Adopt North West Case Study

Background

Adopt North West is a collaboration between 22 local authorities across the North West of England, covering Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, and Cheshire.

The initiative was launched to encourage more people to adopt and provide high-quality support at every stage of the adoption process.

The project officially launched in March 2014, kicking off the first regional Adoption Week, which promoted events and resources for potential adopters. To support this initiative, Adopt North West partnered with Answer4u as their contact centre provider, leveraging their expertise in managing enquiries generated by campaign activity.

Managing high levels of adoption enquiries

The local authorities within Adopt North West placed more children for adoption in 2013 than any other area in England. So, the Adopt North West team expected an even higher level of interest with their integrated media campaigns, promotional activity, and events programme offered by each of the participating authorities in 2014.

Flexibility and scalability key to success

Compassionate & scalable call handling

Answer4u agents have a wide range of experience in working with clients where a high degree of empathy and consideration is required for their callers. This experience, along with our extensive call handling capacity, placed us as the preferred supplier for the Adopt North West campaign.

The initial launch week proved to be a success in terms of the new enquiries it generated for Adopt North West and how Answer4u’s agents sympathetically managed each caller’s enquiry.

Consistency and competency

Whilst the majority of new enquiries generated by the media activity went through the Adopt North West website, the contact centre still played a pivotal part in ensuring anyone who preferred to enquire by phone received a prompt response.
 
The consistency and competency of Answer4u’s agents meant that, alongside handling initial enquiries, they also managed calls on sensitive issues within Children’s Services, such as reporting concerns about a child’s safety.

When the first advert was aired, over 1000 people got in touch, with Answer4u handling some 250 calls and texts on behalf of Adopt North West.

Adopt North West initiated the second stage of the campaign in late June 2014, and Answer4u supported that campaign activity, making sure the initial enquiry process was as easy and stress-free as possible.

Business Benefits:

• Provided scalable, flexible call handling, ensuring all enquiries were answered promptly.
• Operated a UK-based call centre that managed peak demand from TV and radio campaigns.
• Offered 24/7 support for sensitive calls through highly skilled, empathetic agents.
• Delivered accurate reporting, tracking advertisement performance and call types.

"We’re really pleased with the response we’ve had to the campaign. So many people in the region are realising that adoption is an option for them and that they could provide a family to a child. It’s been extremely encouraging, and we look forward to talking to more people about adopting."

Adrian Rocks, Project Manager of Adopt North West