fulfillment center
Marketing fulfillment center offers information, advice and hope
By Megan Baldridge, National Campus T
he Good Samaritan Society’s new marketing fulfillment center is helping the organization connect to its mission, one phone call at a time.
The fulfillment center is the office people are directed to when they call a phone number that appears on certain statewide and national marketing materials. By connecting callers to the fulfillment center, Society staff members can better understand each caller’s needs and start to provide help immediately, says Marketing Strategy Consultant Holly Shane.
Whether it’s referring callers to a Good Samaritan Society location or offering advice and resources, the fulfillment center has been a valuable information source for hundreds of people since its creation in January 2010. Through the center, Shane says, “we have the opportunity to really show people that we are who we say we are, not only in our ads, but in our mission as well.”
Shane has been integrally involved in the creation and expansion of the fulfillment center since it was first launched in 2008 as a media test in Colorado. At first, a third-party call center fielded all the calls that came in. But as the media tests expanded to other regions, it became clear that the most effective way to convey the values and mission of the Society, as well as knowledge of the variety of services offered at its many locations, was to use the Society’s own staff members.
The marketing fulfillment center is located at the Society’s National Campus in Sioux Falls, S.D. Two marketing fulfillment coordinators, Tim Hoss and Anne Tereshinski, staff the center seven days a week, taking calls from people who want more information after
Tim Hoss, Anne Tereshinski and Holly Shane
seeing the Society’s ads. What information they want, exactly, isn’t always clear at first — even to the callers.
“Usually, the people calling in are either calling for themselves or a loved one who’s in need,” Hoss says. “But they don’t always open up right off the bat.” Some people are unfamiliar with what the Good Samaritan Society is and simply want information about the organization. Others know that they need help, but they are unsure of the different kinds of services, such as senior housing, home care and skilled nursing. Many inquiries are from adult children looking for advice on how to bring up the subject of senior care with their parents.
Hoss and Tereshinski take their time asking each caller questions about his or her situation and reasons for calling. “We are usually able to gain the callers’ trust and assure them we are here to help,” says Hoss.
In the first few months of 2011, the fulfillment center has seen a 55 percent increase in the number of inquiries over the same period of time last year. “There’s a rapidly increasing demand for information as baby boomers begin to learn more for their parents and themselves,” Shane says.
In 2010, the marketing fulfillment coordinators logged more than 4,100 follow-up activities with 1,200 people.
The Good Samaritan • 2011 • Vol. 45 • No. 1 11
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