NEBRASKA

CHILD SUPPORT AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT

Goals: To develop a centralized customer service center to handle incoming calls more efficiently, enhance the delivery of quality child support services to constituents, and support economic development by placing the Call Center in a rural Nebraska county.

Description: Nebraska was looking for new ways to bring professional jobs to economically challenged areas in the state. In addition, child support caseworkers within the State of Nebraska were overburdened with incoming customer calls. This took away valuable time and limited their ability to efficiently work caseloads and increase collections. Nebraska kept both goals in mind when developing its SDU and Statewide Customer Service Call Center (Call Center).

Nebraska Legislative Bill 9782 was passed by the Legislature on April 12, 2000 and was signed by the Governor on April 17, 2000. LB 972 required that the Call Center be located in a small community: "The physical location of the Customer Service Unit shall be in Nebraska and shall result in the hiring of a number of new employees or contractor's staff equal to at least one-fourth of one percent of the labor force in the county or counties in which the Customer Service unit is located."

The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, Child Support Enforcement Unit partnered with the Nebraska Department of Economic Development. A Request for Proposal (RFP) was developed jointly and made available to all communities that met the population criteria. As an economic development initiative, the State of Nebraska chose Wausa, population 600, as the location for the new statewide customer service call center for child support cases. The state then selected a contractor to create and manage the Call Center operations and staff. The contractor was required to hire and pay competitive wages, and offer a benefit package to citizens hired from the local area to serve as customer service representatives. The contractor was also responsible for training their staff to handle the sensitive nature of child support calls. The Nebraska Child Support Customer Service Call Center began operation on September 4, 2001.

Nebraska's IV-D caseload is approximately 98,000 statewide. The Call Center takes approximately 23,000 calls per month. This Call Center is linked to the State's Voice Response Unit (VRU) system and the State's Automated Child Support System, Children Have a Right to Support (CHARTS).

Results: The Call Center, which employs 28 people, has had a great impact on rural economic development in Wausa and the surrounding Nebraska counties. Many of these individuals were commuting great distances for employment. The Call Center gave them the option of finding employment closer to their homes and families. There has been very little staff turnover since the opening of the Call Center. The turnover consisted of two full-time employees (one person moved to another position with child support and the second person took a position with the state in Child Protective Services), and two part-time employees ended employment because they needed full-time work. Limited staff turnover ensures experienced staff is helping the customers. The experience of other states shows that customer service units located in urban areas have a very high percent of staff turnover. We believe that the low staff turnover reflects the benefits of having the Call Center located in a rural location.

To house the Call Center, a vacant building that was once a bowling alley was renovated. This project also boosted the economic development in Wausa.

Call Center staff have consistently met their contractual obligations of a four-minute average talk time; less than 5% abandon call rate; less than 10% transfer rate; and hold times of less than four minutes. In addition to meeting these contract goals, the Call Center staff has developed a written protocol document, desk guide, customer complaint process, disaster recovery plan, safety plan and a process for measuring quality assurance. The Call Center has a full-time Spanish speaking Customer Service Representative, and has installed a TDD line to further assist callers. The Call Center hours of operation also provide services to customers beyond the normal 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. business day, by being open from 7:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (CST) Monday through Friday.

The Call Center has also updated CHARTS with return mail address changes, changed staff names, updated health insurance information, and tested the Voice Response Unit's Spanish language response.

Funding: Regular 66% funding with reimbursement based on performance measures.

Location: The Call Center which is located in Wausa, Nebraska, population 600, in Northeast Nebraska serves the whole state.

Replication Advice: Prior to awarding the contract to a rural community, nine site visits were conducted throughout the state to inspect the proposed building that would be used and/or renovated for the Call Center. The site visits also included meeting with the economic development committee of each community along with community leaders and members.

Nebraska utilizes a team approach by including Call Center staff in meetings to discuss program issues, training issues, problem solving etc.

Providing statewide service from a rural county has not been without challenges: particularly phone wiring to handle the large volume of telephone calls being received. Call Center staff worked closely with staff from the local telephone company who helped to overcome many of these issues. Location of the Call Center has made travel costs a consideration, but teleconferencing has helped resolve most of the travel issues. Weather in Northeast Nebraska has also created some problems with phone lines being out of service on occasion, but these have generally been fixed within hours. Equipment has been purchased to protect the phone equipment during Nebraska storms.

Contact:

Jan Overmiller

Phone: 402-479-5555

Email: jan.overmiller@hhss.state.ne.us