Inside AWARDS | How Does FootholdConnect? Connecting With Our Customers

Throughout the year, Foothold Technology hosts a variety of free online FootholdConnect events for our clients. These ongoing events, announced each month via our customer newsletter FootNotes and in AWARDS itself, help our clients review and refresh their knowledge and demonstrate new features and functions of AWARDS.

“FootholdConnect [events] provide a convenient one-stop-shop for helpful information on what’s new in AWARDS and training/informational webinars. These are things I need to disseminate to the users I support and it’s helpful that it is all in one easy to find spot.”-Ariana Saunders, Urban Pathways, New York, NY

These events are each an online conversation via webinar. Customers are given the chance to ask questions, share experiences, discuss difficulties, and receive responses in real time. Participants often share that one of their favorite aspects of FootholdConnect events includes the opportunity to learn more about how other agencies are utilizing AWARDS to meet their needs and the ability to share best practices from agency to agency. Collaboration also occurs between Foothold staff and our clients. One frequent attendee remarked, “I appreciate how Foothold Technology does not operate in a vacuum. You engage your clients and ask for feedback. You are open to suggestions from your users, as well.”

We believe these ongoing training opportunities are a value-added feature for our customers, benefitting even long-time AWARDS users. FootholdConnect events can provide a new way of looking at functionality. After one recent event, Steven Bellamy from J-CAP shared, “having a new perspective on the information covered during the event” is one of the best reasons to participate. Another customer who has a great deal of experience with our software told us, “it is a good refresher to go over skills that I have not used as frequently or build on previously learned skills.” Plus, the FootholdConnect events are a great way for our customers to connect with our subject area experts and stay ahead of the curve when it comes to new regulations. One user revealed “I knew before our HUD Technical advisors knew that the definition of Chronically Homeless was changing, thanks to [Foothold staff member] Kelly’s webinar.”

Because FootholdConnect events are held online, agencies using AWARDS can attend no matter where they are geographically located. According to one attendee: “If the trainings were all in your offices in NYC I’d not be able to go to them, so it’s definitely very convenient to have the trainings on my own computer.” To ensure ongoing access to the information, recordings of all our FootholdConnect events are available in AWARDS Online Help shortly after they are presented. This easy access to fresh information, which one participant pointed out, gives them “the freedom to scroll through and hand pick the events we would like,” provides resources in a format that is convenient to an individual’s schedule, both day and night.

Foothold prides itself on our exceptional customer service, not just for new customers, but for all customers throughout the length of their contracts. FootholdConnect events are just one way that we provide ongoing support. Ed Carpenter of Mended Reeds in Ohio summed it up nicely: “The more you learn about AWARDS, the more you will find what it can do for your agency. There is plenty of untapped potential in tracking even more of your programs in AWARDS.”