Closed-Loop Referrals
Our philosophy is fundamentally different. The heart of what we do is helping people in need. There are a series of steps someone takes to get help. We opened up our platform so that anyone can use it for free at any time – no login required.
All of this drives usage, which funnels directly down to people getting help.
Our Approach
A successful electronic referral network depends on three factors:
- Engaged users of our platform in a community;
- Social care providers (CBOs) who benefit from participating; and
- Engaged customers dedicated to doing their part.
Engaged Users
Engaging people in need and the staff that help them leads to an increased likelihood of electronic connections, electronic referrals and, ultimately, more closed-loop referrals.
Engaged CBOs
Great networks build trust over time. We give CBOs a reason to participate on the network through useful tools, protecting their data, and building trust. We don’t come marching into a community with contracts in hand.
Engaged Customers
We help develop connections between our customers and CBOs in their communities. Staff at customer organizations use Aunt Bertha to track their activities and engage local CBOs for referrals.
Our Outcomes
As a result of our comprehensive approach outlined above, we achieve a high volume of closed loop referrals, leading to statistically significant data that’s necessary to study health and other outcomes.
Because people can find and connect to help without referrals, our customers achieve greater impact due to the sheer volume of people getting help.
Other Approaches
The desire to track referrals electronically does not supersede the desire to help as many people as we can. Other vendors in our space, however, make this tradeoff. By significantly limiting the population of the people they serve and recruiting the minimal number of CBOs into their network, they serve only a narrow sliver of people in need. This approach is also expensive and doesn’t scale — the cost is passed onto customers for one-off, custom projects.
Some people use Aunt Bertha to search for services on their own, and succeed in getting the services they need. These referrals can’t be tracked electronically, but are still accomplishing good things. We are ok with this.
Open & Focused Network
Our customers complement our open network with custom, focused networks to fit the unique needs of their communities. Some examples include:
- Closed Networks such as payer-covered benefits;
- Preferred Networks such as 2-1-1 partnerships; and
- Customer Networks such as philanthropic relationships.
Community Engagement
The next critical piece for successful closed-loops, after a well-designed network, is investing in community engagement. We believe that engaged community networks are the key to ensure that referrals made on your platform are serviced and people actually get help. We see the greatest closed-loop outcomes when our customers invest in direct community engagement efforts themselves.
Our engagement process begins with data enhancement — our team works with you to identify key CBO partners in the community. We then train those organizations to take ownership of their Aunt Bertha listings and respond to referrals sent through your platform.
Our Community Engagement Team operates as a shared resource in communities across the country. Our Community Engagement Managers are the subject matter experts in their regions, guiding our customers toward successful referral outcomes.
Schedule a Demo
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