A hotline for children’s tourism cashback that was organized by the Roscongress Foundation as part of the People's Front project ‘Traveling around Russia’ has ceased operations. Specialists at the Foundation’s call centre received over 36,000 calls and processed more than 18,000 applications from 25 May to 21 October 2021.
“The hotline for children’s tourism cashback that was launched jointly with the Roscongress Foundation in the shortest possible time became an excellent helping hand for parents. This tool has helped thousands of Russians understand the conditions of the programme and prepare documents for the refund of part of the cost of children’s vouchers. If the tourism cashback programmes are continued, the People's Front is ready to continue advising those who wish to participate in the programme to clarify the nuances, including as regards children’s vacation,” Deputy Head of the People's Front Executive Committee Sergey Gorbunov said.
The infrastructure that was built for the hotline helped to promptly inform parents, representatives of children’s camps and other health organizations as well as any other interested individuals about refunds for children’s vacations and the nuances of submitting and accepting applications for cashback. The reimbursement programme included 50 percent compensation from the government for the organization of summer vacations and health treatment for younger family members.
“The children’s cashback programme is an unprecedented measure to support families with children, which was initiated by the president. Of course, people had a lot of questions both about purchasing vouchers for summer camps as part of this programme and about getting half the cost refunded. Many thanks to the Roscongress Foundation for their quick response and assistance, which enabled the People's Front to quickly open a hotline and receive and process calls. The number of calls indicates that there was demand for the hotline. We all very much hope that the children’s cashback programme will be extended next year, and children will be able to vacation and improve their health with less expenditures for family budgets,” said Denis Polunchukov, coordinator of the People's Front ‘Traveling around Russia’ project.
“We saw great demand for the hotline’s services in the summer, when people learned about the existence of a cashback programme. For thousands of families, the call centre became the most convenient and popular means of communication and a tool for obtaining consultations and advice on how to complete applications and fill out documents and other electronic forms. We are grateful to the People’s Front for their joint work to launch and operate the hotline. I believe that the experience we gained can be positively used to work in various areas in the future,” said Maria Kiseleva, head of the Directorate for Work with Participants and the Call Centre of the Roscongress Foundation.
In August 2020, the People’s Front, along with the Roscongress Foundation, the Russian Federal Agency for Tourism, and the MIR National Payment Card System, launched a hotline to provide consultations on the tourism cashback programme for trips within Russia.
In addition, in March 2021, the Roscongress Foundation’s In This Together hotline project was awarded the High Jury Approval prize in two Crystal Headset nominations – ‘Most Effective Peak Load Management’ and ‘Best Anti-Crisis Technology Application and Partnership’. The award is awarded each year to the best representatives of the contact centre industry and customer service in the CIS.
