Rural Communities Housing
“
When I tell people about my experience with Salesforce I tell them that I dreaded it at the beginning because I am not the most computer savvy person in the world. But working with Patrick, it became apparent that this is not only so valuable, but it's so much easier than I thought it was. It definitely took some training, but now that I've learned it, I can't even imagine working a case without it.
Felicia Eriksen
Resident Services Coordinator
ORG LOCATION
Ukiah, CA
TYPE OF SERVICE
Housing Services
STAFF SIZE
~3
FAVORITE FEATURE
Training from Patrick
A New Database for a New Program
The database has made it so much easier to enter and compile information. For instance, each client needs a housing support plan, and once I've entered the information into Salesforce, I just push a button. It's all compiled together automatically. It's a dream! And I also have to do follow-up reports after six months, and it's the same thing – I just push a button and it's done!
felicia
Rural Communities Housing Development Corporation (RCHDC) was founded in the 70s to help house low and moderate income people in the rural counties of the North Coast region of California. Over that period, they've provided over 1,000 housing units across 30 different developments to over 400 families. It's clear that RCHDC has had a significant impact on the housing supply on this area. They sum it up well when they say, "Any building is only as strong as its foundation and the same can be said for any organization. RCHDC was built with a strong foundation and has withstood the test of time."
Much more recently, RCHDC wanted a Salesforce database because they were starting a new kind of program aside from directly providing housing: assisting clients to find housing, not necessarily provided by RCHDC.
Having helped other similar organizations, I was able to provide guidance around the best way to structure things – what we could take from previous work vs what needed to be uniquely built for RCHDC. This helped both to minimize build costs and simplify training for the database users. Now it plays a central role in the operations of the program.
I pull up the database for practically every phone call I make so that I can see client information at just the drop of a hat. It's great for tracking my client's housing goals, next steps on their housing plans, who's responsible for which tasks... really everything.
And I make case notes in the database for every minute I spend and every interaction I have with a client or their circle of support. So if anybody wanted to see a client's status, what they're working on, or what I've been doing with them, they could see it very simply.
felicia
From Database Anxiety to Database Excellence
Because the housing case management program is new, it has started off small with just a single person running the show, Felicia Eriksen, the RCHDC Resident Services Coordinator. At first, the idea of using a new database caused Felicia some concern as she had had some bad experiences in the past with new technology being introduced without providing adequate training and support documentation.
My biggest fear with the database was doing the training, because I had only done a technology training like this once before. The trainer had his mouse going across the screen so fast and wasn't explaining what he was doing, and I couldn't tell what was going on. It made it very difficult to learn how to use the program. So when thinking about using Salesforce before actually using it, I would say I had some concerns!
felicia
So in addition to live zoom-trainings, providing screenshot tutorials of how to do common processes, and being on call both for training purposes and to trouble-shoot any issues that came up, the tables have turned, and now Felicia reports that she'd end up feeling anxiety if she had to give up using Salesforce!
At this point, I would have a lot of anxiety without the database! Like, right now, when it comes time to do monthly billing, I just look at all the reports that have already been created, and I can see each client and I can see what hours I worked and on what day. Without that I would have to dig through paper notes and an Excel spreadsheet, which would be stressful and time consuming.
felicia
On working with Patrick
Patrick has an incredible mix of being very professional and very approachable. Those two together are rare, and I think Patrick is a rare find! For example, working with him, I’ve found that we're speaking the same language, which surprises me because I don't have a background with computers. He's able to understand what I'm asking within a question or two, and he's very quick at resolving whatever the problem is. I'm quite thrilled to now say that I’m the resident Salesforce expert!
felicia
Challenges
Results
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