Hey, Contact Center! Are Your Phones Overburdened?

We have a great solution!  While your callers are on hold, tell them they can text you instead!  A simple phrase like "Text your zip code to 898211 and a specialist will text you back". And if you're not ready for full time exposure, add this phrase during your busy time or during a storm warning (hurricanes, tornadoes or in the days following these events).  Your community will love you for it! 

Why offer text for live support?  Pew Research recently reported Americans under 55 now text more than they make voice calls, email, combined. Pew also reports Americans would prefer to text contact centers for live support over voice calls. Gen-Y grew up texting and it's this generation and those that follow that have come to expect it. 

Everyday, thousands of people try to text agencies like 2-1-1 and they receive a message like: "error Invalid Number. Please resend using a valid number."  898211 (TXT211) is a destination for people to text that can support the capacity and bandwidth needed for secure, reliable communications across the network.

We also believe you'll save time and money!  With our platform you can triage for additional information like age, gender, reason for texting etc, so that your clients enter your queue more qualified for the referral you're about to text them. Our platform shares similarities with an email inbox so that a new "texter" enters the queue and can be texted an auto-response that gives them information on when they can expect a text back.  Like email, specialists can respond to the queue at their leisure, one at a time or open multiple encounters. The pace of text I&R is slower than a voice call and therefore more conducive to managing multiple encounters simultaneously.  Individuals may text while they're on the bus, cooking dinner, waiting in line at the DMV and if they're interrupted, they may not reply right away.

Many 2-1-1s are finding that the I&R encounter has changed over the past few years with more Americans dropping out of the middle class as they struggle to pay their bills and keep food on the table. More than ever before, 2-1-1 is a lifeline. Texting is highly effective with crisis because people are more willing to reach out for help and discuss personal issues, when they can do so by text.

Also, you're able to text referrals instead of dictate them back over the phone, which will save time and decrease errors.  The referrals are going to the exact location where they're most likely going to be put to use, their mobile phone.  Phone numbers and addresses are all clickable so they will go straight into a voice call, or straight into their maps application, which will save your client time and help ensure they put those referrals to use.

How Do I Get Started?

If you're already a client you can modify your automated recording and start today. Simple.

For all others, we encourage you to pilot this strategy!  On us!  Get Started Now!

Sending Text Referrals From Your I&R Database Now Easier Than Ever!

PreventionPays text box is now smarter than ever!  Entering prefabricated content like referrals, links, canned, ready-made phrases can be copied and pasted into the text box and the text box now auto-cleans and strips, making it text message ready. For example, if you are copying and pasting from a resource management tool or web-based service, whether it's crisis counseling by text or 211 I&R by text, you can copy and paste that directly into the text box and the system will auto-format the message so that your clients get referrals in the fewest texts and without line breaks or html tags (that are often part of the referral when copying directly from your online resource management software).  Most referral management tools (I&R resource management software/tools) were not designed for sending referrals by text message. Many were developed before text based I&R was a concept. Instead they were built for telephone voice support, where a resource specialist or crisis counselor dictates the referral back to their client over the phone which can lead to countless errors and misinterpretation.  So, we have adapted your text box on the PreventionPays Text Platform to auto-format non-conforming content so that sending referrals in PreventionPays Text has never been easier or more efficient.

The screenshot below shows a resource that was copied directly from an I&R AIRs certified web-based database management service and pasted into the text box. Then, just below that, it shows the message auto-formatted and delivered to the end user as a single text. 

We have also deployed the auto-segmentation of messages that exceed the character limit.  So, if you are sending multiple referrals, you can now send them at the same time and your text box will properly format those into separate texts (in the most economic and pleasing way for your clients). 

So whether you're texting referrals during a live text encounter or during a phone conversation, your clients will absolutely love what you text them!

For more information about text counseling and text I&R, email info@preventionpaystext.com or click the link in our website header!

Educational Message Services is a boutique mhealth agency specializing in secure, web-based tools to increase human connections in public health since 1994. As APHA and AIRS members, we are hyper-sensitive to the needs of our clients. Our best advocates and collaborators will always be our clients. They use our services every day and have dedicated their lives to helping others achieve better health outcomes. We want to celebrate and honor their work first and foremost.

Idaho 2-1-1 Careline and Idaho Dept of Health and Welfare Secures 3-Year Contract

PreventionPays text and the 898211 suite of services will now be available to all Idaho residents. Idaho Careline acquired funding through Idaho Department of Health and Welfare for three years of sms services via the PreventionPays 898211 platform.  

Idaho joins several other states on the platform.  898211 is quickly becoming a recognizable brand related to getting help through 211.  When residents from Idaho text their 5 digit zip code to 898211, they will be routed to a resource specialist for live 2-way sms support at Idaho Careline.  If you text 898211 and you are outside one of the service areas now covered by 898211 and you wish to have this service in your community, you should contact your 211 office and request it.

898211 I&R has been a very popular method for contacting 211. But I&R is not the only service 898211 is becoming known for.  Over the past year, 898211 has been used for outgoing alerts to help homeless families find shelters during the recent cold weather that spread across the county, alerts to promote family nutrition, alerts for health services/resources related to the ACA, alerts to help build awareness about the risks of binge drinking on college campuses, tailored educational texts to promote breastfeeding among low income moms and so, so much more. 

We are delighted Idaho Careline selected PreventionPays text for their sms communication needs!

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898211 is a fully provisioned Tier 1 short code with all mobile carriers in North America. 898211 or TXT211 is specifically designed for I&R services and health & safety alerts to communities. 898211 is the only short code in the US provisioned for texting specific to 211 services.