Published 2/9/2010
CHICAGO, IL, February 9th, 2010 — On Election Day, the Chicago Board of Elections receives a tidal wave of phone calls from voters, poll workers, candidates, media, community organizations and more. Answering and managing these calls can be quite a task. However, for the Federal Primary last Tuesday, the Chicago board implemented some new technology which made a big difference in the call center. Even temporary staff were able to handle issues immediately with consistency and accuracy.
The application is called the “AskED® Help Desk” from Illinois-based Robis Elections, Inc. AskED is new to the City of Chicago, but not to elections. The product was designed specifically for election call centers and is used in jurisdictions across the country from Hawaii to New York. What makes AskED unique is its patent-pending decision support system that allows even novice users to always provide the correct information. This is a lifesaver for election jurisdictions who routinely need to rely on large numbers of temporaries to handle the additional workload on Election Day.
If a front-line operator is not able to solve a problem immediately, he or she is able to escalate the call to the appropriate expert with the click of a button. Every call that comes in is tracked, giving election officials valuable reports on the types of phone calls being received. This information will be used to help the department better solve problems and allocate resources for future elections. In addition, the software even flags calls about the same issue as they come in so that multiple staff are not tracking down the same problem. When a caller reports an existing issue, the operator is able to see what is already happening on that issue.
Chicago Staff Reaction
Kelly Bateman, Manager: Community Services, Training, and Special Registration, reported on the results of the new software.“On Election Day, the Chicago Board of Elections typically has 80 people handling the “Election Central” hotline phones. A majority of these individuals are not full time Board employees and, due to schedule conflicts, only received minimal training. The AskED Help Desk is so easy to use and navigate through that hours of training were not needed in order for our staff to feel comfortable and confident with the application. The AskED Help Desk was an effective tool for the Election Central staff to utilize when assisting election judges, voters, pollwatchers, etc. with election-related issues."
“Previously, the Board’s Election Central was paper-based. The incident reports had to be completed by hand; the lists of election judges, polling places, investigators, etc. were on paper. You had to thumb through large binders to locate the information you wanted. However, with the AskED Help Desk, After entering minimal data, the information the operator was seeking appeared right on the screen. The time it took to give the caller the vital information they were seeking was reduced considerably."
“The Robis staff were hands-on and attentive both prior to and on Election Day. I honestly think they worked 24 hours a day the week before the election because whenever I called, they were there to assist."
The Federal Primary is only the first step. Now the Chicago Board of Elections has better call data to add more solutions and solve issues even faster in future elections. This means better voter service, greater transparency and a smoother election.
About Robis Elections, Inc.
Robis Elections, Inc. is an Illinois company that has provided cutting-edge technology solutions to jurisdictions for more than 18 years. The AskED® product line from Robis provides election workers with the ability to give out accurate, consistent information quickly and to solve problems in the field with “just in time” training and answers. AskED® election management tools provide election officials with up-to-date information about the state of the election all day long. The AskED® product line includes the AskED® Problem Solver, the AskED® Electronic Pollbook, AskED® Early Voting, AskED® Online Pollworker Training System, the AskED® Election Help Desk and the AskED® Troubleshooter.
Contact Information
Robis Elections software is used on over 40,000 locations across the county. Robis’s home office is at 300 South County Farm Road, 3rd Floor, Wheaton, Illinois 60187. For more information, visit www.GoAskED.com or e-mail info@robis.net, or call 630-752-0220 (office). |
