NPA open up new line of communication
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By BETH ZUMWALT
The New Philadelphia Association now has a toll-free number that will be used on all communication platforms.
“This will formalize and standardize our processes and ensure that inquiries are routed to the right people for handling them quickly and efficiently,” Kay Iftner, communications chairman of the group, said. “ Equally important, it will facilitate the capture of data so we will better understand who is contacting us and why. We are developing a decision tree for responding to the calls.”
The number, through a service called Grasshopper, is: 833-LUCYMAC or 833-582-9622.
This new number has been added to the New Philadelphia Association website, as well as the New Philadelphia Association Facebook page.
“Right now, when a call comes in, it rings to my phone as an alert that a call is coming in to the NPA,” Iftner said. “When that happens, I can either answer it, or let it go to voicemail. The plan right now is to let most calls go to voicemail, as it affords us the best capture of information. Once a call is completed, we get both an email with the transcribed message and an audio file.”
The group then has a record of the call-in phone number and message. The system captures the phone number when a caller hangs up. Based upon the nature of the call and using the decision tree, the inquiry will be sent to the proper NPA person or volunteer for handling.
The decision tree is a work-in-progress. With the help of the Ad Hoc Working Group, categories of inquiries will have been identified. Inquiries intended for the National Park Service (NPS) is one of those categories. The next step will be to identify the individuals or groups (perhaps committees) to whom the inquiry would be sent.
To satisfy legal requirements for 800 number service, NPA was required to offer a web-based contact form to the public with a privacy policy appended. Grasshopper recommended that we use a Google Form inserted in the New Philadelphia Facebook Page. It comes with a privacy policy built in.
“I have developed our Google Form and posted it on the New Philadelphia Page, not the group,” Iftner said. “ It can also be used to handle inquiries and requests. We also learned that if we want to communicate by text, we need an opt-in policy. I have added that to the contact form.
Completed contact forms go to a Google Sheet that captures the information in a spreadsheet. Iftner gets an alert when an entry is made.
This new process, along with having an official gmail account- [email protected] is a positive step forward.
“Not only will we be improving our face to the public and standardizing our processes, we will be collecting additional data,” Iftner said. “The plan is to provide a report from both the phone system and the Google contact sheet system to the NPA board on a regular basis.”
The privacy policy is also on the NPA website. Apparently that was not enough to satisfy the 800 number requirements, but we will leave it on the website anyway. It’s good to have, and good PR. It is linked in the footer of the NP web pages. Privacy Policy and Opt-In/Opt-Out | New Philadelphia
“Obviously, as our relationship with the National Park Service continues to develop so will our processes, but this new communication enhancement will help us as we restructure the board and prepare for the future,” Iftner said.
