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Isn't this a major opportunity for a centralized, scaled outsource provider to deliver 911 service to municipalities who sign up for it at a lower cost and bett

Isn't this a major opportunity for a centralized, scaled outsource provider to deliver 911 service to municipalities who sign up for it at a lower cost and better rate of service than would otherwise be possible? Imagine an advanced call center with 500 employees. The center can afford sophisticated technology such as geographic point identification of the call, bucketing multiple calls about the same incident, maybe even things like voice stress detection. And because of the size and geographic diversity, spikes in certain areas could easily be handled because they would make little impact. Even time zone diversification would cut costs, because traffic incidents from commuter times would be more evenly distributed. Not to mention training. There are always incidents where, despite the good service of the vast majority of 911 workers, there are gross mistakes made in some cases that can be traced back to poor training. A large facility can develop excellent processes, training and electronic infrastructure to reduce these sorts of problems. Or is this already done?

sachinag 17y ago
You really don't want people in a large call center out in the middle of nowhere who are unaware of local landmarks and surroundings answering 9-1-1 calls. It's a huge public safety issue where you're dealing with distraught people and the operator has to make sense of various small bits of information quickly.
- Retric 17y ago
  That's an important issue. I would suggest having a backup to a large call center if the wait time is over 30 seconds. The remote call center could have priority to "escalate" to the local call center and share information. Integrating it so the local call center could see what the remote site had typed and replay the message if the caller stops responding would also improve that system. Set things up as a distributed system so each site would accept incoming calls if they had excess capacity and give remote sites access to local conditions. So you can handle large sudden spikes without excessive staff. The other option would be to try automatically handle some calls using location information while the caller is waiting. (If you are calling about the car crash at _ we are sending an ambulance. If you need further assistance please stay on the line.)
- tdm911 17y ago
  There was a case in Sydney, Australia recently which highlighted this. A school boy was lost in bushland and called 000 (Australian 911)and they asked that he give them a street address to which they could send an ambulance. As he was in the middle of the bush, there was no streets or signs etc. Local knowledge may not have saved him, but it would have made locating him significantly easier rather than just reading from a script and asking for a street name. Source: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25373564-5006784,00.html http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25373564-...
- electromagnetic 17y ago
  I don't really want to deal with someone in Delhi when they can't understand that my no-fee bank account isn't supposed to be charged fees. Hence no-fee. Yet when they finally understand, they tell me 'oh, we can't deal with that, you'll have to go into your local branch'. I really don't want to call 9-1-1 and be told 'oh, we can't deal with that, you'll have to go into your local branch' when I say my grandma is having a stroke.
- zngtk4 17y ago
  But it would be a good backup -- it's far better than busy signal (which I have gotten on two different occasions of calling 911).
hjnghgbi 17y ago
It's already done in countries with a modern advanced infrastructure - if the local system is busy you get route to progressively larger centres until a free slot is found - all automaticaly and in a few seconds.
alexgartrell 17y ago
The approach being used more recently by at least one software provider I know about is to link all of the call centers in a geographic region together. Extra calls in one municipality get sent to another where people can handle it. Outsourcing is a bad idea, because "we're at the walmart by the high school" is significantly easier for locals to understand than it would be for someone in "an advanced call center". I know that, ideally, the technology would be good enough that the person doesn't have to say where they are, but that isn't the reality at the moment
moe 17y ago
"Dear Sir, this Paul from Emergency Center. Your call be very important to us, glad you took the time to contact. Please how may I turn this into win-win situation for both?" "I'm bleeding arrr horrible accident arrr" "Dear Sir, thank you for detail. Looking for best local service, one moment please, sir (...music...) Thank you for your patience, sir. Your request is important to us and will forward to local (reading) veee-teeerinaaa-ry asap. Sir, while you wait would you like to hear about other interesting products?" "Aaarrh leg... armm... detached... arrrh" "Dear Sir, glad you are taking the time. I will now forward call to Susan who will have many information about interesting product. Thank very much for calling 911-Advantage Sir." "Uarghhh fire... children... uuuuah" chrrrp "Good evening Sir, this is Susan from 911-Advantage. Glad you are interested in our products. Sir, may I ask if you have insurance?" "Muuuh, cows... trampling... fire.. blaargh" "That is so great to hear, Sir. Did you hear about our brand new Dental-Deluxe package for singles?"

sachinag 17y ago

You really don't want people in a large call center out in the middle of nowhere who are unaware of local landmarks and surroundings answering 9-1-1 calls. It's a huge public safety issue where you're dealing with distraught people and the operator has to make sense of various small bits of information quickly.

Retric 17y ago
That's an important issue. I would suggest having a backup to a large call center if the wait time is over 30 seconds. The remote call center could have priority to "escalate" to the local call center and share information. Integrating it so the local call center could see what the remote site had typed and replay the message if the caller stops responding would also improve that system. Set things up as a distributed system so each site would accept incoming calls if they had excess capacity and give remote sites access to local conditions. So you can handle large sudden spikes without excessive staff. The other option would be to try automatically handle some calls using location information while the caller is waiting. (If you are calling about the car crash at _ we are sending an ambulance. If you need further assistance please stay on the line.)
tdm911 17y ago
There was a case in Sydney, Australia recently which highlighted this. A school boy was lost in bushland and called 000 (Australian 911)and they asked that he give them a street address to which they could send an ambulance. As he was in the middle of the bush, there was no streets or signs etc. Local knowledge may not have saved him, but it would have made locating him significantly easier rather than just reading from a script and asking for a street name. Source: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25373564-5006784,00.html http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25373564-...
electromagnetic 17y ago
I don't really want to deal with someone in Delhi when they can't understand that my no-fee bank account isn't supposed to be charged fees. Hence no-fee. Yet when they finally understand, they tell me 'oh, we can't deal with that, you'll have to go into your local branch'. I really don't want to call 9-1-1 and be told 'oh, we can't deal with that, you'll have to go into your local branch' when I say my grandma is having a stroke.
zngtk4 17y ago
But it would be a good backup -- it's far better than busy signal (which I have gotten on two different occasions of calling 911).

hjnghgbi 17y ago

It's already done in countries with a modern advanced infrastructure - if the local system is busy you get route to progressively larger centres until a free slot is found - all automaticaly and in a few seconds.

alexgartrell 17y ago

The approach being used more recently by at least one software provider I know about is to link all of the call centers in a geographic region together. Extra calls in one municipality get sent to another where people can handle it. Outsourcing is a bad idea, because "we're at the walmart by the high school" is significantly easier for locals to understand than it would be for someone in "an advanced call center". I know that, ideally, the technology would be good enough that the person doesn't have to say where they are, but that isn't the reality at the moment

moe 17y ago

"Dear Sir, this Paul from Emergency Center. Your call be very important to us, glad you took the time to contact. Please how may I turn this into win-win situation for both?" "I'm bleeding arrr horrible accident arrr" "Dear Sir, thank you for detail. Looking for best local service, one moment please, sir (...music...) Thank you for your patience, sir. Your request is important to us and will forward to local (reading) veee-teeerinaaa-ry asap. Sir, while you wait would you like to hear about other interesting products?" "Aaarrh leg... armm... detached... arrrh" "Dear Sir, glad you are taking the time. I will now forward call to Susan who will have many information about interesting product. Thank very much for calling 911-Advantage Sir." "Uarghhh fire... children... uuuuah" chrrrp "Good evening Sir, this is Susan from 911-Advantage. Glad you are interested in our products. Sir, may I ask if you have insurance?" "Muuuh, cows... trampling... fire.. blaargh" "That is so great to hear, Sir. Did you hear about our brand new Dental-Deluxe package for singles?"