Next Generation 911, or NG911, standards have been talked about for years now. If you’re a public safety official, you’re doubtless familiar with what the move to NG911 is concerned with: taking the current, telephone-based system and upgrading it to a digital one capable of sending and receiving SMS, video, and photos as well as audio.
This proposal is hardly controversial. What it does, after all, is bring the nation’s 911 Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) up to the same standards and capabilities as the smartphones most of us carry around in our pockets. The real barriers to upgrading to NG911, as the New York Times noted in a Nov. 23 editorial, “The 911 System Isn’t Ready for the iPhone Era,” are cost and complexity.
Admittedly, these are not insignificant. Transitioning to a new 911 network is a daunting task, especially since the old network must be functional and active until the new one is ready to go. And replacing the current telephone system with a fully digital one will certainly be expensive.
However, as the editorial continues, those barriers must be overcome, whatever the difficulty. Across the country, 911 centers handle around 240 million calls per year. Many of those are from cell phones, and that number will only increase.
For some callers, like those involved in home invasions or domestic violence situations, being able to text a cry for help to 911 instead of having to speak can mean a greater likelihood of the victim emerging unharmed. Likewise, being able to send a photo or video can help public safety agencies pinpoint a caller’s exact location or be better prepared when they arrive.
Another major benefit of NG911 is the ability to better handle overloads of calls during events like power outages, natural disasters, or terrorist attacks. NG911 also allows for a stronger defense against cybercrime, which is becoming more and more important as this type of crime increases in frequency.
However, it’s not only the technology that will have to change when PSAPs upgrade to an NG911 system. Operational procedures, funding models, training, and federal and state regulations will have to change or adapt as well.
One tool that PSAPs can use during this major transition is Verint Media Recorder for Public Safety. This workforce optimization solution supports the skills development that those working in PSAPs will need as they upgrade their systems to NG911.
Built on open architecture and using standard PC components, Verint Media Recorder for Public Safety offers voice and screen recording, analytics, training, scorecards, quality assurance, and citizen surveys in a single package.
This can be a great advantage for PSAPs working to train their staff on the new NG911 standards. The system offers eLearning capabilities, making training faster, more efficient, and more easily tailored to address a call taker’s skill gaps.
Supervisors can also use Verint Media Recorder to schedule and monitor individual coaching sessions with call takers. This can have a positive impact on staff retention, which is an important part of successfully transitioning to NG911. After all, PSAPs want to make sure they don’t lose their best people simply because those people aren’t being effectively trained on the new systems.
Also, as more and more baby boomers retire - and many PSAP supervisors and managers are of the baby boomer generation - PSAPs need to ensure that they’re investing in potential future supervisors and managers. Being better able to offer individualized, one-on-one coaching is one way to do this.
In addition to training, Verint Media Recorder allows for better investigative insights and incident reconstruction with its easy-to-use call search and retrieval functions.
The software can even help improve public safety agencies’ relationship with the communities they serve - it includes functionality for sending out citizen surveys as follow-ups after calls. Proactively sending these surveys can not only help the PSAPs better understand their own performance, but increase citizen confidence in their public safety agencies.
Upgrading to NG911 is a major task for any PSAP, but systems like Verint Media Recorder can help agencies ensure that the transition is a successful one. To learn more about what it means to transition to NG911, read the whitepaper Emergency Communications Training: Anticipating the Challenges of Next-Generation-9-1-1.
If you’d like to learn more about Verint Media Recorder or any of our other public safety software solutions, contact us today!
Technology plays a vital role in all parts of daily lives, from working, to staying in touch with friends and family, to deciding what movie we’re going to stream on Netflix tonight.
When it comes to public safety, however, technology can mean the difference between life and death. When someone is in a dangerous car accident and calls 911, their well-being depends on the 911 dispatcher being able to pinpoint their location so EMS can respond as quickly as possible.
If someone is at home when a break-in occurs, their ability to text 911 instead of having to call and speak aloud can mean the difference between the intruder finding them—possibly escalating the situation—or leaving the premises after the burglary.
And for law enforcement, reliable, easy-to-use technology can mean the difference between a speedy arrest and conviction or a case that stays open for months. Today, there’s a huge variety of software on offer for law enforcement, from tools like KOVA’s Silent Partner recording app to large-scale platforms like the Nextiva Physical Security Information Management program.
Then there’s our Verint Media Recorder. A versatile, multi-functional and multi-media recording system, Verint Media Recorder is able to work as a stand-alone recorder and playback unit, or as a server in a networked system. PSAPs can use Verint Media Recorder to help them move toward Next Generation 911, or NG-911, standards, as the system supports recording connectivity with digital PBX/ACD stations; digital/analog trunks; service observe; single step conferencing; radio systems; and VoIP and H.323 systems.
Verint Media Recorder can be a strong tool for law enforcement, as well. The system can support full-time, on-demand, scheduled, or event-driven recording, offering the versatility that law enforcement agencies need to do perform to their highest capabilities.
For example, let’s say a law enforcement agency that uses Verint Media Recorder receives information pertaining to a case via email. The system could be configured to record the screen when that information is received, making it easier to ensure that all evidence, including electronic, is tracked, recorded, and catalogued.
Another use for the event-driven recording function could be to selectively not record administrative telephone lines, so you don’t clog up your storage with hours of calls to the HR department, or with questions about payroll.
Another perk of this system is that the parts are all industry standard, off-the-shelf PC components. There’s no proprietary technology that will require agencies to purchase new systems or upgrade their old ones—instead, new technology can be added right on to Verint Media Recorder.
Upgrading to fit all NG-911 standards requires a major commitment of resources: not just the obvious ones like time and money, but new technology, new ways of thinking, and new skill sets. Verint Media Recorder can become one piece of that puzzle for PSAPs moving toward NG-911 standards.
At the same time, Verint Media Recorder can help law enforcement do their jobs better. Think your PSAP or law enforcement agency could use Verint Media Recorder’s capabilities? Contact KOVA today!
As any great contact center leader knows, knowledge management is a vital—and potentially overwhelming—part of working in a large organization.
It’s vital because it helps your agents stay on track and address issues correctly, which in turn makes your business more successful. It can be overwhelming because the “knowledge” in knowledge management, or KM, includes everything from training documents, to illustrative call recordings, to customer databases and more. In other words, KM brings together—or at least, is supposed to bring together—all of the information that an organization possesses.
In order to manage all that information, contact centers often turn to KM software. As these software systems continue to develop, they’re becoming more robust, more user-friendly, and more capable of handling and disseminating diverse types of knowledge.
Here are a few trends to look for in 2016.
Contact centers are benefiting greatly from implementing knowledge management systems, and those benefits only stand to increase. With more user-friendly interfaces and functions, better ability to collaborate, and more focus on mobile capabilities, knowledge management will be even better in 2016.
If your organization is in need of software to streamline your processes, increase collaboration, or gain insight into your company’s customer service success, KOVA can help. Contact us about our Verint Media Recorder Workforce Optimization Suite today!
If you work in customer service, you've probably been hearing about the importance of the customer journey for years now. With customers having more power than ever before, their experience is paramount to a business's success.
At a contact center, your agents are the ones on the customer experience frontlines - they're the people who determine whether your customers end their interactions with positive, satisfied feelings or negative, dispirited ones.
So don't you want to make sure they have all the tools and insights possible to help them serve your customers better? That's where workforce optimization software, like our Workforce Optimization with Verint Media Recorder, comes in. With a workforce optimization platform, you as a manager are empowered to better manage your agents' scheduling, learning, and more. At the same time, your agents are able to gain the knowledge they need to work better and more efficiently.
How can workforce optimization work for your contact center? Here are a few of the benefits.
Our Verint Media Recorder suite includes Verint Media Recorder Workforce Management, a scheduling and forecasting tool that provides a number of benefits for contact center managers and supervisors. With this software, managers can gain deeper insight into their scheduling practices, optimizing them on a number of levels.
Users can:
This can help your contact center reduce overstaffing and overtime, which will in turn help you to cut costs.
The Verint Media Recorder suite offers a high-quality platform for recording, evaluating, and archiving calls. Through this smart system, managers can set recording to occur on an on-demand or criteria-driven basis, as well as scheduled.
And the recording system doesn't just record audio - it's a multimedia solution, capturing screens and data from web chats and SMS messaging as well as analog and digital phone systems.
Verint Media Recorder also includes an advanced search feature, allowing you to locate a particular call or type of call at any time. You can even do so from a different location, as call playback, recording scheduling, and system management can all be performed remotely.
What this all means for your contact center is that you have better, easier access to the information you need to improve your agents' performance, resolve any disputes, and reduce your liability.
With the time you save on scheduling, forecasting, and searching for calls, you have more time available for higher-priority tasks - like agent coaching. One-on-one coaching is still one of the best ways to improve an agent's performance, and too often this important training falls by the wayside because there's simply not enough time for it.
The Verint Media Recorder Workforce Optimization suite also includes services for performance management and eLearning. With these features, not only are you able to help your agents improve - those agents are empowered to work on their own performance, as well.
This can help you achieve a happier, more satisfied workforce and reduce employee turnover, which at contact centers can be as high as 33 percent annually.
Perhaps one of the most helpful features of workforce optimization software is the ability to gain actionable insights from extensive reporting abilities. Managers can key performance indicators, or KPIs, as well as scorecards that help identify things like your workforce's areas of strength and weakness, trends, and more.
Armed with this data, managers are able to analyze what's happening in their organizations more easily. Are agents sticking to the script? Are they providing the customer with easy resolutions to their problems? Are customers leaving the interaction happy, angry, or otherwise?
From there, contact center managers are able to make decisions on how and where to improve, disseminate the information easily, and then put their plans into action.
Transitioning to a more customer-centric model assisted by workforce optimization software is not something that can happen overnight - however, its implementation can have major benefits for your workforce, your company, and your bottom line. To learn more about the Verint Media Recorder Workforce Optimization suite, contact us at KOVA. And if you'd like to learn more about how workforce optimization can help your company, read the whitepaper Workforce Optimization: a Business Process.
As disheartening as it is to admit it, cities and businesses today face a growing number of increasingly sophisticated threats. Acts of terrorism, cybercrime, mass shootings – these horrifying acts are becoming more and more common. These are in addition to the threats we’ve always faced, like natural disasters, accidents, and intruders.
The question of what must be done to stop these crimes is a subject for other thinkers more qualified to solve these problems. We can, however, speak to some of the technologies that are being employed – often to great effect - to lessen the impact of such acts.
One of those technologies is Verint SMC, a situation management platform that integrates physical security and intelligence capabilities. The primary goal of SMC is to help organizations mitigate risk, respond quickly to threats and questionable events, and reduce organizations’ operational costs.
But what is situation management technology?
Situation management technology is essentially a tool for integrating and analyzing information from multiple sources, allowing those using the technology to make better informed decisions at a faster rate. Depending on the event that these operators are responding to, that can mean lives saved, disastrous accidents prevented, or property preserved.
One problem historically with situation management technology is that it hasn’t been able to handle different systems. This can become a costly problem, as organizations that use it find themselves having to either update or completely replace their other systems, so that the situation management platform can work with them.
Verint SMC doesn’t have this problem. In fact, this solution was designed to allow organizations to leverage whatever existing systems they’re using, without the need to change, update, or replace them. It was developed, in fact, in collaboration with several other technology partners as well as standards organizations to ensure that integration would be possible not just with current systems, but with those yet to be developed.
The bottom line? Verint SMC is scalable, flexible, and open – as opposed to the many other situation management platforms on the market that require expensive proprietary solutions for integration.
Verint SMC can pull together a number of different security systems that provide both physical security and intelligence, including:
But the platform doesn’t just integrate these technologies. It also provides operators with actionable intelligence and analysis. When multiple types of information are pulled together into one system, operators are better able to access what they need. And when they can see data from radar, video, alarms, and other systems all at once, they’re able to use context to make better decisions.
When used properly by experience operators, situation management technology can make a big difference in mitigating the effects of negative events. Not only can operators better respond to emergencies, but they can send out emergency alerts or notifications from multiple devices, including mobile devices.
Take an intruder case, for example. An alarm that went off would show up in the situation management platform in real time, combined with video that could help identify the intruder. Perhaps an employee saw a suspicious person near the door shortly before the alarm went off and took a picture with his smartphone, sending the image to the company’s platform. That image would also be integrated into the available data, and the organization could then send out an emergency notification alerting employees to the situation.
Verint SMC can even help organizations prevent these events from occurring, as the platform can gather data from sources like watch lists, social media, and government or open source databases.
For cities or corporations with a large number of assets, locations, or people to protect, Verint SMC can take their security management to a higher, more actionable level. To find out more, contact KOVA!
Getting honest customer feedback just might be one of the most difficult tasks a contact center manager has on her plate. From informal feedback, like comments a customer makes during a service call, to formal feedback, like complaints, there are countless opportunities each day to listen to and glean valuable insight from what your customers are saying.
But while listening well is a vital part of the job, it’s just as important to be proactive in seeking your customers’ opinions. One of the easiest and best-known ways of doing that is through surveys—with just a few questions, you can get a good idea of what your customers are thinking about your company and your products.
In order to do that, you have to craft effective surveys that your customers will actually complete (and, maybe more importantly, complete honestly). Creating good surveys is a skill, so we’ve compiled our five top tips for creating effective contact center customer surveys.
For maximum success, Entrepreneur magazine says you should keep your survey length to no more than five to 10 questions, with five being more desirable than 10. And “shorter is better” doesn’t apply only to survey length—you should also make sure you’re writing your questions in the briefest, most concise manner you can. This will increase both the chance that your customers will answer the question, and that they’ll answer honestly. If a question is too long or convoluted, you run the risk of a customer simply clicking on an answer so they can move on to the next one.
But what if you can’t get all the info you need from just a few questions? That’s a very real possibility, and one way around it is to use rotating sets of questions. That way, you receive answers to a larger number of questions, just with a slightly smaller sample size.
But many experts say that asking a customer to complete a survey at the very beginning of a call is more effective—not only does it increase the chance that a customer will agree to do the survey, it also means that their decision to do so won’t be affected by the outcome of the call. This increases the chance of getting a diverse sample of customers—in other words, you’re less likely to have only very angry customers, or only very satisfied customers, agreeing to take your survey.
This will give your customers the chance to express their real thoughts, and you might be surprised at how many helpful insights come out of these questions. Just make sure to place these questions toward the end of the survey, to give your respondents a chance to warm up. You don’t want to scare them off with what looks like an essay question right off the bat.
On the other hand, according to a SurveyMonkey blog post on the topic, offering incentives can increase the number of respondents by 5 to 20 percent.
Do you think your company could use some help bringing in customer feedback? You may want to try KOVA’s Verint Media Recorder Customer Feedback software—contact us today!
Training vs. coaching: although both are methods of helping a call center agent improve his or her performance, these two learning models are actually quite different.
In training, a variety of methods can be used. You can offer webinars, videos, or virtual training sessions with other agents or managers. Training offers more general information for the agent—how to handle an angry caller, how to document steps taken after a call, or how to navigate the system the contact center uses. Simulated calls are also often a part of agent training.
Coaching, on the other hand, is conducted live and is much more personalized. With coaching, supervisors take the time to work one-on-one or in a small group with agents to provide constructive criticism as well as positive feedback on the agent’s performance. There are a lot of factors and considerations that go into effective contact center agent coaching. We’ve compiled a list of 5 tips for contact center managers to keep in mind when conducting a coaching session with an agent. (You can also get more tips on coaching in this previous post, Eight Great Coaching Tips for Contact Center Managers.)
The same is true for negative feedback. Instead of saying, “You’re not reaching your customer satisfaction goal,” you could say “Your customer satisfaction is at 68 percent, instead of your goal of 75 percent.”
We hope these tips help make your employee coaching more effective. If KOVA can help your contact center with workforce management, customer feedback, or other workforce optimization software solutions, contact us today!
New Year’s Eve is the last hurrah of the holiday season - one last night to enjoy big parties, overindulge in food and drinks, and celebrate with friends and family.
While there’s plenty of fun to be had on New Year’s Eve, the New Year’s Eve holiday period is also one of the most dangerous periods to be on the road - it’s got one of the highest numbers of alcohol-related driving fatalities of the year.
At KOVA, we want you and your family to have a happy, safe, and healthy New Year, so we’re sharing these public safety tips for the holiday.
And as we all know, one of the biggest things you can do to ensure your safety is to keep your drink with you at all times, even when you go to the bathroom. If you must leave your drink for a minute, give it to a close friend whom you trust.
And if fireworks aren’t legal where you live, then obviously you shouldn’t engage in this activity. Law enforcement is generally even more vigilant than usual on holidays, especially New Year’s Eve, so you can be fairly sure that you’ll end up facing the consequences of your actions.
We at KOVA are grateful to our public safety workers for working hard this holiday season to make sure the rest of us have safe and happy holidays. If we can help your public safety agency improve its functionality with a software solution like workforce optimization or Situation Management technology, please contact us!
The advent of smartphones has changed a lot of things about our daily lives. We tweet and post our Facebook status on the go, we take pictures of everything from our dogs to our food, and we can summon up a song, movie, or TV show while we’re out shopping, or on the beach.
Another thing that the smartphone has changed? Public safety. Now that almost everyone has a little camera and video recorder in her pocket, there’s a whole lot more data out there, and much of it can be valuable to public safety and law enforcement officials.
Take a purse-snatcher, for example. If someone comes up behind a woman, snatches her purse, and takes off running, there’s a good chance that someone who saw the incident will pull out their cell phone to start recording. Maybe they won’t get a shot of the thief’s face, but they may record some identifying feature, like hair, or clothes. That person would also have a record of the exact time and location at which the theft happened, whereas the victim may be too shaken to remember precise details like that.
So how can law enforcement and public safety officials make the most out of crowdsourced data?
Citizens have always been an important part of keeping a community safe, whether through calls to a tip line or by responding to a missing persons flyer—today they just have more ways to engage with law enforcement, and with less effort. Departments that aren’t taking advantage of this resource could be missing a valuable opportunity.
Johns Creek officers can send out notification bulletins as well as report on incidents like robberies or car accidents. The app also links with the department’s Facebook and Twitter pages, allowing users to easily interact with the police force.
This kind of security software allows for multiple people at multiple locations to view real-time data and collaborate as needed. Security software operators can pull data from social media feeds, public safety apps, and phone- and web-based tip lines. When this information is added to data that comes in on traditional channels, officers and officials can create a more complete picture of any given incident.
While public safety officials must use their judgment when investigating claims that come from crowdsourcing, there’s no question that the power of the crowd can be of huge benefit to police departments and other public safety organizations. If you’re planning on implementing physical security information management software to help reach your public safety goals, KOVA can help—contact us today!
Police officers, firefighters, EMS workers, 911 dispatchers—these are the brave individuals who selflessly serve and protect our communities.
These people have some of the most difficult, and thankless, jobs around. But they’re not in it for the thanks. These men and women do what they do out of a strong sense of duty and the desire to make their neighborhoods, towns, and cities, safer, stronger places.
That’s even more reason why we should go out of our way to thank them for their service this holiday season. Here are a few ways you can show your appreciation for everything these people do to make our lives better.
This holiday season, consider writing a letter or card to one of your community public safety departments just to thank them in general for the good work they do. You could pick a station that serves your area, for example, and drop off the note with a wreath, or some other festive accompaniment. Are you a teacher? Your class could “adopt” a fire, police, or EMS station and write cards of thanks to the workers there.
Of course, coffee is a welcome treat any time of day, so if getting there at 6 a.m. is a stretch, just drop it off when you can. Workers are in and out of stations all day, so chances are someone will be there to enjoy it at some point.
We hope this list gives you some good ideas for how to thank your community’s police, fire, and EMS workers this holiday season. We at KOVA care deeply about the public safety organizations and people we work with, and want to express our heartfelt thanks and appreciation for all they do to protect and serve the rest of us in our communities.
To learn more about how we’re working to make public safety workers’ jobs easier in the field, read about our app, SilentPartner.
