Enhance Your CIS

Once you have established your CIS and your services are stable, you may want to begin to think about ways it can be enhanced.  Before considering enhancements, it is a good idea to make sure you understand the demand on your current service and undertake an evaluation so that you are sure your CIS is effective and meeting the needs of your target audience(s).   There is more about evaluating services in the Creating Your Policies and Procedures section of the toolbox.

Ask yourself:

• Do we have staff with the right skills to deliver the service effectively? Delivery of new services?
• Are all the staff keeping to the limits and boundaries of the service we offer?
• What feedback are we getting from users and what does this tell us about whether we are meeting their needs?
• Have we sufficient, sustainable financial and people resources to maintain what we have now and potentially to do other things?

Once you understand all of this you might want to consider the following:

Expand your service.  It’s a good idea to estimate what additional staff or resources you might need if you wanted to expand your services- you can use your current volume as a baseline for forecasting.  Once you have modeled several scenarios, look at ways you could improve the promotion of your service.  There is information about Promoting Your CIS in the main tool box.

Diversify your channels.  There are many ways we can provide CIS services, traditionally this has been over the phone, but many CIS services also use online services and social media channels to give information and support to people affected by cancer.  You can find out more about the different channels that are available in the Starting and Managing a CIS section of the toolbox.

Develop other services to compliment your CIS.  Some CIS services also provide emotional support alongside providing information.  This might be in the form of “a listening ear” or through formal counselling from trained counselors or therapists.  Like information, these services can be offered through many channels, face to face, phone or online. 

Some CIS services offer financial and social security benefits advice or legal services with specially trained CIS workers.  If you offer these services there may be different legal and liability issues that you might need to consider, depending on your country’s laws.

Before you start.  It is useful to have completed market research or a needs assessment to see if the enhancement you are considering is likely to be something that your users will want and use.  It can help to pilot a new service development for a limited period, to see how people react to it and get a better understanding of potential demand and what resources you will need to sustain it before offering it permanently.

Whatever you decide to do, remember, an ICISG member may already have some experience of developing the enhancement you are thinking about and may be able to share their experience with you.