Tisbury Neighbourhood Response

Local Village of Tisbury Becomes a Town of Heroes with Help from RingCentral

Industry
Non-profit,
Public Sector
Hq
Tisbury, a Wiltshire
village in the UK
Year founded
2020

Employees
300
Industry
Non-profit,
Public Sector
Hq
Tisbury, a Wiltshire
village in the UK
Year founded
2020

Employees
300
RingCentral was able to help us identify our needs. Once the setup was complete, the opening and closing of phone lines was super straightforward to any volunteer.
Gustavo Montes de Oca
Tisbury Neighbourhood Response Group co-Founder
93%
The company earned a Net Promoter Score of 93%—placing CBS in the “world-class” category.
£1 billion
The amount of vehicle sales that the company’s solutions are involved in.
100+
Employees transitioned to remote working using RingCentral
Local Village Becomes a Town of Heroes with Help from RingCentral
Sometimes it takes hardship to bring out the best in people. A group of volunteers from Tisbury, a Wiltshire village in the UK, united amid the Coronavirus global pandemic to form the Tisbury Neighbourhood Response (TNR) team. Residents of the 2,400 member community recognised the need to serve homebound villagers that the lockdown had left without access to critical medical or food supplies.
Because Tisbury can be accessed via fast train to and from London, the village’s potential for virus exposure was greater than other remote communities. Comprising a high proportion of elderly residents, Tisbury’s population was highly vulnerable, with many becoming shut-ins overnight.
Concerned community members realised an immediate need to help their neighbours and took action to create a network and response team for residents requiring aid. The newly-formed Tisbury Neighbourhood Response (TNR) group began recruiting help, beginning with a local project manager, members of the Tisbury Parish Council, a virologist, a former public health consultant, and supportive community residents.Local trumpeter Gustavo Montes de Oca realised an immediate need to help his neighbours and took action to create a network and response team for residents requiring aid. With de Oca’s direction, the support group began recruiting help, beginning with a local project manager, members of the Tisbury Parish Council, a virologist, a former public health consultant, and supportive community residents.
The road to success, however, must be paved with more than good intentions, especially in the digital age where people require information quickly and easily. While the response group had plenty of willing volunteers eager to begin their outreach, they soon realised they couldn’t handle the influx of incoming calls and requests.
“The initial response was fantastic,” says TNR group co-founder Gustavo Montes de Oca, “but then we realised we needed a way of receiving and processing all the requests.” “The initial response was fantastic,” says Gustavo, “but then we realised we needed a way of receiving and processing all the requests.”
RingCentral’s Flexible Telecommunications Options are Perfect Fit
To serve their residents, the Tisbury Neighbourhood Response group wanted to deploy a central telephone line as the official contact for aid and assistance. They began their search for a telecommunications system that could handle their call volume yet still provide a local number to provide comfort and credibility to anxious residents. While simple in thought, it became harder to find an immediate solution that wasn’t filled with unnecessary bells and whistles. 
Gustavo began his online search for a new provider, soon finding that the complex world of telecom vendors yielded tremendous variety but no immediate solution. Although his requirements weren’t incredibly complicated, this posed a challenge for Gustavo to find the right vendor to execute his vision.
“Their (other phone system vendors) terms were too complicated, or way too inflexible,” He said. “They didn’t seem to get what we were trying to do and what we needed,” Gustavo explained.
After discovering RingCentral via an internet search, he was pleasantly surprised to find a solution that could solve his needs without requiring a lot of hoops to jump through.
The RingCentral engineer had a look into what we were trying to set up and then diagnosed exactly what we needed and how it should work. The process was as simple as we had intended.
Gustavo Montes de Oca
Tisbury Neighbourhood Response Group co-Founder
Tisbury Response Group Employs Angels to Serve Others
Gustavo’s vision finally came to fruition, beginning with a central telephone line to process requests. Today, the operation comprises several volunteers who answer calls across three shifts per day. Each “phone angel'' follows a script, submitting requests via Google forms that are uploaded to their new database and CRM system. With the new RingCentral telephone lines in place, the Tisbury Group hit the ground running, operating seven days a week, processing 700 requests in two-plus weeks to a village of 2,000 people.
After frequently logging and monitoring requests, the Tisbury group realised a new trend among residents who were worried about running out of their medications, and ordered prescriptions in bulk ahead of time. This discovery acted as something of an alert system, with the Tisbury team able to predict the needs of those they served and track the timing of when to order supplies.
“They give us an indication that more people will be looking for prescription and food delivery, among other forms of support, in the near future,” said Gustavo. “We’ve actually saved one life so far, which we’re extremely relieved about,” he added.
To reduce the wait times at pharmacies, the TNR team processes prescription order requests throughout the day and makes one batch request daily, rather than have residents line up outside the pharmacies and impede social distancing measures. In turn, they not only delivered life-saving medications, but also reduced the number of vulnerable residents waiting in queues who might expose or be exposed to others.
TNR Goes Beyond Initial Plans to Expand Service
TNR also supports the surrounding area of about 6,000 residents, with more than just food and medicine. In addition to TNR’s 300 volunteers, other groups provide support services to the community. The local parish, local schools, army cadets, brownies, the village hall, and other organisations form a network of services to offer help where it’s needed. In addition to elderly residents, TNR now supports the surrounding area of about 6,000 residents, with more than just food and medicine. They have expanded to offer assistance with or safety hazards such as contamination, as well as combining efforts with local schools, parishes, and military cadets to provide additional services. 
Today, the TNR is still accepting requests for help with everything from prescriptions to trash bins or even a comforting voice to ease the self-isolation. If you need support or assistance, please phone the TNR Helpline on 01747 684010 or register online.
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