After Hours Answering Services

The Vendor is required to provide a comprehensive “After Hours Answering Service” to support the City’s customer service objectives outside regular business hours.
- Provide live call answering, intake, triage, dispatch, escalation, message delivery, incident reporting, and related support services for external customers contacting the City after regular business hours.
- The service shall be delivered as an extension of the City’s customer service function and in a manner that aligns with the City’s commitment to accessible, welcoming, respectful, efficient, and customer-centric service.
- Objectives:
• Provides customers with timely, courteous, professional, and reliable live assistance outside regular business hours;
• Supports the city’s customer service standard objectives of customer satisfaction, accessibility, communication, empathy and respect, and continuous improvement;
• Makes it easier for residents, businesses, visitors, and other customers to access city services through a clear and consistent after-hours contact experience;
• Maximizes first contact resolution where appropriate and minimizes unnecessary transfers, repeat contacts, and unresolved requests;
• Ensures accurate intake, triage, dispatch, and escalation of urgent and nonurgent matters in accordance with city-approved procedures;
• Supports business continuity and service resilience during emergencies, power outages, high-volume periods, and operational disruptions;
• Produces accurate operational data and reporting to support continuous improvement, KPI monitoring, and future service enhancements; and
• Operates in a manner that is consistent with the city’s knowledge management, customer handling, accessibility, and customer experience expectations.
- Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, the successful proponent shall:
o Provide live call answering for all calls forwarded by the city during the required service periods;
o Provide inbound call handling and, where required by approved city procedures, outbound call handling, dispatch, follow-up contact, and escalation support;
o Use city-approved scripts, call flows, escalation matrices, contact lists, on-call schedules, service protocols, and knowledge resources to respond to callers accurately and consistently;
o Provide callers with general information and guidance where such matters can be addressed at first point of contact, consistent with the city’s objective of increasing the number and types of inquiries that can be fully concluded through frontline service;
o Record service requests, complaints, urgent issues, and general inquiries in a complete and accurate manner;
o Triage and classify calls based on urgency, service area, and issue type, and route them to the appropriate on-call staff, contractor, or designated contact in accordance with city procedures;
o Provide patching, conferencing, transfer, or direct dispatch to on-call staff where required by the applicable protocol;
o Confirm successful dispatch or notification to on-call staff for urgent or operational matters where such confirmation is required by city procedure;
o Maintain the ability to communicate using multiple approved methods, including telephone, mobile phone, and email;
o Ensure that all calls are logged with date and time stamps, actions taken, notifications issued, and current status or disposition;
o Provide call recording capability and retrieval access when requested by the city;
o Provide daily message delivery and incident reporting to designated city contacts through established channels;
o Be prepared to respond to increased call volumes arising from inclement weather, road closures, water main breaks, seasonal peaks, emergencies, or similar events;
o Provide service in English. The ability to provide service in French, and/or access to interpretation services for additional languages, shall be considered an asset in light of city diverse customer base and accessibility objectives;
o Deliver services in a professional and respectful manner at all times, including when dealing with irritated, distressed, or aggressive callers;
o Support the city’s expectation that non-emergency after-hours matters will be documented clearly and forwarded in a manner that enables appropriate follow-up on the next business day; and
o Function as a seamless extension of the city’s customer service model rather than as a standalone message-taking service.
- Reporting and Performance Measurement
• Monthly reporting on total call volumes and total minutes;
• Reporting on service levels, including answer times, wait times, abandoned calls where available, call outcomes, dispatch volumes, and other agreed performance indicators;
• Reporting on message volumes, incident types, escalation frequency, and service trends;
• Custom reporting on an as-requested basis, where required by the city;
• Access to call logs, recorded calls, and historical records, subject to applicable privacy and retention requirements; and
• Information that supports the city’s customer experience and KPI framework, including metrics relevant to triage accuracy, abandonment, unresolved requests, hold times, and process breakdowns where measurable.