Telethon 7 raises $46m for WA with the help of cloud calling

Challenge

Adapting during uncertainty

Established in 1968, the annual Western Australia Telethon 7 event is the highest donating telethon (per capita) in the world. Produced by TVW 7, a television station in Perth, the event beneficiaries include Perth Children’s Hospital, the Telethon Kids Institute and Telethon Speech & Hearing.

The event's fundraising success largely relies on dedicated call centre volunteers who ensure every audience donation call is answered. For over 13 years, Telstra has delivered the network infrastructure and call centre technology to support the 26-hour broadcast held over two days.

Like many significant events in 2020, the organisation needed to rethink the event format to align with COVID-19 guidelines while maintaining the same level of audience engagement and community support as previous years.

This pivot called for a new venue requiring an advanced technology set up and project management support. The organisation's data reporting needs had also matured, needing a more sophisticated level of call analytics to help with proactive decision making and more targeted fundraising efforts. To ensure resiliency and handle high volumes of donation calls, a new cloud-based multi-channel call centre solution was necessary.

Solution

Modernising the telethon experience

We worked with Telethon 7 to understand the project's unique challenges and needs. Through a detailed technical analysis using our technical services offering, we designed an implementation plan to provide reliable connectivity to the new site within a tight timeframe.

This analysis also helped Telethon 7 make the easy decision to implement the Telstra Contact Centre Genesys Cloud solution for the event.

Telstra Contact Centre Genesys Cloud is an omnichannel cloud-based solution eliminating the need for additional investment in a voice network and on-premises equipment. It uses our carrier-grade SIP network and virtualised infrastructure to reduce overheads and enable rapid scalability.

Approach

A rapid rollout with minimal disruption

Since requirement scoping and configuration were managed remotely, the solution was rapidly deployed once the Telstra technical services team accessed the venue. Because Telstra Contact Centre Genesys Cloud only requires an internet connection and a laptop, over 180 telethon volunteers were set up quickly. Due to its intuitive design, the volunteers only needed one short training session before they were good to go.

The team found that Telstra Contact Centre Genesys Cloud’s analytics enabled proactive call management. Telethon supervisors had complete visibility of call volume and call queue wait time, so they could scale up the number of operators on the floor when needed and manage break times effectively. The combination of the solution’s analytics, easy set up and remote management made it the right choice for the telethon.

Impact

Technology that enabled community generosity

The telethon raised $46 million for children in need, a record high from previous years. Over 180 contact centre agents took more than 9000 donation calls during the live televised event.

Beyond the immediate results that Telstra Contact Centre Genesys Cloud helped deliver for this event, the organisation now has a reliable and multi-featured solution they can scale as their needs and requirements change. Telethon 7 also has access to a robust set of data analytics to inform future events and other digital marketing and fundraising initiatives.