“We were spending 10 hours per week managing appointments,”
“It was difficult to manage the volume and complexity in Excel sheets. I was the only one who really understood how everything was connected, and training new people was an ongoing time commitment.”
Caitlin HaywardManager of Data & Analysis at The Depot |
Enhancing Dignity and Efficiency:
The Depot’s Digital Transformation
Client
Founded in 1986, The Depot Community Food Centre (formerly The NDG Food Depot) is a community-based nonprofit organization that works to address food insecurity in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, a Montreal neighbourhood, and the surrounding areas, serving 3,000+ unique households. At the heart of their work is the belief that food is a basic human right and that food access is directly linked to larger conditions of poverty and social inequality.
Locally, their community programs bring people together to grow, cook, share, and mobilize to end food insecurity. Nationally, they are part of Community Food Centres Canada (CFCC), a united voice advocating for lasting change through equitable public policy.
Situation
In early 2023, The Depot was facing challenges in operating their food bank. Demand for emergency food support nearly tripled over the last few years, and their online form leading to Excel sheet after Excel sheet was not making it any easier for The Depot to meet that demand with dignity and respect.
They needed a robust system to manage the complexities of food basket appointments; from handling cancellations and capacity limits (four households every 15 minutes within specific hours), to monthly restrictions on how many times a household could receive a food basket. The appointment system also needed to integrate with their existing CRM to track food distribution, easily create and update participant profiles, and facilitate reporting to funders by tracking the overall impact and reach.
Challenge
The main objective was clear: to empower individuals to schedule their food basket visits with dignity, including the ability to cancel or reschedule booked times, while also providing staff with visibility of upcoming volumes.
To develop this flexible appointment system, Una Buro set the project scope to:
- Create a robust appointment system capable of handling various restrictions and logic, such as fluctuating operating hours, holidays, and shorter days.
- Integrate a participant-facing, easy-to-use component for the website.
- Automate reminders and tracking no-shows.
- Ensure integration with their existing Salesforce CRM and related food distribution processes.
The entire project needed to be completed in six weeks, from understanding the needs, to development and testing, to deployment.
Solution
Una Buro utilized Salesforce Scheduler, integrating and customizing it to meet The Depot’s specific requirements, such as:
Customizing the system for different languages. | |
Ensuring compatibility with the existing Salesforce food bank management setup. | |
Providing training for the team. |
To help meet the fast turnaround time, Caitlin, The Depot’s internal champion, collaborated closely with Una Buro every step of the way, ensuring smooth communication and quick decision-making.
Results
“As always, Una Buro was an excellent partner and guide; clear, quick-moving, flexible, and lovely to work with,” said Caitlin. “The appointment system has helped our internal capacity immensely. The simple setup means we no longer have to spend a long time training our team or participants on how to make appointments.”
70%
more efficient
The Depot increased efficiency by 70%, reducing their hours of managing appointments from 10 hours a week to 3 hours per week!
70%
more efficient
The Depot increased efficiency by 70%, reducing their hours of managing appointments from 10 hours a week to 3 hours per week!
“As always, Una Buro was an excellent partner and guide; clear, quick-moving, flexible, and lovely to work with,” said Caitlin. “The appointment system has helped our internal capacity immensely. The simple setup means we no longer have to spend a long time training our team or participants on how to make appointments.”
500
more households
served per month!
“We were slammed before and we’re slammed now, but the scheduler frees up our time to do other things, such as talking directly with participants about what they need,” said Caitlin.
Thanks in part to the new system, The Depot can now meet demand by adding 500 more appointments per month; an act that once felt like an impossible feat for the Depot team.
Not only does the new scheduler alleviate managing and training time for The Depot, it also relieves the stress on staff of having to call a participant who booked more than their allotted appointments in a month. The scheduler handles all the constraints and gives participants a clear, user-friendly format to book their food baskets up to two weeks in advance.
“The solution is complex behind the scenes, but to clients, it all appears seamless and effortless.”
Julia KhonPresident & Founder of Una Buro |
This digital transformation has not only led to Depot members having more control over how they book, change, or cancel their food basket appointments, but it has also sparked more quality improvement initiatives amongst The Depot’s staff, such as looking into other ways to use the scheduler for various case management tasks, as everything is integrated with Salesforce.
Inspired by The Depot’s journey with the Salesforce scheduler (which won a 2023 Impact Partner Summit Award)? Watch the demo to see if this solution is right for your organization.
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