Technology-enabled
support centre for
Alzheimer’s Society,
the UK’s leading
dementia charity

Tailor-made solution from FourNet and NICE offers high-tech help to people living with dementia

FourNet's solution architects worked hand-in-hand with Alzheimer's Society for more than a year to design, build, install and deliver a new care and support centre, which is already transforming the charity's dementia support services and fundraising capabilities for the long term.

A combination of best-in-class technology and customer experience expertise from FourNet and contact centre partners NICE, coupled with Alzheimer's Society's detailed knowledge of
dementia and the guidance of those with lived experience of the condition helped to deliver a unique future-proofed solution designed to help the charity's support teams and those living
with dementia.

Dementia is the UK's biggest killer.

One in three people born in the UK today will develop dementia in their lifetime. Alzheimer's Society assists people affected by dementia, providing help and hope to both carers and those living with the condition.

In May 2022, Alzheimer's Society selected FourNet after embarking on a procurement exercise to acquire a new cloud-based support centre and telephony system to support their fundraising and dementia support services.

The broad aim was to replace an existing outdated contact centre with a versatile omni channel cloud-based contact centre solution for their frontline teams, and to migrate 900 staff onto a new softphone application.

Built in collaboration with FourNet's cloud contact centre partners, NICE, the contact centre solution was tailor-made to ensure best-in-class support for people living with dementia, with key input to the design from people with lived experience through Dementia Voice, Alzheimer Society specialists and their Dementia Friends programme.

The bespoke FourNet and NICE CXone contact centre solution supports the Society's core fundraising and dementia support services across its operations including sites in Birmingham, Norfolk and Warrington as well as its offices in Northern Ireland and Wales.

1. The charity's support and fundraising teams previously used several different systems, CRMs and contact centres, providing a range of inbound and outbound services.
2. Typical contact centre solutions would not have suited the Society or those it supports because of the needs of people living with dementia.
3. Tech and contact centre solution required to be "dementia-friendly" – i.e., improving average call handling times, which might benefit other organisations, was not a priority.
4. Designing a solution without clinical or lived experience of dementia was challenging and required sales, technology and customer experience teams to be immersed in the detailed final design and learn the correct dementia-related terminology.
5. CX enhancements and the CX journey required approval not only by Alzheimer's Society teams – from senior leaders to agents – but also people with lived experience of dementia, through the Dementia Friends programme.
6. It was crucial that go-live across all sites did not impact support services to those living with dementia.

The key aim of the project was to streamline the charity's communications and fundraising  services, while enhancing the support on offer to people living with dementia.

Typical contact centre solutions would not have suited the Society or those it supports.

The system required to be what might be described as "dementia friendly" with solutions architects focused intently on ensuring that the customer journey was as simple, and stress-free, as possible for those living with dementia.

The FourNet Solutions:

NICE CXone Customer Experience Platform

• CXone Omnichannel Contact Centre
• CXone Interaction Analytics
• CXone Workforce Management
• CXone Agent for Salesforce
• CXone Expert Knowledge Management
• CXone Enlighten Auto Summary

FourNet Agile Cloud with Microsoft Teams Direct Routing

FourNet Agile Cloud SIP Trunk Call Manager with Analytics

Sycurio for Secure Payments

The Benefits:

1. Dynamic cloud-based Contact Centre and Unified Communication infrastructure.
2. Unified capabilities for voice, email and digital contacts.
3. Integrated workforce management and optimisation with analytics.
4. CRM Integration with Agent for Salesforce for streamlined process and agent efficiency.
5. Enhanced routing capabilities including sentiment and keyword routing, flags vulnerable callers, diverting them immediately to an agent.
6. Dementia-friendly – for instance, people contacting the Society through the contact centre do not have to choose multiple options on their keypad.
7. Sentiment analysis highlights and prioritises emails with large donations – maximising the Society's fundraising capabilities and protecting those it supports.
8. Tailor-made design, fully tested to ensure dementia-friendly approach, including soothing on-hold music tested to minimise upset to a person living with dementia.