Contact centers are versatile and useful for all kinds of services including customer service, sales, and more. Contact centers also handle emergency dispatch calls of all kinds. Emergency contact centers are staffed with agents that take calls and dispatch emergency personnel wherever they are needed in a variety of critical situations.
911 call dispatch, for example, involves contact center agents who connect with police, fire, and EMT services and send that emergency personnel to specific locations based on the needs of each caller. Whenever an emergency arises, a contact center’s operations must operate at peak performance to ensure a caller has the best possible experience.
Contact Center Dispatch Agents Need Reliable Communication Tools
If a contact center handles emergency communications, it is essential that the center maintains regular contact with all necessary emergency personnel. To dispatch the appropriate emergency personnel to the location of an emergency, contact center agents should have the tools to stay constantly connected with crucial teams:
● In-field technicians
● Police
● Firefighters
● EMTs
● Medical professionals
Emergency dispatch can refer to 911 services, but there are emergencies in all kinds of different industries. Businesses that utilize contact centers for their emergency dispatch answering services expect someone to be available and quickly reachable during these critical times. That requires reliable communication between dispatch and personnel.
Contact Centers Need the Latest Technologies to Operate Effectively
Certain technologies are crucial for emergency dispatch contact centers to remain helpful to the people who use these services. In most cases, the people calling emergency dispatch contact centers are experiencing deeply troubling and high-stress situations. For this reason, contact centers need to be as streamlined as possible to ensure the calls are easy, accurate, and helpful.
Current and future technologies can make that happen.
● Accessibility: No one is immune to emergencies. Contact centers need the capabilities to provide access to all callers, even those who need extra tools. Tools like text messaging can aid the hearing impaired and on-staff translators can facilitate communication for foreign language callers.
● Caller location: Contact center agents should have software that can pinpoint a caller’s location. Working with advanced software that offers the most precise location information can benefit the callers, the dispatchers, and the emergency personnel who will reach the caller more quickly.
● Automatic call prioritization: If an algorithm can accurately sort calls by priority, contact center agents can more efficiently dispatch emergency personnel to callers’ locations. Repeat callers who are under threat can be helped first, for example.
When contact center employees have the proper tools, they can provide more well-rounded dispatch services. Emergency contact centers are busy, hectic, and stressful environments. The latest and most advanced software can alleviate some of this pressure so agents can provide the best possible service to callers in need.
Emergency Contact Centers Must Reach Certain Standards
Contact centers that handle emergency dispatch operate 24/7. Emergencies of all kinds can happen day or night, on weekends and holidays. Typically, emergency contact centers require more staff to handle daily operations because of these long working hours.
It is important that an emergency contact center is fully staffed so that agents can handle high call volumes since emergency calls can be unpredictable. Depending on the type of emergency calls a center handles, management should keep staffing needs in mind at all times.
Additionally, because 911 emergency contact centers are so critical, they must meet certain guidelines set by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Emergency dispatch is often managed by federal, state, and local agencies.
911 dispatchers are trained to gather pertinent information at the beginning of a call in case the call gets disconnected somehow. Additionally, emergency dispatchers should always handle calls calmly and efficiently. By meeting high standards on each call, a call center can provide excellent service to those experiencing distress.
About Ansafone Contact Centers
Ansafone Contact Centers is an award-winning BPO provider with 50 years of world-class customer experience and brand care. We are a national call center with omnichannel services, fully equipped to help you with your business and with any special circumstances.
Please request a quote or call 800-510-0514 to learn more about our custom solutions for creating exceptional customer service experiences for your clients. We’re happy to offer insight into what your customers seek from your company’s language offerings and tailored customer solutions.
