Customer Appreciation Week 2020 – Community Action Agency of St. Louis County Reduces Administrative Burden and Provides Quicker Customer Service

By Joan Honig, DocuWare – DocuWare’s third annual Customer Appreciation Week is here! July 16 is the next official Get to Know Your Customer Day but at DocuWare, we celebrate in June – and why leave it to just one day? Each day this week, we celebrate our customers. Visit our Modern Digital Business blog to read their DocuWare success stories.

Community Action Agency of St. Louis County (CAASTLC), located in St. Louis, Missouri, assists low-income community members through assessment and referral services, a community supported agriculture program, and employment development and energy services. The organization serves 44,000 customers each year.

When state reporting requirements for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) program became stricter at the same time as the number of applicants increased, CAASTLC was buried in paper. The agency chose DocuWare because of its broad-based capabilities and cost-effectiveness. “We recognized the advantage of the lower cost for the DocuWare installation and configuration. We also wanted to use our current copiers and scanners without purchasing a scanning license for each device,” explains Programs Director Georgie Donahue. “DocuWare was the logical choice.” The fact that they could get local support from their Authorized DocuWare Partner Miken Technologies was another deciding factor.

Keeping St. Louis County warm in the winter

LIHEAP, which was one of CAASTLC’s most paper-intensive processes, helps community members who are in danger of an electricity, heating oil or natural gas shutoff from not being able to pay their bill. During peak times, the agency may receive 500 applications for LIHEAP and other energy assistance programs in one day. LIHEAP generated about 20,000 paper files. Every application requires proof of income, social security numbers for everyone in the household, picture ID, and a utility bill. The documentation rarely comes into the CAASTLC office at one time. “Before DocuWare, we might receive an electric bill and file it. Then we’d pull the file again when we received the additional documentation needed to complete the request for funds,” Georgie says. To add to the administrative complexity, clients often apply for assistance more than once in the same year.