Hour Answering Services

The Vendor is required to provide 24 hours answering service for calls coming into 420-6000 (agency main switchboard number) that cover 7 regional site offices.
- The answering service shall be responsible for receiving calls from 12 pm to 1 pm on weekday and 4:30 p.m. to 8:30 a.m. Monday through Friday (note: 12 noon to 1 pm on weekdays, site offices forward their phones to the answering service provider). 24-hour service on Saturdays and Sundays, or any other time, the office is closed e.g. government holidays, storm days or on an as-needed basis.
- The answering service contractor shall be responsible for supplying the agency with a dedicated toll-free phone number to allow forwarding of the 420-6000 number (or any other method as agreed by agency ) so that the answering service can receive and respond to agency calls.
- Number of supervised staff and phone lines shall be available to respond to incoming calls that must provide a call waiting no longer than a one-minute duration, without contact from the answering service contractor staff.
- The answering service staff shall document and notify the appropriate on-call agency staff member, contractor, HRM emergency service, etc., immediately after receiving the call; a supervisor shall be available to the call-center staff and to deal with agency account 24 hours/day
- The answering service contractor must have defined backup procedures if their call center is unavailable for any reason; backup plan must be made available prior to award and meet the needs of this tender; if the call center is unavailable for any reason, the back-up plan must include immediate notifications to agency
- The answering service contractor must have the equipment and software necessary to accommodate the storage of and quick access to agency information to allow answering service staff to respond to and dispatch calls on a timely basis as per agency instructions.
- The answering service contractor shall provide a monthly report listing the volume of calls and wait times, as well as a log of calls and complaints, with the following details on each call: date and time call was received; caller’s name, address, and phone number; nature of call (location of problem, if different than the callers’ address); time of day and name of person(s) the call was referred to; the time it took for that person to respond to the call or page; instructions given.
- Call center will record all calls, incoming and outgoing; maintain the record for a minimum of 60 calendar days, making the recordings available to agency up request within 8 hours of request.
- Call center will provide a report of the month’s incoming calls detailing the following:
1. Top 20 call types/concern with # of calls received
2. List of calls where staff were dispatched by staff name
- 24 Hour elevator emergency telephone monitoring service for 45 locations; 61 elevators
• The elevator emergency telephone monitoring service is responsible for providing 24-hour, 7 days per week, answering service to handle all calls from any of agency 61 elevators.
• All elevator emergency communication devices will be forwarded to the elevator emergency telephone monitoring service.
• Monitoring service staff that handle agency calls shall be well trained, experienced and will answer incoming calls in a professional, courteous and timely manner (script to be provided), recognizing that all calls shall be treated as if they could be of an emergent nature.
• Monitoring service staff shall notify the appropriate on-call contractor, HRM emergency service, agency staff, etc., immediately after receiving the call.
• In emergency situations, the line to the person(s) in the elevator shall be kept open until emergency personnel can take over the situation and advise the monitoring service to staff to disconnect the call.
- Contract Period/Term: 1 year
- Questions/Inquires Deadline: March 18, 2025