3-ANSWERING SERVICE PROTOCOL.pdf

ANSWERING SERVICE PROTOCOL

Determine if caller is Forsyth County customer – street listing provided. If a customer insists they are a Forsyth County customer and their street does not reflect that, dispatch to our staff and they will make the determination.

LEAKS: Determine if the leak is a County side or customer side leak.

1. Is there a visible leak? If so is it between the house and the meter or between the meter and the street etc. If it is between the meter and the street dispatch to our staff.

2. If it inside the house, between the house and the meter, in the backyard, in the irrigation system, etc it is a customer side leak and they are responsible for the repair. DO NOT dispatch customer side leak calls, they need to contact a plumber or their irrigation company.

3. If the customer cannot determine where the leak is coming from or insist that someone come out please make the caller aware that a $35 service fee could be added to their account if it is a customer side leak.

4. Leaks are a top priority for our department and we will respond to those before any other call.

5. DO NOT dispatch staff for callers regarding high water bills. Those callers should be referred to call the office during normal business hours.

NO WATER: Verify the following.

1. Is the customer on the disconnect list? YES - they need to contact the business office the next business day. DO NOT dispatch.

2. Did the customer just move into the address? YES – if they have not contacted the office to set up an account they need to do so the next business day. We lock all our water meters when an account is closed and a new account has not been set up. Often customers move in under the assumption that the realtor has set up their account, only the customer can set up an account. These usually do not need to be dispatched however, if it is over a weekend you can contact our staff and they will determine if they can turn the water back on.

3. Current customer, dispatch so we can determine the problem.

NON-PAYMENT DISCONNECTS: We will send a list daily of addresses that have been disconnected for non-payment that day and have not been cleared before close of business.

1. Water will not be reconnected until payment has been made. The customer will need to contact the office the next business day to make payment, paying online after business hours will not get the customer’s water reconnected, they MUST contact the business office.

2. Our field staff works 24/7. We DO NOT give customers a time when their water will be restored. They are told that if the water is NOT back on by 8:30 a.m. the next day to contact the office. However, customers will still call after hours wanting to know when their water will be back on let them know you cannot give them an ETA that if their water is not back on by 8:30 am the next morning to contact our office at 770 781-2160. Our top priority is repairing leaks if our after-hours staff are tied up on leaks they sometimes do not get reconnects until early the next morning.

WATER QUALITY: Water quality calls such as colored water (yellow, blue, green, brown, etc), smell or taste should be dispatched to our staff. We will evaluate the situation and determine if the lines in the area need to be flushed.

SEWER BACK-UPS: Dispatch any call related to a sanitary sewer back up. Our staff will respond and determine if it our responsibility or the customers.

NON-EMERGENCY CALLS: If you received calls regarding bills or other non-emergency related issues, please refer the customer to call back during normal business hours Monday – Friday 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. DO NOT dispatch calls regarding bills, those customers need to contact the office during normal business hours.

Some background information on us. Forsyth County is located approximately 50 miles north of Atlanta. There are two service areas in Forsyth County, us and the City of Cumming who have a water/sewer service area outside the city limits. This often confuses the customer on who provides their water/sewer service. One of the reasons we decided to go with an answering service approximately 15 years ago was to cut down on our staff being paged for calls that were not ours. While the street listing we provided should help your staff determine if the customer is a County or City customer it can be confusing sometimes, if there is ever an issue do not hesitate to contact our staff to help determine.

Customers are never happy when they realize their water has been disconnected. We do not send a separate disconnect notice to the customer, there is a note on every bill that any past due balance is subject to disconnect.

Our staff is not always available to return phone calls immediately. They should return calls to your office promptly but they are not always able to contact customers who want a call-back immediately.

UTILITY LOCATE EMAILS FROM THE UTILITY PROTECTION CENTER: Your office may receive emails at (email address provided) for tickets to locate our utilities after hours. These should be dispatched the same way as any other call our staff will need the location/address and contact name & number on the ticket. If the COMPANY on the ticket is Forsyth County Water & Sewer DO NOT dispatch to our staff. We are required to call in locates if we need to dig to make a repair, we receive our own tickets but DO NOT need to respond to them.