Call Grandma – Case Study
A business owner uses Phone Number Monitoring to contact and check status on his aging parent on a regular basis
Challenge: Businessman with a demanding lifestyle requires a hands-off means to keep in periodic contact with aging parent.
Methodology: Utilize an automated system to schedule and make periodic phone calls that require a preplanned response. A no-answer or invalid response generates an alert call, email or text message. Schedule calls using the online scheduler to accommodate both businessman’s and parent’s lifestyles.
Result: Businessman is able to maintain a busy lifestyle knowing that his parent is receiving and responding to periodic ‘check up’ calls. He knows that a no-answer or no-response to the call will generate an immediate alert call back to him.
Using a New, Inexpensive and Convenient Service for Checking In with the Elderly or Shut-Ins
Checking on aging parents or shut-ins can become a difficult task in this busy world, especially if they reside in a different town or state. It is not always easy to make that phone call to ‘touch base’ and get the reassurance that the person is safe. A new service is available that can make those calls, and by using a simple preplanned response can provide assurance that the person on the other end of the line received the call. If the response to the call is not as anticipated, the service can immediately notify the user with an alert.
Charlie Karolin’s Mother
Like many of the elderly today, Charlie Karolin’s mother has remained independent and continues to live by herself even though she is in her mid 80’s. Charlie owns his own business and finds himself traveling on the average of two days per week. Trying to keep in touch and make sure that his mother is safe has become a bit of a challenge. He tries to phone her whenever possible, but that is never consistent and seldom convenient.
A Practical Solution
Charlie discovered and subscribed to Phone Number Monitoring, a new service that will call his mother when scheduled, play a personalized greeting of Charlie’s voice, and immediately alert Charlie if his mother does not answer or she does not enter the correct response. To set up Phone Number Monitoring, Charlie simply enters the required phone number information, creates a callschedule and also creates an alert group for alert calls.
Charlie has set up the call schedule to call his mother every morning at 8 am and every evening at 6 pm except for Thursdays and Sundays. Thursday is mother’s activity night and Charlie always calls his mother on Sunday. Holidays are also not scheduled for calls. When the phone rings at his mother’s house, she answers and hears a recorded greeting of Charlie’s voice and then presses any key and hangs up. If the phone is busy or the call goes unanswered, it is retried twice in five minute intervals before an alert call is placed to Charlie. An alert call is also triggered if the monitor phone call is answered and no key is pressed.
Charlie has set up alerts sequentially to call his home phone, cell phone and business phone in that order. If the alert calls not answered or the line is busy, Phone Number Monitoring advances to the next number.
Adjustments to the schedule are rare, but when necessary, Charlie simply goes online and makes whatever changes are required. He is also able to make any account changes and to view the monitor call logs online.
Charlie pays $9.99 per month, which is the charge for monitoring 1-5 phone numbers, and initially has purchased 80 call credits for $9.95. Using approximately 50 call credits per month the average cost per call is $ .25. His call credits do not expire at the end of the month and he is not required to engage in any long term commitment or contract.
Conclusion
Keeping in touch with an elderly person or a shut-in can be inconvenient and at times difficult. Phone Number Monitoring provides a flexible, inexpensive and easy to use service that automatically makes a call to private telephone numbers to check telephone line connection and telephone number availability, anticipates a preplanned response and generates an immediate alert when the response is incorrect. For Charlie, and potentially for many others, Phone Number Monitoring provides the peace of mind gained by not having to worry about checking on grandma.