Helping Orange County Rescue Mission Serve the Needs of At-Risk Citizens

All told, the Rescue Mission operates 12 different campuses, with the Village of Hope being the largest sort of our flagship facility on seven and a half acres. The mission itself has 90 employees and their affiliate organization, Hurtt Family Health Clinics, has 93 employees.

The whole operation is dependent on Nextiva, which is the organization’s primary cloud communications system that runs across all 12 Orange County Rescue Mission campuses and includes the Hurtt Family Health Clinic as well.

“Communication is very critical to us,” said Orange County Rescue Mission CEO Jim Palmer, “because so many of the situations we’re dealing with can be life and death. We operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. So being in constant communication is a real key to the success of our operation.”

In terms of operations, the rescue mission’s first line of communication is the phone. On average, Orange County Rescue Mission has over 2000 incoming calls a day and about 3,500 outgoing calls a day. “We’re receiving calls from people that are desperate, that are on the streets that are hungry, that are homeless, and that are in crisis,” said Palmer. “At the same time, we are calling out and looking for different resources to help that person and that individual get back on their feet.”

OCRM began its journey with Nextiva several years ago, when it was seeking a better alternative to its prior VoIP provider. “We were looking for a cloud communications system that provided consistency, was reliable, was constantly being updated, and would be an effective tool in creating opportunities for growth, since we’re literally adding a new campus every year,” said Palmer.

According to Palmer, the Rescue Mission’s early investments in VoIP created more headaches than his team could handle. “We went into the IP phone space early, because we love technology and we’re excited by it,” Palmer said. “But we did run into lots of different challenges before we got to Nextiva. We would have different types of failures or issues with our previous systems. Trying to get them to function correctly could take days, if not weeks. We quickly realized that we needed to be on a platform that was stable and sustainable in the long-term so that we could really rely on it.”

Working closely with their IT consulting firm, Integration Works, the Rescue Mission opted to go with Nextiva. Their decision has paid off in spades, most importantly in terms of reliability.

“Our favorite feature of Nextiva is the fact that it’s always working,” Palmer said. “One of the things we look for is a system that works and Nextiva does that. Having something that’s sustainable and always up is a real key to keeping that anxiety and stress level down so people can continue to communicate even when we operate in a challenging environment, like a culture that’s helping homeless men, women, and children.”

Beyond reliability, Nextiva has also provided Orange County Rescue Mission with the scalability they need as a fast-growing non-profit that is constantly opening new locations and discovering new opportunities to support their community.

“Nextiva technology is wonderful because we can literally get it deployed in a day,” said Palmer. “In some cases, we’re setting up programs, projects, or sites within just 48 hours because there’s an emergency that needs a response and an opportunity for us to help people. We also add approximately one campus every year. These campuses can have different areas of focus, ranging from being residential campuses to being large-service campuses. We’re in a constant growth mode here.”

The reliability and scalability Nextiva provides are crucial given the immense call volume that Orange County Rescue Mission sustains on a given day. “Across the 180 employees on our campuses, we’re averaging about 30 calls per day per person,” said Palmer. “That’s a lot of call volume, and it is not just fielding inbound stuff, but also dialing out to different donors.”

The organization’s preference for voice communication above all else reflects the urgent nature of their work. “Voice communication is huge for us because we deal with people that are in crisis,” Palmer said. “The ability to route those calls and deal with them when you have over 11 calls a minute coming in throughout the entire work day is crucial.”

The Rescue Mission team is also a mobile one, often moving from the office to the field and back throughout the day. Nextiva’s mobile capabilities offer critical functionality that allows Palmer’s team to remain reachable, wherever their workday takes them.

“Our day-to-day is somewhat traditional in the sense of communication,” Palmer said, “but I think what really helps us is the mobile app, because it allows people to move away and not be tethered to their desk, but continue to communicate as they go out into the field, as they meet with our donors, as they’re meeting with the homeless that are on the street.

Palmer stressed the importance of 24/7 offsite reachability for his employees when it comes to their phone system. “We have a lot of key employees that you just need to be able to get a hold of. Being able to route those calls through the desktop phone and straight to their mobile devices has been very helpful.”

Orange County Rescue Mission are also heavy users of several more advanced features of Nextiva. When asked about his favorite features, Palmer denoted the Nextiva Call Center, Analytics, and Voicemail Transcription features as critical value-adds to his operation. “One of the neat elements of the Nextiva system is the Nextiva Call Center. We were getting swarmed with calls, and we needed something to help us ensure the calls were actually getting answered and queued up to the right person in a very timely manner. We found the Call Center to be a key element in making that happen here at the Rescue Mission.”

According to Palmer, Nextiva Analytics have proven invaluable in enabling Orange County Rescue Mission to understand how, when, and where to scale headcount. “Nextiva Analytics is also critical for us. As we look at scaling, we need to know how quickly the calls are being picked up and who is taking those calls. That information is very important to us,” Palmer said. Another Nextiva feature that has been integral to OCRM’s operation is the emergency referral system. “We’ve also been able to use a neat 911 alert referral system. Nextiva is set up so that at any campus, if someone calls 911, our key staff is alerted so we can call back and support them when there is an emergency,” Palmer said.

The final feature Palmer highlighted is one of his favorites – voicemail transcription. “When I heard that Nextiva had voicemail transcription, I was the first user,” Palmer laughed. “I remember thinking, ‘I absolutely want that,’ because in so many situations, I can’t just click on the computer and start listening to voicemails. Being able to see what the voicemail says before I take the time to listen has been a lifesaver for me and allows me to multitask even when I’m in meetings.”