randycaroll - I have argued this with my management for the past month to no avail. I don't want to do it but my hands are tied unless I can find an alternative.
Here's the situation.
Our call center added a new team that only does manual outbound calls. In two months time they have misdialed 911 around 30 times with many of them dispatching an officer due to the agent hanging up.
Our FAC for outside line access is 9, of course. The agents are apparently pressing 9 for outside access and then somehow hitting 1 twice. After a little digging I found that we had a rule in ARS for 11 that has a route pattern that inserts a 9 and also an ARS digit conversion changing 11 to 911#. Which seems to be the most noted "best practice" when I search forums.
First off I had added decided to add a second FAC for the ARS as #3 and created a abbreviated-dial button on the agents phones and they were instructed to press that instead of 9. We still get calls to 911 because the system would still see the dialed digits 11 once in the ARS table. I still don't know why it still works, the ARS and ARS digit conversion no longer have the rule but it still dials 911. In the CMS logs it shows the station dialed 11#. I don't know where else it would have a rule for outbound.
I recommended that we remove the 9 FAC (maybe even change it to a 911 in the dialplan and not have a single digit 9) and then use #9 (rather than the earlier #3) instead because it would be simpler to train everyone but that was shot down in flames.
Against my recommendations I was ordered to remove the 11 rule and digit conversion so anyone dialing 911 would first need to hit 9+911. However, this did NOT seem to make a difference, the agents are still placing false 911 calls. To make matters worse, I have now been instructed to find a way to block specific extensions from dialing 911 all together and have 1 or 2 stations near them that would be used for emergencies.
Something that one manager asked is if the agent could see the full number before it's dialed it may help the agent. Right now the second you hit 9 (or #9) it opens the outside line and any digits pressed are immediately passed to the ARS. Instead he would rather see it happen more like a cell phone. In other words, the agent would dial 9+14401234567, visually look at the display to be sure it's correct, then press a button to send the digits (like headset, lifting receiver or pressing a "Make Call" soft button). That way they would see 911 on the display and be able to correct it. I have yet to find a way to do this, either under change station or any of the system/global settings. Ideally that would want to be done per station.
So options I have considered so far.
1. Punch the agent each time they dial 911. - HR didn't approve
2. Telling the agent to slow waaaayyyyyyy down. - Didn't work
3. Adding a second FAC and making it a speed dial - didn't work
4. Removed ARS digit conversion 11 to 911#
5. Remove 11 ARS entry - no worky (first I changed it to just DENY but didn't work)
6. Remove the 9 access code - I almost got shot for that
7. Reroute to a VDN that plays a short message then route to digits #9911# - also shot down (they think blocking is a better idea than delaying a call by playing a message)
8. Block 911 from only specific phone stations. - not sure yet.
9. Dial like a cell, press all digits to inspect on display, then press a button or go off-hook to dial them.
10. run away - not sure yet
Incidentally, it doesn't appear that Ohio has a law in place for blocking 911 in a business yet. However, I do that they are working on a bill for Kari's Law but that has not passed.
