How can we help. At a time when opening any newspaper means reading dozens of different articles about one single topic (that same topic that’s been making us live in constant fear for the last few months), we at ECT believe it’s time for our society to jump from the pessimistic panorama of what’s already happened, to an optimistic perception of the future. There is nothing we can do to take away the pain already caused by the COVID-19 virus. But we can start working today for a safer and healthier tomorrow.
We Want to Do Everything We Can. How Can We Help You to Help?
So, now, we at ECT say: How can we help? That is the open question we ask our customers, the communications service providers (CSPs). How can we help you to make your work better, bigger or more impactful? How can we help you to provide your best tools to people, making them feel closer, safer and better informed during these hard times?
How can we help. We are in awe at the way CSPs have been working around the world and around the clock, with their emergency number services, chatbots and counselling hotlines connecting people in distress. CSPs are burning the midnight oil to make sure we can still communicate with each other, even if we’re physically isolated. After all, as The New York Times said, it is now “the humble phone call [that] has made a comeback”, with calls reaching usage levels 35 percent higher than the pre-COVID average.
How can we help. CSPs have also been making it easier for call centers to adapt to the sudden prevalence of home-office. We have seen CSPs quickly reconfigure their services to help companies everywhere make the transition. Businesses once based in offices and holding physical meetings are now creating across kitchens/sofas/studios/bedrooms, and having virtual meetings.
How can we help. There are so many things about the future that we are unsure of: The measures we must take before we can leave the sterile monotony of our home offices. The right way to move around one another in the streets. Our shopping habits. The modern workplace could even undergo a dramatic transformation, with some experts suggesting we might have to leave our open-plan collaborative spaces, and return to the outdated safety of Plexiglas. But if there’s one thing we know for sure, it’s that every one of us can make a difference.
“How can we help?” That’s the first thing you see when you get to the website of the Citizens Advice Bureaux. Commonly known as ‘Citizens Advice’, the Bureaux is a network of British charities that, as its name suggests, confidentially advises the public on matters ranging from money and legal issues, to consumer assistance and, recently, COVID-19-related inquiries. “How can we help?” A simple question that might already have saved hundreds of lives.
Another example: One CSP we work with was asked to provide a quick solution that would enable prisoners to securely use mobile phones directly from their cells, allowing them to make their legally mandated phone calls while practicing social distancing. Of course, there had to be lots of limitations to prevent misuse and harassment; prisoners should only be allowed to dial a limited number of predefined and approved destinations, and the service should ensure that each called party really wanted to accept the given call, and so on. We helped the CSP to develop and launch this very specific, tailored service, completing and testing it in just a couple of weeks, free-of-charge.
We want to do everything we can. How can we help you to help? We as a team are committed to you, the CSPs, and we all want to make a difference.
We are listening.