When an emergency falls outside of the norm.

One of the sites under npa24:7’s out of hours cover had an emergency call that was very different from the usual calls. npa24:7 followed the agreed procedures and assured a swift escalation to the issue that was faced.

The call was from Gloucester Fire Services, who had been contacted by a member of the public regarding building materials on fire. The fire had been successfully extinguished, however, whilst gaining access to the site, the Fire Services were forced to cut the chain to the site which left it unsecured. Our advisor escalated the call to the named corporate contacts, and they were able to attend the site and make it secure again. Whilst this call did not result in a deployment direct from npa24:7, it was resolved promptly through the escalation.

“It’s our duty of care to our customers to not only protect their residents in their homes but their brand as well.” – Sandra Price, Client Relationship Director

The outcome of this situation was an immediate escalation that was fulfilled by our advisors. This helped our customer to be made aware of the urgent situation that happened outside of their normal office hours.

In this scenario, our advisor was able to make our customer aware of the situation, so they were then able to attend site themselves to make it secure after the Fire Services had to cut the chain. Without our call centre handling their out of hours calls, it may have been more difficult for them to get hold of the House Builder which in turn may have left the site unsecured for longer, potentially opening it up to theft or a member of the public being hurt when entering the site.

Overall, our customer trusting us with their out of hours calls helped this situation to be brought to a swift conclusion.

Our empathetic advisors can assist your customers with a range of complex issues.

Our contact centre received a call about a Home Emergency that was made more complex by the customer’s personal situation. The customer’s central heating had broken down over the Christmas period, and the weather was in minus temperatures. Unfortunately, the required replacement parts could not be immediately sourced and would take a few days to obtain and fit. Through the course of the call, the advisor was made aware that the customer was terminally ill so the proposed solution of finding the customer temporary housing was not suitable and due to the time of year that the fault occurred the advisor had exhausted all of the local contractors in the area trying to find an alternative solution.

The advisor was not happy with this outcome and spoke to our in-house escalation team who were able to authorise the purchase of temporary heating on the customer’s behalf. This meant that the customer did not have to relocate, potentially exacerbating their condition and causing unnecessary distress.

The next day the customer’s relative rang our advisor to thank them personally for their efforts from the previous day. During the call, the relative couldn’t stop crying, as the eventual solution of purchasing temporary heating mitigated an extremely stressful situation for the whole family.

“This call really touched me. I work at a company run on compassion and that compassion comes from the people.” – The advisor who took the call.

Here at npa24:7 we pride ourselves on the fact that callers will come through to real, empathetic people who will be able to take the callers personal situation into account when finding a resolution to their situation. In this scenario, our advisor was able to think outside of the normal protocol to put this situation to rights.

Reassurance can make a world of difference to a caller in distress.

Our contact centre received a call from a concerned member of the public. They called the out of hours emergency line to make us aware that a young child had fallen into a drain that was in a state of disrepair. The child was unhurt but shaken by the ordeal. As soon as it was brought to our attention, our advisor escalated the call to the Head Office and the Divisional escalation contacts. They have since taken this into their own hands to continue their internal investigation.

In this scenario, our advisor was not only able to make our customer aware of the situation by escalating the call, they were also able to reassure the caller that the situation was in hand. They were able to leave the call feeling that an investigation would be launched, which was able to ease their worry as much as possible.

“It was my responsibility as part of my job role to make our client aware of the incident, however, I felt it was my personal responsibility to reassure the customer as they were very concerned that the drain posed a danger to other children. To the best of my ability I was able to do this, and I feel the caller left feeling more positive about the situation knowing it would be investigated thoroughly.” – The advisor who took the call.

One of our core values here at npa24:7 is empathy. The advisor that spoke with the caller was able to understand the urgency of the situation, but also able to put themselves in their shoes and abate the callers panic.