E911 Call Center Assessment
Client Background
A municipality had recently relocated their E911 Call Center operations to a newly built, state-of-the-art facility with a high level of security and exceptional technological and infrastructure capabilities — including voice over IP telephony, ergonomically designed furniture, and rest and quiet space areas.
Despite the modern facility, the call center was experiencing incidents of delayed or inappropriately handled calls and was falling short of the national standard of answering 90% of its calls within 10 seconds. The municipality recognized the urgency of the situation and engaged Turnkey Solutions to ensure that the Call Center's processes were efficient and effective, resulting in timely and high-quality emergency response for those in need.
The Challenges
Turnkey Solutions was asked to address the following operational challenges across five areas:
Turnkey's Response
Based on their analysis, Turnkey Solutions provided the client with over 45 specific best practice recommendations, which the client quickly adopted. The recommendations included both operational and process improvements — including the purchase and implementation of a workflow management solution, and recommendations to work with their current telephony vendor to achieve needed customization in reporting and transfer capabilities.
A key finding was that the hiring process was so slow that by the time decisions were made, many qualified candidates had found other employment. A detailed analysis of the hiring process yielded numerous recommendations for streamlining it without sacrificing security. Scheduling was also a major issue, resulting in overtime costs that were 37% over budget.
Additionally, subtle changes in key performance indicators (KPIs) and the metrics used to measure them resulted in 911 operators being rewarded for positive behavior — rather than finding ways to work around the metric, which had actually been impacting the center negatively. Ongoing discussions and partnership with the telephony vendor allowed for new reporting capabilities to be defined that better served the client.
The Impact
Through collaboration with E911 staff and best practice recommendations, Turnkey Solutions was able to help the client achieve its goal of answering 90% of its calls within 10 seconds — meeting the national standard for emergency response.
In addition, with the purchase and implementation of the workflow management system, the E911 Call Center is positioned to recapture its overtime costs and sustain the operational improvements long-term.
Is your emergency operations center meeting national standards?
Turnkey helps public safety agencies assess their E911 and emergency contact center operations — from staffing and technology to workflows and interagency coordination.