Contact Center
Case StudY: FEMA COVID Funeral Contact Center
Client's Challenge
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government launched a national program to offer financial assistance to families who had lost loved ones to the virus. A federal agency urgently needed to stand up a large-scale contact center to support this program, which would operate 7 days a week—including holidays—and handle highly sensitive and emotional interactions with the public.
Key challenges included:
- Standing up a contact center with up to 1,200 agents, 25% bilingual, under an accelerated timeline.
- Recruiting and onboarding a large-scale workforce requiring DHS adjudication and equipment provisioning.
- Delivering consistent, high-quality service during a time of national crisis.
- Managing multi-line business training, continuous upskilling, and quality assurance.
- Sustaining high performance and compliance across a complex and extended 2.4-year engagement.
Midtown's Solution:
Midtown rapidly mobilized to support FEMA’s high-impact initiative, providing full-service contact center operations that remained in place for the full 2.4-year duration of the national emergency response.
Rapid Workforce Deployment and Compliance:
- Recruited and onboarded 1,200 contact center agents, team leaders, supervisors, and QA specialists from our internal “alumni” network, and ensured all personnel completed the full onboarding process.
- Maintained a workforce with 25% bilingual capability to ensure equitable service delivery across language groups.
Structured Training and Continuous Learning:
- Led and proctored initial training sessions covering certificate training, phone skills, and content training across all project business lines.
- Initial training lasted 8 days and included assessments and wrap-up sessions.
- Conducted regular pre-shift trainings and periodic knowledge-based testing throughout the life of the project.
- Developed content collaboratively with the client to align training with service goals and program policies.
Robust Technology and Systems:
- Deployed NICE inContact for workforce management, call handling, and case management.
- Used Slack for agent communications, instant messaging, and access to the knowledgebase.
- Utilized HSIN and the agency’s secure portal for access to job aids, compliance documentation, and program guidance.
Exceeding Quality Standards:
- Designed and delivered a scalable training model with continuous education and knowledge testing.
- Enabled efficient operations using NICE inContact, Slack, and HSIN-secured systems.
- Provided emotionally intelligent, high-empathy service to bereaved families across the U.S.
- Built trusted, sustained partnership with a federal agency throughout the COVID-19 emergency.
- Ensured uninterrupted, mission-critical support from launch through the formal end of the national emergency declaration.
- Successfully launched, provisioned equipment, and sustained a 1,200-agent contact center supporting a national crisis response.
- Maintained 25% bilingual staffing to meet the needs of diverse communities.
- Delivered services 7 days a week, including holidays, for 2.4 years.
- Achieved a 91% QA pass rate—well above the client’s 85% threshold.
- Designed and implemented a custom QA process tailored to client requirements, based on Midtown’s proven QA framework.
- Hosted daily QA pre-shift meetings and regular one-on-one coaching to support agent performance.
- Rapidly recruited, vetted, and onboarded staff through a secure, DHS-compliant process.
