Why Recording Calls Is Crucial to a PSAP’s Success

Written by KOVA Corp

Evaluating the voice recordings of your public-safety answering point (PSAP) staff can be a time consuming process but it is the best way to monitor the capabilities, compliance, and effectiveness of staff. If you don’t listen in once in awhile, you could be missing issues that could easily be corrected and lead to faster problem resolution.

Recordings Used for Compliance

The most obvious reason why public safety answering centers need to record calls is for legal or compliance reasons. Many state and federal regulations require PASAPs to record calls. Unfortunately, some industries (such as healthcare) are highly regulated and thus would be unable to prove compliance without call recording technology.

Recordings Used for Legal Purposes

These recorded calls can also help aid investigators in solving crimes, providing evidence for legal proceedings, locating missing persons, anticipating when a crime is about to occur, pinpointing a person’s location, and more. Eye witness testimony—and in this case, a witness who just hears what is happening—is the least reliable form of evidence. Therefore having a recording can remove benefit of the doubt and present investigators with an exact replication of the crime scene. Removing hypotheticals from the situation means that crimes are solve quicker and more efficiently.

Recordings Used for Training

A successful PSAP workforce management plan will include a well-defined training program for PSAP agents. One of the best tools PSAP managers can use is taking advantage of the wealth of information available in recorded calls. The recorded calls can then be used for training purposes in a variety of ways.

In the case of new employee training, PSAP managers can isolate calls that demonstrate what new employees should and should not do when handling a call. Playing a sample call can make it easier for the trainee to learn from or understand how they may handle a real-life situation. They can learn when an agent:

  • Was or wasn’t following protocol or a required script.
  • Maintained professionalism in a difficult situation.
  • Acted inappropriately.
  • Diffused a potentially dangerous situation.
  • Calmed a caller in a life-threatening situation.
  • Helped gather valuable information for investigators.

For ongoing training, PSAP managers can monitor call recordings to make sure that their employees are following protocol and making improvements. They can also use the calls to identify employees who struggle with problem resolution and monitor the progress of new employees. One of the most rewarding reasons for monitoring voice recordings is to catch employees excelling at their positions. The manager can then recognize quality staff, helping to motivate the team and boost department morale.

Current Recording Technology

Fortunately, technology continues to evolve, making analyzing employee capabilities easier. At Kova Corporation, we offer workforce management solutions that help automate, categorize, and analyze voice recordings as well as text correspondence via email or chat. Our unified solution for PSAPs contains a single data set for all of your organization’s customer and employee-related information, including work force management, quality monitoring, eLearning, and customer survey. Visit our contact center page to learn more.

 

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