Altarama focuses solely on request management, so we understand that, for archives, your request answering service (you might call it Ask an Archivist) is key to the service that you provide.  We know you need a highly reliable service that allows your staff to efficiently respond to a high volume of requests about your collections.

No matter the volume of requests you deal with (from national archives to local ones), or the types of requests you deal with, Altarama’s RefTracker system can handle your work efficiently, and in the way you wish to do it.  Here are just some of the types of requests that RefTracker is helping our archives customers to manage:

Respond to requests for assistance in using your records

Manage requests to view items

Track training and workshop attendance

Handle digitization and preservation requests

Respond to orders for copies of records or genealogical history

Solicit, receive and address comments and suggestions

RefTracker will handle your request answering service efficiently, in the way you wish to do it.  It is simple for your staff to use, and generates useful statistics with no extra effort. It provides features like the following: 

  • Accepts requests coming in by email, web forms in your web pages, and through staff entering request on client’s behalf. RefTracker’s email importing handles importing of new requests arriving by email, updates to existing requests, and answers sent to clients from your email.
  • New requests can be automatically allocated to staff, quickly triaged, or self-assigned.
  • Similar requests can be linked to reduce redundant work.
  • Complex requests can be broken into sub tasks to allow multiple staff to work on them.
  • Staff can work in teams that see just their subset of work.
  • All work can be seen in one place, allowing for better management of the entire workload.
  • Requests can be passed among staff that are the most appropriately skilled and available staff.
  • Templates and standard clauses allow substantial time savings as staff only need to create the unique text for their response, and responses can be created from quality-controlled pre-existing paragraphs.
  • Reminders can be automated to ensure responses–and steps along the way–are completed before your service objective response times.
  • A built-in optional client evaluation process to ensure users concerns can be immediately seen and quickly addressed.
  • Internal tasks can be managed with the same tools while remaining separate for purposes of statistics, prioritization, etc.
  • A wide range of reports can be automated to provide helpful statistics about your workload and required staffing levels.
  • The DeskStats “One click” electronic tick sheet provides the ultimate in efficiency for obtaining statistics about requests that are answered “on the spot”.

And much more! With Altarama’s support team always available to help, RefTracker can be configured to work how you want your request answering service to work, because all we do is request answering systems.

Ask us for a demonstration or free trial of RefTracker request management for archives.

Request a RefTracker demo or brochure