Emergency Call Centers Require Optimal Tools & Scheduling

While it’s true that all contact centers play an important role in meeting callers needs, those receiving emergency calls have an especially vital job of exceeding caller demands.

Proper scheduling, management and a mix of the right technologies and solutions all come into play to make these critical operations function optimally.

In Amesbury, a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, the Police Department recently announced that it had transferred calls out of it’s department back to a communications center for handling so officers could focus on the emergencies happening.

As per a report by Newbury Newport News, all of the cities police and fire departments non-emergency and main business phone lines would now be routed to the Essex County Regional Communications Center.

Callers will now be directed to an automated tree of menu options that are user-friendly and will help take them to the right contact. This includes options to speak with an officer or to a communications center rep.

While this saves valuable time for the officers and firemen, it also means the call center must be staffed with adequate agents to address fluctuating call demands.

In addition to having calls handled by The ECRCC, the police station will still accept walk-in visitors and the front desk will be monitored at times by a remote camera and intercom from which they can interact with a contact on the other side of a phone line. These interactions may also be recorded.

Call centers that handle calls and communications for emergency response providers play an important role in assisting citizens. Not just for those calls when tragedy has stricken, but also for a host of other non-emergency and still critical reasons. For these non-emergency calls, having a reliable and trusted channel which citizens can utilize is important.

On the management side, to maintain proper staffing at these centers, management must pay close attention to the agent’s roles and offer needed scheduling accommodations and flexibility to avoid the high turnover rates that have traditionally plagued the industry.