Luna \TBWA and Zavarovalnica Sava launched a social responsible initiative, ‘When Loneliness calls’

If a person has a question about a purchase or a service, they usually get in touch with the contact center of a company in question. What most people don’t know is that there is a dark side to working in those contact centers. Many people in mental distress usually call the first available number. These are mostly company contact centers, where people aren’t trained to help them.

Luna \TBWA and Zavarovalnica Sava, an insurance company from Slovenia, designed the initiative ‘When Loneliness calls’. Working with professionals, they provided their employees in call centers with education on how to talk to people in mental distress. Now they are inviting other companies to join them in their cause and implement the same educational program for their employees.

Every 40 seconds someone takes their own life. Slovenia is one of the leaders in suicide, since suicide claims 4 times more victims than car accidents. Before taking the final step, many of them try to seek help, but their attempts go unrecognized. 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.

‘When Loneliness calls’ is an initiative that Zavarovalnica Sava implemented to provide their employees in contact centers with the right training and knowledge for dealing with people in mental distress. A special educational program, led by coaching professionals and psychologists, was designed and is now available to any other company who wants to join this initiative and make a difference – sometimes even between life or death.

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.”

Luna \TBWA is the most effective Slovenian advertising agency, and a part of the \TBWA network.

Zavarovalnica Sava is a Slovenian insurance company. Their mission statement is ‘Never alone’, which was also the basis for creating this campaign.