A WHO report shows that every 40 seconds, someone takes their own life. Every year, around 800,000 people decide to end their life this way. But before doing it, many of them seek help. Around 50% of them look for medical help in the six months prior to their death. Yet, there are people who seek help in the last minute (literally!) by calling a friend or someone else, asking for comfort. Amongst these people who are being called are contact center employees, who, sadly, are not trained to face such situations.

In Slovenia, suicide claims 4 times more victims than car accidents, propelling the country to the top when it comes to suicide rates. To stop this phenomenon from spreading any further, Zavarovalnica Sava, an insurance company from Slovenia, joined hands with the most effective advertising agency in the country, Luna\TBWA, and launched the initiative ‘When Loneliness Calls.’

As part of the campaign, the company provided its employees in call centers with education on how to talk to people who are experiencing suicidal episodes. The program is led by coaching professionals and psychologists and was specially designed so that other companies can join as well and make a difference in a situation of life and death.

Speaking about why they chose this group of people, in particular, the creative agency behind the project said: “By talking to contact center employees, we realized that despite suicide prevention lines, people in mental distress usually call the first available number, which is often a number of a company’s contact center.”

David Kastelic, Chairman of the board in Zavarovalnica Sava, sent a personal invitation to Slovenian companies with their own contact centers. He wrote: “An old saying goes: ‘If you save a life, you’ve saved humanity.’ And we believe that we can do it together because only together we’re never truly alone.”

The interactive experience puts you in the shoes of an employee in a contact center. Someone is calling you, seeking for help, but you don’t know for sure what to do. For each reply that the interlocutor gives, you have two potential answers — answers that will make the caller reflect upon his decision.

We tried the experience for ourselves a few times and although we used different answers each time, the outcome was the same: “…It doesn’t matter anymore…”. By not giving us the chance to choose other answers (others that give us a chance to actually save this poor soul), the agency shows us that, indeed, call center employees are not rightfully equipped to give a helping hand to this man. But trained properly by specialists, they can become the heroes that the whole world truly needs.

Credits:

Client: Zavarovalnica Sava

Agency: Luna\TBWA