Making the front door to community support faster and easier
How United Way of Pierce County is using an AI receptionist to answer demand, guide clients and book thousands of appointments.
305 hours
of phone calls handled
3,300
appointments booked
Connecting people with the support they need
United Way of Pierce County has served the local community for more than a century. Today, its work is focused on breaking the cycle of poverty and helping families move towards greater stability and self-sufficiency.
Through programs including community navigation, United Way helps people find and access essential services across Pierce County.
The organisation has set a bold goal: to help move 15,000 households out of poverty and into self-sufficiency by 2028.
High demand starts with a phone call
For many clients, the first step towards receiving support is making a phone call.
They may need to understand which service is right for them, find out what information they need, or book an appointment with the appropriate team. Each request matters, but the volume creates significant pressure.
Staff were spending valuable time answering routine questions, navigating callers between services and manually arranging appointments.
When demand increased, clients could experience longer waits while staff had less time available for the situations that required human understanding and judgment.
The issue was not a lack of commitment from the team.
It was that too much human capacity was being consumed at the front door.
AI Assistant: Faster Responses & Better Navigation — Shawn Paton, United Way of Pierce County
An AI receptionist that answers and takes action
United Way of Pierce County partnered with Fortell to introduce an AI receptionist capable of handling common inbound calls and supporting appointment booking.
The AI receptionist can speak naturally with clients, understand what they need and help them take the appropriate next step.
Rather than simply playing recorded information or directing people through a rigid phone menu, it can guide each conversation based on the caller's answers.
The system helps United Way to:
- Answer calls when staff are supporting other clients.
- Understand the reason for each call.
- Provide clear, consistent information.
- Guide clients towards the correct service.
- Book appointments directly through the conversation.
- Escalate requests requiring human support.
This gives clients a responsive first point of contact while protecting staff time for more complex work.
Faster responses and better navigation
Shawn Paton, Vice President of Community Impact, has spent decades working at United Way of Pierce County and now leads programs and investments supporting the organisation's poverty-reduction goals.
In the accompanying video, Shawn explains how the AI assistant is helping the team reduce waiting times, support staff and connect people with the right resources more efficiently.
“Faster responses and better navigation — clients get answers, and our team gets time back.”
3,300 appointments booked through conversation
Since implementation, Fortell has handled 305 hours of phone conversations for United Way of Pierce County.
During those conversations, the AI receptionist has booked 3,300 appointments.
That means thousands of clients have been able to move directly from asking for help to securing a defined next step — all within the same phone call.
The impact is not limited to the number of calls answered.
Every appointment booked represents administrative work that no longer has to be completed manually. Every routine question handled gives staff more capacity. Every immediate response reduces the chance that someone gives up while trying to navigate the system.
From answering demand to managing it
Before the AI receptionist, additional call volume created additional pressure for the team.
More calls meant more interruptions, more manual scheduling and less time for client-facing work.
Fortell created a layer of capacity that can respond as demand changes.
Calls can be handled simultaneously. Information is provided consistently. Appointment booking does not depend on a staff member being free at that exact moment.
The team remains central to service delivery, but it no longer has to personally complete every repetitive step that happens before meaningful human support begins.
Technology that creates more time for people
United Way of Pierce County's work depends on trust, empathy and strong relationships across the community.
Those qualities cannot be automated — and they should not be.
What can be automated is the repetitive work surrounding them: answering common questions, identifying needs, navigating services and arranging appointments.
By allowing the AI receptionist to carry more of that workload, United Way can use its human capacity where it has the greatest value.
The result is a more responsive front door for clients and more time for staff to focus on helping families move towards lasting stability.
Better access. Less administration. More human capacity.
Fortell has already handled 305 hours of calls and booked 3,300 appointments for United Way of Pierce County.
But the real result is what those numbers create.
Faster answers for clients
Time recovered for complex work
Capacity that scales with demand
United Way gains a service model that can respond to more people without placing the entire weight of increased demand on its team.
This is not AI replacing community support.
It is AI creating more capacity for it.
Make your front door faster to walk through.
See how Fortell can answer your calls and book appointments — without adding headcount.
Request a demo