Answering Services

The Vendor is required to provide answering service to answer, record and direct its telephone calls during off and specified hours to its agency and its managed authorities in agencies.
- The off hours would be all hours other than the regular hours of operation, which are Monday, Wednesday, Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Tuesday from 8:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and Friday 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. for the main office line and Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. for the maintenance line, except holidays. 
- Provide 24-hour emergency maintenance on-call service for tenants residing in these units.
- An answering service is required to be in place to receive, record, and relay messages on all emergency and non-emergency calls during off hours.
- The answering service will be responsible for recording messages, relaying these messages to the agencies’ staff on the next business day by means of email and directing emergency maintenance calls to the on-call staff via cell phone number when they happen.
- The answering service will be required to utilize language line services contracted through authority for individuals who speak another language other than English.
- Authority will provide a telephone number and identification number to the answering service for immediate access to an interpreter to assist the individual calling.