Ok, let’s get real for a moment. Thanks to friendly, helpful operators, the Central Station has become a bit of a catch all. Don’t get us wrong, it actually makes sense. They’re the ones who call on your troubles, power outages, and alarms. They’re usually who your customers call to place accounts on test.
In fact, Central Station works pretty hard at being considered “the dispatch department” for your company in order to create a seamless experience for your customers, and the staff love being able to make a difference with your customers. Most of the time.
When is it a problem?
Picture this scenario…
Your customer has inadvertently set off their burglar alarm. Maybe it was super early Sunday morning and they walked out the door, half asleep, to let the dog out. Dispatch called. Your customer says it’s a false alarm but they can’t remember the password!
Or maybe this scenario…
One of your fire accounts is having issues with their Fire Alarm constantly going off and the Fire Department has been unable to help them reset the panel.
Or maybe it’s as simple as…
One of your small business accounts just unexpectedly terminated an employee and they didn’t take it well, and now they’re in the awkward position of needing, on the weekend, to change the alarm codes and change their keyholders list.
Or…
One of your customers calls in and says their alarm doesn’t seem to be working right and they want someone to help them troubleshoot to make sure it’s working properly before they head out of town.
It’s in these moments when an operator and a customer, both, can find themselves extremely frustrated with their dealer. Not all the time, mind you. And not all of you.
What’s the frustration, you ask?
When a dealer doesn’t make sure that Central Station has a current, valid method of contact on file to either give customers or to call in an emergency. Beggars can’t be choosers, so they’ll settle for an email address if they need to, but preferably — a phone number. One that gives your customers instructions on how to reach an on-call if it’s available. Or maybe one that’s just checked regularly so that your customers feel confident in the support we’re all giving.
In case you didn’t realize, the process in Central Station is to try to connect customers who need to speak to their dealer. By this, we mean that our dispatchers will call you, give you a run down of which client is on the line, what the issue is, and relay their request to be transferred. This aids in giving a seamless, symbiotic appearance. If that fails, then they give the customer your contact number and advise them that they were only able to reach voicemail, and recommend for them to try again later.
So please, we’re asking on behalf of our Central Station AND YOUR CUSTOMERS… help us help you by making sure your contact information is current, as well as your instructions as to when you want us to use them. THANKS!