On the one hand, waiting on hold for 30 minutes during an emergent -- and possibly violent -- situation is ridiculous. The caller in the recording has a legitimate grievance.
On the other hand, having worked in call centers, I can say the reps, whether it's a 9-1-1 dispatcher or a tech support guru, have ZERO control over the calls coming in. That's someone else's doing. If 9-1-1 gets inundated with calls -- fireworks on July 4th, DUIs on New Year's and St. Patrick's Day, etc. -- the 9-1-1 center really doesn't have any control over that. The dispatcher in the recording isn't wrong, either.
But on the shooting hand, holidays like July 4th almost always come with a lot of extra calls, and if anyone is paying attention to the metrics, they know it. It would take almost no effort to schedule higher staffing levels weeks or months in advance of those days. Make it an "all hands on deck" situation.
Also, they should be able to put an outgoing message saying they are aware of a large number of potentially-illegal fireworks being used, and direct fireworks calls to the non-emergency line unless there's a fire or injury. Every caller would hear this message.
I'm not sure who could be "held accountable" for the long wait times -- certainly not the dispatchers, who are almost certainly doing the best they can! -- but IMHO, an outgoing message and increased staffing is about all they can do. Unless a supervisor somewhere dropped the ball on those things, there's not much else to be done.
On the one hand, waiting on hold for 30 minutes during an emergent -- and possibly violent -- situation is ridiculous. The caller in the recording has a legitimate grievance.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, having worked in call centers, I can say the reps, whether it's a 9-1-1 dispatcher or a tech support guru, have ZERO control over the calls coming in. That's someone else's doing. If 9-1-1 gets inundated with calls -- fireworks on July 4th, DUIs on New Year's and St. Patrick's Day, etc. -- the 9-1-1 center really doesn't have any control over that. The dispatcher in the recording isn't wrong, either.
But on the shooting hand, holidays like July 4th almost always come with a lot of extra calls, and if anyone is paying attention to the metrics, they know it. It would take almost no effort to schedule higher staffing levels weeks or months in advance of those days. Make it an "all hands on deck" situation.
Also, they should be able to put an outgoing message saying they are aware of a large number of potentially-illegal fireworks being used, and direct fireworks calls to the non-emergency line unless there's a fire or injury. Every caller would hear this message.
I'm not sure who could be "held accountable" for the long wait times -- certainly not the dispatchers, who are almost certainly doing the best they can! -- but IMHO, an outgoing message and increased staffing is about all they can do. Unless a supervisor somewhere dropped the ball on those things, there's not much else to be done.