-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dealer Telephone Messaging Options Bulletin 1000 2/20/03 Copyright (C) 1992, Coastal Security Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- One central station service which most central stations do not offer is after hours telephone answering service. We offer it free! And, for dealers with more than 300 accounts, we even provide a telephone number which we answer in the dealer's company name. Handling alarm traffic is, of course, our highest priority. And to prevent telephone message handling from detracting from the quality of that service we have established the following procedures and requirements: 1. No message taking services are available during normal business hours. During these hours, all calls except central station business will be referred to the dealer's office telephone number. 2. No message taking services are available during a hurricane watch or warning to dealers that are located in the area where the watch or warning applies. It is imperative that dealers do not forward office lines to the central station under hurricane watch or warning conditions. 3. The scope of our messaging services is limited to alarm related business. Although we may handle a few occasional unrelated calls, we reserve the right not to take messages when they are completely unrelated to the alarm business. 4. All messages are immediately and automatically faxed to the dealer's office. Therefore, each dealer receiving this service must have a fax machine which is available 24 hours a day. 5. Messages can be separated into three categories: Service Calls - Sales Leads - Administrative (all other) Each dealer may designate up to three persons on call after hours to be notified of new messages in each category. The dealer may change the calling order at any time simply by accessing Fax. Dealer employees with high level access may also change the calling order using internet access. For each message category (service, sales, or other) the dealer may choose among the following options: 1. Immediately contact a person on call to deliver every message. 2. Contact a person on call only for emergencies. Run-away audibles and run-away dialers are always considered an emergency. Otherwise, the caller - not the central station operator - will decide whether the call is an emergency. 3. Never contact a person on call. Just fax or email the message. 4. Never take a message. Always refer calls to the dealer's office phone. -------------------------------- Delivery by Fax or Email Messages taken by central station operators are entered directly into the central station computer. The message is automatically faxed or emailed to the dealer. If a fax transmission is not successful after three attempts the central station supervisor will follow up within twenty four hours. It is important that the dealer have a working email address or a fax machine that is available around the clock to receive these messages. -------------------------------- Delivery of Messages by Phone When a dealer or employee calls in for messages the central station operator will ask for the dealer number and code. The code being requested is the same code used to log in to Fax Back. For example, if employee 7 logs in to Fax Back with "234 * 7 * 9876" then the dealer number is 234 and the code is 9876. The employee number (7) is not a necessary part of the code when speaking with dispatchers. -------------------------------- Deliver of Messages by Internet Dealers using internet access may select the F9 menu option to see a list of pending messages. Highlight the message you wish to read and press enter to display all of the message detail. Once you view a message in this manner it is considered delivered and no further paging of on call employees will take place for the message you viewed. -------------------------------- Paging On Call Employees You may designate up to three persons on call for each type of message. Each person may have up to three telephone numbers. Central station operators will call the numbers in order from left to right for each employee. If one of the numbers was a pager, the operator will wait about fifteen minutes before moving to the next number to call. Once all of the numbers have been called the central station operator will make no further attempts to deliver the message except if: 1. The caller calls again and asks us to try again. In this case we will repeat the process described above. 2. There is only one employee on call. In this case we will make two attempts to reach the employee at each number, waiting about fifteen minutes between attempts. A message is considered to be delivered if it is reported to the dealer's voice mail system. Voice mail systems, such as Southern Bell's memory call will continuously page a pending message until someone collects it. -------------------------------- Normal Business Hours When calls are received within one hour before the dealer's office opening time our operators are permitted to suggest that the caller call back when the office opens. If the caller agrees then no message will be taken but if the caller requests that we take a message we will do so. Dealers must not forward their office phone lines to the central station during normal business hours. -------------------------------- Hurricanes During a hurricane warning Central One may suspend all telephone answering service for dealers in the area affected by the storm. It is imperative that dealers make proper arrangements to provide telephone support to their subscribers as soon as a hurricane warning becomes imminent. Dealers affected by a hurricane warning must not forward office telephone lines to Central One. See also bulletin 2050 concerning storm procedures.