After Hours Answering Service

The vendor is required to provide a proven and documented track record of managing after-hours calls from law enforcement, handling public safety-related communications, and efficiently differentiating between routing and emergency calls, for county animal control.
- After-hours coverage:
• Provide uninterrupted phone answering service during non-business hours, 8 pm to 5 am eastern standard time (EST), including nights, weekends, and county recognized holidays.  • Provide timely transfer, under five (5) minutes, to answering service from when call is received, for law enforcement calls only when county phone lines are inoperable.
- Call handling expertise:
• Receive calls from law enforcement and public safety personnel and the contractor shall document and replay all information, including but not limited to name, address, phone number, and call details correctly, to the appropriate on-call personnel in under five (5) minutes, if warranted.
• If the call is not an emergency, the contractor shall enter a service request in the county’s service now system including the name, address, phone number, and details of the call.
• Provide a daytime and nighttime operations manager to always monitor the agents’ live calls.
- Emergency call distinction:
• Identify and prioritize emergency calls, ensuring prompt escalation to on-call animal control officers or other designated personnel specified by the county’s project manager (pm).
• Identify and prioritize emergency calls, ensuring prompt escalation to on-call animal control officers or other designated personnel.
• Handle routine calls with documentation of calls routed to the designed personnel, indicated by pm. all routine calls shall be entered into the county’s service now system.
- Demonstrate the ability to triage calls related to public safety, including familiarity with protocols for high pressure and sensitive situations.
- Maintain communication systems to log and transfer call details to the designated personnel, specified by the pm.
- Provide call logs, reports, and summaries via email on a regular basis upon request to all designated personnel, specified by the pm.
- Maintain communication with the pm about account information and changes on an as-needed basis along with providing quarterly updates.
- Implement and maintain a system to record calls for the purposes of quality assurance and ensuring proper call handling.
- Accurately and timely log calls, call details, incident reports, and call summaries daily and send to the department via email daily and/or upon request.
- Contract Period/Term: 3 years