911, Please Hold: The Dispatch Center Crisis

In the final season of 30 Rock, Jack Donaghy goes to Florida to take care of his mother’s things after her passing. When there, Jack and Liz Lemon suspect that the house nurse scammed Jack’s mother into leaving the nurse the estate. He immediately calls 911 and hears, “Thank you for calling Florida Emergency Services. If this is regarding an anaconda in a call space, please Press 1. If a sinkhole full of Indian bones has appeared in your living room, Press 2. If you want to know why JAG wasn’t on this week, Press 3.”

This is obviously a joke as when you call 911, you expect to hear “Hello, what is your emergency?” immediately. However, in many places in the US, this “joke” is becoming all too real. In Ohio alone, there are upwards of 30 vacancies in the dispatcher center per county. Workers are taking overtime hours, sometimes working 12-hour shifts. Chris Mayfield, an Ohio dispatcher who thinks of his job as an “intense video game,” still feels immense stress in between the thrill of it all. During one call, a woman shot her boyfriend that was stalking her. The call concluded with the news that the man was laying on the living room floor. The stakes are extremely high.  

Despite the importance of their positions, many dispatchers are paid like teachers. In the United States, it is highly unlikely even a tenured dispatch center professional will make six figures—most hardly making half of that. Because of this, dispatch employees are often driven by the mission of the center they work with, not necessarily the appeal of living a lavish lifestyle. Mayfield says, “You’re the only person in that moment who can help [callers], and that’s an awesome responsibility.”

Still, the lack of incentive to work in one of these emergency centers is having fatal consequences. Wandy Felicita Ortiz, an Analyst with CCW Digital, had a horrifying experience calling 911 in Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York, just a few months ago.

After listening to her downstairs neighbors argue for weeks, Ortiz began making a log of the abuse she witnessed looking out her window. Ortiz recorded each crisis in detail, “What time of day the incidents happened, what type of noise [was] heard, if anybody left the apartment or locked anybody [else] out, or if anyone was screaming. If I could take pictures or video or audio recordings I would.”

When the arguments reached the point where Ortiz felt scared for the safety of the tenants, she felt prepared to call 911. Upon calling, she was told that there was “not enough evidence” so she would be transferred to a department that could investigate. By the time someone finally picked up, the fight was over. Ortiz called the dispatch center half a dozen more times before they, at last, sent someone to her building to do a welfare check. It wasn’t just frustration at being put on hold, but complete sadness as she tried to help a violent situation, “My calling them while on speakerphone in the middle of my neighbors yelling and screaming at each other and breaking things was not enough motivation for them to not put me on hold.” Ultimately, the neighbors ended up moving out of the apartment.

There will be dire consequences if the dispatch call worker shortage is not resolved. The advice to improve these call centers is similar to brand-based customer service call centers: provide centralized, readily available customer information to agents, a path for career growth, and automate what you can:

1. Centralized information

In our recent survey with CX leaders, CCW Digital found 90% of companies must have agents access multiple screens to address even basic concerns. This not only creates stress for the agent but increases the time it takes to find and decipher the data—leading to longer waits for customers. And, as many of us know all too well, the longer the wait time, the more disgruntled the caller. Additionally, when agent jobs are overcomplicated, the employees spend an obscene amount of time on minute tasks. When information is streamlined, they are given the opportunity to work to their fullest potential, often leading to higher job satisfaction.

2. Career Growth

But streamlined platforms are only a piece of the puzzle. When call center agents were asked what contributed to leaving their last job, none of them said that the fridge was not stocked well enough, that the office did not have enough happy hours, or that the company did not offer enough wellness activities. What 40% of them did say, however, was that they left because there was not a clear career path for them at the company. While part of wanting this promotion is the bigger paycheck, another part is the desire for more meaningful work. This often takes the shape of leading a team, working with company stakeholders, and making impactful decisions. The front-line workers at a call center know that they are anything but expendable. Unfortunately, many are left with the feeling that their bosses don’t see their value.

3. Contact Center Automation

In the past two decades, our world has endured a digital transformation. Many call centers, however, are still not leveraging modern automation tools. Part of this comes from agent fear of layoffs,, part of it is because of expenses, and part of it is simply because implementing a new system takes a great deal of time and effort. However, as we will discuss at our upcoming digital event, automation actually improves agent satisfaction and, as a result, rectifies attrition rates. Furthermore, it alleviates stress and delays from those “minute tasks” we were referencing earlier.

Change needs to be made, and it needs to be made quickly. Calling 911 in an emergency and not receiving a response isn’t just annoying, it is life-threatening. If you would like to support your local dispatch center or apply for a job, please visit this website for more information.