After Hours Answering Services

The vendor is required to provide to answer calls after hours, dispatch calls, provide log reports and other requirements as outlined in this document.
- Provide all labor, supervision and equipment necessary to answer calls after hours, dispatch calls and provide service during an emergency for unlimited 24-hour telephone answering and call-out services to monitor all incoming calls to county housing services maintenance phone line.
- After hours service coverage hours are from 4:30pm to 8:30am, Monday through Friday, twenty-four (24) hour services on Saturdays, Sundays and all applicable holidays or as requested at any time by fac. 
- Provide a local phone number or a toll-free number to forward the after-hour calls.
- Long distances shall be accepted. upon answering an after-hours call, the respondent shall present itself to callers as county housing services answering service.
- Respondents must have emergency power (electricity) back-up with the ability to answer calls during an extended power outage.
- County facilities department requires live, English-Speaking call answering with no option to leave a message.
- Provide a dedicated account manager for day-to-day account support.
- The account manager shall be responsive to email and phone communications.
- A supervisor or delegate shall be available on-call 24/7/365 to respond to requests during emergency events with the authority to make changes to the county facilities department account as needed.
- The successful bidder holds or will hold, all permits, licenses, consents, intellectual property rights, registrations, and authorities necessary to perform its obligations under this agreement and the successful bidder shall comply with the terms and conditions of all such permits, licenses, consents, intellectual property rights, registration and authorities.
- General requirements and expectations
• Answer 95% of the calls within five rings (30 seconds) “95/30” service level.
• Ability to answer multiple (minimum of three) calls simultaneously.
• Abandonment rate of less than 5%.
• Achieve 100% accuracy in diagnosis of customer calls.
• Achieve 100% accuracy in following the procedures related to the call type (including contacting correct on call staff as prescribed following fan out communication procedure correctly).
• Achieve 100% accuracy in completion of call activity reports (capturing all appropriate information as directed in procedure including capturing customer name, address, telephone number and any additional information as procedures require)
• Respondents will supply an overview of the training program that is provided to their staff and agents outlining at a minimum how the staff and agents are informed of the call script programing, dispatch instructions and urgent and temporary changes to the script. 
• Full-time call recording and all call recordings to be available to county facilities department when requested for the purpose of quality assurance. audio recording shall be retained for 30 days, and be date and time stamped.
• Respondents shall maintain a current tenant list, as provided by county facilities department. 
• Updates will occur frequently and must be made “live” immediately upon receipt. within this list of tenants, there are tenants with service delivery flag notes on their file. 
• The service delivery flag notes must be visible to the respondent’s agent and communicated on all call dispatches. 
• Provide county facilities department with a minimum of 24 hours’ notice of any predicted issues that may place at risk any of the established service standards. 
• Provide county facilities department with immediate notice of any unpredicted issues that may have an impact on any of the established service standards.
- After hours: call handling
1. Data entry requirements
• After-hours service coverage hours are from 4:30pm to 8:30am, Monday through Friday, twenty-four (24) hour services on Saturdays, Sundays and all applicable holidays.
o This includes dispatching calls to appropriate county facilities and capital infrastructure personnel in a timely manner and with sufficient information to aid in their response to the call.
• Provide answering services during regular business hours should the department experience an emergency that requires this service.
• The county facilities department reserves the right to adjust the hours of operations of the after-hours answering service with notification given when possible.
• Any planned adjustment to hours 48h notice will be provided. unplanned situations will be determined on a case-by-case basis.
• Call wait time would be no longer than 2 minutes at any time in any circumstance.
• A customer calls, they do not hear a busy signal or a continual ring, the call is answered and, if needed the call is placed into a queue with a message of the wait time until they are able to talk to an agent.
• A customer calls, the respondent’s agent shall be able to easily and quickly view the current calls for the account and will confirm through either the account dashboard, or with the customer if this is a “First call” to report or a “follow up” call; this is required in order to avoid duplication in dispatch to either fac on call supervisor or dispatching multiple contractors to attend the same call.
- After hours: types of calls
1. Emergency calls
• Smoke and carbon monoxide alarm sounding 
• Emergency services: fire, police, ambulance
• Fire, flood or death in a unit 
• Lock out
• Broken window or unit and building door not closing (security risk)
• Loss of heat, electricity (power) or water (within the unit only).
• Blocked toilet plumbing leaks
• Electrical wires exposed 
• No water services
• Elevator entrapment 
• Emergency repairs (water and sanitary breaks)
• Elevator malfunction 
• Emergency water shut off
2. Non-urgent calls
• Calls received that are not of an urgent matter shall be able to be held for the office for the following morning and that process is communicated to the customer. 
• This can be programmed to direct non urgent inquiries with pre-set responses to call back during the next regular working day. 
• These calls are still to be included in the daily log and report, with the after-hours response type listed as “saved for office” or similar.
- Work alone and home safe calls
• Included within the after-hours answering service, the respondent will provide work alone and home safe programming for county staff to use when attending a call back or working after regular business hours.
• Staff safety is paramount when attending units for call backs.
• The respondent shall be able to program an option to bypass the normal welcome message when staff are calling to use the work alone and home safe program.
• All call details are to be recorded and included in a separate daily log and report, required to be documented to comply with union agreements for call out procedures, documenting the following:
o The staff person and contact phone number, location details and estimated time for the call.
o The time of initiation of the work alone.
o Any extension to the call - location change, or additional time required to complete the work.
o The completion of the call time.
- After hours call report log should include at a minimum:
• Date and time call received.
• Callers first and last name, address, phone number.
• alternate caller and contact number, if different than the provided tenant details.
• Nature of the call.
• Location of the problem or complaint if different than above.
• Date and time the call was dispatched.
o Report log will also identify all calls marked as non-urgent.
- Work alone and home safe program call report log
• Provide a report to the county facilities department email addresses provided that includes the details for each work alone activated during the after-hours period (4:30pm to 8:30am m-f, 24 hours per day sat, sun and holidays).
o Date and time stamp of all components of the work safe program.
o Staff person first and last name, address attending and contact phone number.
o Nature of the call; initiating, extending or ending work alone program.
- Call volumes
• Average monthly minutes- 1,050, 1,100
• Annual minutes- 12,500, 13,100
• The above call volumes are rounded based on actual data for the period stated and are for information purposes only. call volumes include after hours and home alone and work safe program minutes. 
• Actual call volumes vary month to month and are in no way guaranteed. call volume is typically seen as consistent, but seasonal trends may present themselves and isolated issues may occur that cannot be predicted. 
• For the purpose of pricing and evaluation, (1,100 minutes) x (12 months) = 13,200 minutes per year will be used.
- Contract Period/Term: 1 year
- Questions/Inquires Deadline: August 1, 2025