POOCHO helpline was established in 2005 with the objective to provide accurate and reliable family planning information, counseling and referral services to the callers and to provide backup support for Greenstar’s products and Sabz Sitara Clinics.
The philosophy behind POOCHO is encouraging people to discuss their family planning needs with us,
providing them a comfortable environment where they don’t feel shy to talk about their personal life.
POOCHO is a place, where people will be confident that they will get accurate and comprehensive family
planning information and counseling services. A place on which they trust that their information is in
safe hands and their discussion will be kept confidential. POOCHO is a door of hope which is always
open to warmly welcome people from across the country.
In April 2015, with the help of DFID funding, the Helpline evolved into a state-of-the-art 24/7 Toll-free
family planning Helpline. The advanced technology equipped POOCHO with a Primary Rate ISDN (PRI)
system which provided 30-telehphone lines connected to our Toll-free number 0800-11171. This means
that POOCHO is capable to handle 30 calls at a time.
Implementation of the robust Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system enabled Greenstar to
maintain history of individual callers and automatic retrieval of their data on receiving the call. This has
helped develop a strong relationship between the callers and Helpline team members and the callers
feel comfortable while discussing their reproductive health matters.
Integration of FP algorithms to the system has enhanced both efficiency and effectiveness of the
POOCHO Helpline. The algorithms help to deliver structured FP information to the callers thus avoiding
unnecessary judgement and providing correct information. Time saving is another benefit of the
algorithms.
Another key addition to the POOCHO Helpline included the provision of outbound calls, thereby
enabling Greenstar to follow-up with those callers who dropped their calls in the middle of conversation
or those who called POOCHO and requested to call back due to unavailability of sufficient balance. The
outbound calls are also made to follow-up with complainants for complaint resolution.
Outbound SMS service is another key feature added to POOCHO. The callers who are referred to their
nearest Sabz Sitara Clinic through POOCHO to avail FP services also receive the address and contact
details of that clinic through SMS immediately after the call. FP promotional messages are also sent out
to the community at large through POOCHO. This service was made possible through connecting the
Sabz Sitara network provider’s database to the CRM.
POOCHO Helpline also has a built-in Automated Caller Feedback Survey facility. Through this system, the
callers provide immediate feedback after the call by pressing 1 for Satisfaction and 2 for dissatisfaction
with the information provided by the agent. The system has enabled Greenstar to monitor the
performance and plan trainings to enhance the capacity of the team members.
Since, POOCHO Helpline is now well positioned in the community as a reliable source of FP information
Greenstar is therefore expanding the scope of POOCHO services to include adolescent and youth SRH
and offer it as a package to the community, A ONE STOP SOLUTION.
Greenstar also endeavor to promote POOCHO Helpline as a representative of not only Greenstar but of
a consortium of organizations working on FP and SRH in the country.
Strategic Interventions:
• Integration of POOCHO Helpline with 0rganizations working on adolescent and youth
SRH
• Integration with LHWs program and CIP
• obtaining Short-code
• Development of adolescent and youth SRH manual
• Development of Pre-recorded IVR FP messages
• Development of system for interactive Robo-calls and interactive SMS
