Twilio > Case Studies > Empowering Refugees with Information: International Rescue Committee's Innovative Use of IoT

Empowering Refugees with Information: International Rescue Committee's Innovative Use of IoT

Technology Category

Networks & Connectivity - 5G
Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Application Development Platforms

Applicable Industries

Buildings
Cement

Applicable Functions

Sales & Marketing

Use Cases

Building Automation & Control
Chatbots

Services

System Integration

About The Customer

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is one of the largest humanitarian organizations providing support to refugees worldwide. The agency is dedicated to helping refugees answer critical questions that can mean the difference between freedom and persecution. IRC is a solutions-oriented NGO that focuses on resilience, courage, determination, survival, and recovery. The organization sought to expand its technology programs beyond improving internal-facing operations to directly serving the refugee community. IRC aims to use technology to help the people they serve lead their lives better.

The Challenge

The International Rescue Committee (IRC), one of the largest humanitarian organizations supporting refugees, was seeking to expand its technology programs to improve how they serve the refugee community directly. The organization aimed to build an information platform that connected refugees to resources immediately over chat, particularly in the Northern Triangle of Latin America. The challenges faced by IRC included offering channels that refugees use every day, reaching more people with limited staff, and integrating its helpline into existing systems. The organization also needed to ensure that the platform was user-friendly and felt like texting with a friend rather than navigating a website.

The Solution

To address these challenges, IRC decided to build its helpline on Twilio Flex, a cloud contact center that offers a WhatsApp API, tools for building chatbots, and the flexibility to integrate other systems and channels. When a refugee reaches out to the Signpost Twilio-powered WhatsApp number, they receive an automated response with a series of topics they could learn more about. IRC created this experience with Twilio Studio, a visual editor for building conversational bots on any channel. If a refugee asks to speak to a moderator or asks a question that the bot isn’t trained to answer, the conversation is routed to IRC’s Twilio Flex instance staffed by trained specialists. The IRC team was also able to integrate its custom CRM system into the moderator view, allowing specialists to track case details and make referrals easily.

Operational Impact

The implementation of the Twilio Flex helpline has allowed IRC to reach more people and provide immediate, critical information to refugees. The chatbot system has enabled the organization to quickly answer common questions and route unique cases to trained moderators. This has allowed IRC to scale up and down to meet changing demand levels while maintaining the same level of staff. The integration of the custom CRM system into the moderator view has streamlined the process of tracking cases and making referrals. The organization has also been able to adapt quickly to changing circumstances, such as the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, by updating the chatbot to handle virus-specific questions. The success of the program has led IRC to plan its expansion from Latin America to other regions including the U.S. and parts of Europe.

Quantitative Benefit