December 31, 2010

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CSAA's listserve [for central stations to communicate among themselves] recently addressed the topic of forgotten pass codes.  Here are some of the exchange:

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Comments:

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    I was wondering what you all do to “help” a customer remember a forgotten password/number. For instance telling them it’s a word or number is ok, saying 7 letters or 4 numbers ok. Telling them it’s a month that starts with an “S” not ok.

    If in the end they can’t remember do you feel it’s ok to call them back at the number we have listed on a call list. We now have caller id & in most cases can already see the number they are calling from. But again who is to say that this person calling from Joe Smith’s number is in fact Joe Smith.

    Any insight would be appreciated, I would like to come up with a hard & fast rule for my dispatchers since currently we seem to being handling it on a case by case basis.

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    We try to help them by saying “It’s a word or an 8 digit number you would have on a business card”.

    If still nothing – we ask for 2 other pieces of information: cell phone, name of other key holders, one of their cell phone numbers.

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    We don’t coach at all, stages has a place for password hints, if there is a hint we will give that to them to help.

Example:

Password is “TAURUS”

Hint is “Cheap Ford midsized car made in the late 70’s early 80’s”

We’ve never run into a problem yet.

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    In Manitou, in addition to the password, we have a question and answer. This can be used as a password hint like Morgan suggested, but I was interested to find that our South American customers use it to store the password of the central station. In Columbia the central station has to supply a personal password to the person being called before they will give you their password, now I actually thought that was pretty smart based on all the identity theft we have.

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    We have extensive experience with our changing customer base for over 30 years and firmly believe that we do a better job serving them when we do not employ extremely rigid rules for how we handle this. Our operators are trained not to give hints that are easy to guess, but to make an attempt to help the customer to remember. How much time they spend doing this depends upon the severity of the alarm. We usually have them pass the call to a supervisor after one or two attempts and that supervisor will quiz the person for information that only the customer should know.

    Sometimes we do not get the correct password after all attempts, so we then explain what must be done to “reset” the password.

    In all our experience, we have never had a customer make a complaint that we inadvertently allowed a non-authorized person to cancel a dispatch or make account changes due to us “coaching.”  We have had innumerable customers thank us for  helping them to avoid the ever-increasing false alarm fines.

    Maybe we have just been lucky, but it works for us and our customers.

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Response:

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    Most central stations afford their operators a certain degree of discretion regarding a response to an alarm condition.  False alarms are weeded out and not dispatched when possible.  Subscriber error contributes to the bulk of these alarms and it is not uncommon for a subscriber, especially with call verification, to be on the phone with an operator before a signal is dispatched.  Pass codes are typically required and subscribers who have forgotten their pass codes not uncommon.

    Interestingly enough, the alarm contracts do not generally address this issue.  Might be time for an update.  If a central station has a firm policy it should be addressed in the contract. That way there should be no objection or complaint by the subscriber.  Some businesses are extremely difficult when it comes to pass codes - they offers no assistance.  Others will have pre set questions with answers that are easily known to the subscriber - such as city of birth, etc.  A zero tolerance policy with no assistance or a liberal policy that permits multiple questions and hints all have their own issues.  There is no right or wrong policy.  What is important is that the central station have a policy and method of dealing with forgotten pass codes and train the operators accordingly.  Also makes sense to address the issue in the contract so that there should be little complaint later.

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Comment on self monitored accounts - liability issue?

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Ken---

    Text Messaging-----option for monitoring a security systems or other event for RMR is a services connected with E&O.   A modified monitoring contract would be recommended and a” Disclaimer Notice”  would be included.  Insurance Coverage with Network Cyber E&O Liability is also recommended as a General Liability Policy would not cover all of the “Frailer to Response” and Media e-Mail Liability exposures.  For a list of exposures on Network Cyber E&O please sent request to Mike Kelly –MJK@MJKINSURANCE.COM

  Thanks Ken for you open e-Mail Newsletter & Happy New Year.

Mike Kelly

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