and registration sites. This March, just as the pandemic hit, Upstate had a large number of new employees coming in for orientation – just as they were rapidly redeploying staff to work from home. Hear how they moved high-risk employees out of the patient-facing roles and moved eligible staff to their homes. Learn about how they innovated to get their new employees ready to start their jobs via a blended orientation model including Zoom and limited office time, and how they surged innovative help to register and manage the intake process for the emergency department.

Amtelco’s 1Call division is a Diamond Sponsor of the Contact Experience Conference, an online event for healthcare leaders with roles in call centers, contact centers, virtual care, and customer service.

(This conference has concluded)

NAEO Announces Honorary Michael Goumas Award 

On July 22nd, which would have been Michael Goumas’s 52nd birthday, the National Amtelco Equipment Owners (NAEO) Board of Directors announced the renaming of NAEO’s Volunteer of the Year award. The award is being renamed “The Michael Goumas Volunteer Award” in honor of Michael Goumas, who passed away in June.

The NAEO Board of Directors stated, “The NAEO Board believes this sincerely captures the very essence of Michael’s willingness to help any and all who needed. We continue to reflect on the great memories we shared with Michael and wish him a great heavenly birthday.”

Software Release

The following software versions have passed Amtelco quality assurance testing and are ready for general release. 

• IS Server Version 5.04.7482.23182 implements various fixes and improvements made in this and interim versions, including:
  • Call Tracker events will display “Patch” call state for patched calls. 
  • Delivering a dispatch job will remove the associated call from waits. 
  • IS will record the agent initials in the history events for WCTP pages rather than the WCTP Server’s initials. 
  • If the Emergency setting is enabled for a Client, calls will be accepted even if the system trunks licensing is exceeded. 
  • The server will strip hyphens and parentheses from dial strings when dialing. 

• IS Supervisor Version 5.04.7065.46 implements various fixes and improvements made in this and interim versions, including:
  • Option to open the directory in a new window added to the Directory response element. 
  • Added support for Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.2. 
  • Option to resume to Dispatch Board when presented to an agent added to the Dispatch Job Properties of the Auto Dispatch response element. 
  • Search field added to the Status Audit Log. 
  • Improved user interface for Roles tab of Listing Properties. 
  • ACD fields _acdTimeToAnswer and _acdCallsInQueue added to Expression Builder. 
  • Added Dispatch List, Perfect Answer, and Volume Adjuster to Web Agent Sidebar Component options in System Setup Styles. 
  • Allow leaving “Resume at Screen” property blank in the Park response element to resume at current screen and input. 
  • Removed character restrictions from ANI Match Behavior. 
  • “<ALL>” option added to Directory parameter of the Archive OnCall task in System Schedule. 
  • Dutch, French, and Spanish spell check dictionary options added to Intelligent Messaging scripts. 
  • Conference Options added to Auto Dispatch response element. 

• Soft Agent Version 5.04.7065.48 implements various fixes and improvements made in this and interim versions, including:
  • Ability to copy text from a message to the Microsoft Windows clipboard. 
  • A dispatch job is no longer creating when sending a message to a contact if the Reply Action property is set to “None.” 
  • A dispatch job is now created when sending a message from the IS Directory or IS OnCall. 
  • Comma Time setting determines length of pause for commas in dial strings. 
  • Sidebar settings are now taken from the System Setup Styles. Note: This update requires agents to be assigned to a Style in IS Supervisor Agent Setup. 
  • The Intelligent Message script no longer closes when a blind transfer is performed. 
  • Support for Intelligent Messaging option to remove call when message completes. 
  • Port setting added to Cisco Finesse Switch Type. 
  • Added Network Adapter setting to OpSee configuration. 
  • Added WCTP responses to the message summary. 
  • Wait sound will no longer play for waits that are set to manual distribution.

Spectrum – Auto Patch of Client Calls Using Secure Apps

A new feature in the Spectrum System for users of Genesis Prism is the ability to auto-patch client calls through Prism and present a pre-programmed phone number as the caller ID to the called party. This feature provides a straightforward way for clients to make calls directly through Spectrum’s secure messaging apps from their cell phones without revealing their personal cell phone numbers.
Click for more information.

Employee Spotlight

Pam Mohns – Field Engineering Administration Support

On August 28th, 2020, Field Engineering Administrative Support Technician Pam Mohns is retiring after 28 years working with Amtelco’s Field Engineering Department. Pam was often the first person you talked to when you called Amtelco’s Field Engineering support line, and it was Pam who directed you to the appropriate support technician to get your questions answered.

As a graduate of the Legal Stenography program at Madison (Wisconsin) Area Technical College, Pam was employed by the Office of the Attorney General of the State of Wisconsin for two years where she was the first-ever computer operator. When Pam and her young family acquired a farm in Jackson County, she joined the sheriff department’s clerical staff. Pam quickly earned a promotion to become the first female police officer in Jackson County and went on to serve for 15 years as a Deputy Sheriff assigned to the jail. Her job included warrant pick-ups, breathalyzer testing, and prisoner transfers as well as court duties.

Pam came to Amtelco through a temp agency in 1992 to cover sales assistant duties in the executive suites sales division while Lori Schroedl was on maternity leave. When Lori returned to her duties, Amtelco was so impressed with Pam’s work, she was hired full-time and moved to the Field Engineering Department, where she remained for 28 years.

In addition to her responsibilities in the Field Engineering Department, Pam served as a member of Amtelco’s employee-operated Charitable Contribution Committee and managed the travel arrangements for Amtelco’s installation technicians and implementation specialist staff. Pam’s versatility contributed to her receiving Amtelco’s Customer Service Person of the Year award in 2006.

Pam’s plans for retirement include sewing, knitting, and cross-stitching gifts for family and friends, along with spending more time volunteering for Madison’s Henry Vilas Zoo, Wisconsin Public Television, and Baraboo’s International Crane Foundation. She also hopes to spend even more time with her family, especially her mother who lives nearby.

Pam has three sons, eight grandchildren, two grandchildren-in-law, and four great-grandchildren, whom she loves dearly. Their favorite family activities are camping, volunteering, and going to the outdoor Farmer’s Market in Madison during the summer. Pam also enjoys shopping at estate sales and auctions on her weekends with her close friends.
Written by Pam’s granddaughter, Jessy Mohns-Scanlan, Technical Writer, R&D Software Dept., Amtelco