In a rather nondescript building on the main street in Levin a group of dedicated staff have been monitoring vital alarms around the clock unfazed by the COVID-19 crisis.

Securely® is a local company that specializes in medical, house and business alarm monitoring across New Zealand. A team of 18 staff working on a roster take every incoming call at their Levin base.

To put this into perspective, during Level Four lockdown, the Securely 24/7 monitoring call centre managed 6,030 security activations resulting in 133 guard dispatches and5,351 medical activations resulting in 444 ambulance dispatches.

That’s a lot of calls.

Team Leader Sarah Tipping said many of the medical alarm activations during Level Four lockdown were from concerned customers testing their medical pendants. Sarah said their relief when someone immediately answered their call was palpable.

“We took a lot of calls from people with a medical pendant that were worried we wouldn’t be here because of COVID-19 or that we would be on reduced hours. We explained to them that it was business as normal and we would be here for them 24/7, no matter what. Then we had a bit of a chat and sometimes a laugh with them about their day and left them feeling reassured and happy that we were available.”

Sarah said the biggest challenge managing a team of 18 during Level Four Lockdown was the roster and ensuring that no one was in the office by themselves or left unsupported without an experienced operator on shift.

“We had some of our team working from home taking emergency calls from the start of Level Four lockdown, so it was important that they felt supported and valued, and part of the team in the office. With office staff, we made sure they were all kept as safe as possible by spacing out desks around the office and carrying out regular cleaning of workstations and communal areas.  “

SECURELY’s Senior Management Team worked on a roster basis ensuring that a Manager was onsite every day to handle any issues that arose and mucked in with regular cleaning and keeping morale up with staff.

General Manager Mark Smith says protecting the integrity of the monitoring call centre has been its primary focus throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our customers rely on us in what can be very traumatic situations. It’s vital that we are at the end of the phone when people activate their pendant, or a house or business alarm is activated. That’s what we’re here for and we won’t let our customers down.

“In order to protect our call monitoring team, the remainder of our Securely team have been working from home and will be slowly transitioned back into the work place once we’re sure that the threat is manageable. This may mean that we take a much slower and cautious approach than other businesses in getting staff back into the office.”

Mark Smith says his number one priority is protecting its call monitoring team while maintaining overall business productivity.

 

SECURELY® made nearly 2000 virtual home visits and welfare checks during COVID-19 Level 4 lock down

While SECURELY® was on lock down our independent living advisors were busy on the phone carrying out “virtual home visits and welfare checks”. They also called all of their customer’s emergency contacts, making an estimated 6000 calls in total.

‍

‍

‍