Call Center Management Featured Article
911 Call Center Managers Need to Be Prepared for the Unexpected
A cable cutting mishap in the Bronx earlier this month illustrates the importance of quick thinking when unexpected outages happen in the call center. Workers accidentally cut Verizon (News - Alert) cable lines near Pelham Bay Public Safety Answering Center II while working on a dig. Although the incident reportedly didn’t impact the call center directly or result in any dropped or lost 911 calls, call center management made the critical decision to move fire department 911 operators temporarily to the MetroTech Center in Brooklyn as a precaution.
The decision was an important one, as neither Verizon nor call center management could predict if the cut cable would impact call center communications moving forward. The incident apparently happened after a fiber line was severed by an outside contractor doing dig work in the area. The call center is a critical one for the NYC area, employing around 300 NYPD agents, 120 EMS personnel and 120 fire dispatch employees in a 450,000-square-foot building.
Having an emergency management and contingency plan in place in the event of a call center outage is absolutely critical, as evidenced by a historic 911 outage in Fort Wayne, Indiana earlier this year. That incident impacted the state’s 911 call center and forced those calling to dial into a non-emergency number during the outage. While the system was restored quickly, the outage was the largest in the 51 years the call center has been running.
A massive outage at a CenturyLink (News - Alert) data center last December caused 911 services in several states to go down, in some cases for more than 24 hours. The outage affected cellular 911 calls in Washington, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, Arizona, Missouri and Massachusetts. Many municipalities pushed out alternative phone numbers in emergency alerts during the outage, sparking panic and confusion among cellular users.
Call center managers can ensure they are prepared for the unexpected by having proper power protection and business continuity solutions in place. They should also have a solid plan for backups as well as a thorough assessment of security measures and potential disruptions, whether they come from an outside breach, mother nature or simple human error, as was the case in the Bronx cable cutting. By ensuring call centers are prepared for the unexpected on all fronts, managers can offset some of the panic and confusion caused by unexpected events like the NYC and CenturyLink outages.
Edited by Maurice Nagle