With popular and widely used applications such as Microsoft Word or Excel, only a small fraction of the extensive features within each application gets used by most people. We find the same with Total Response: Telecommunicators capitalize on the core functionality but often miss out on other features because they don’t know they exist.
Once they discover these powerful features built into the application and pull them into daily use, it helps them to perform faster and more efficiently in their role of the first first responder.
The Power of Aha! Moments
Completing our online Application Training courses prior to using Total Response is logical and essential to achieve adoption. When call takers recognize the ease of use and power of Total Response, stress is removed from their job. Revisiting the same online training after gaining a few months of real-world experience using Total Response is also valuable because this enables users to appreciate the features in the software as it directly pertains to their work.
From speaking with our customers, we’ve found that the great Aha! moments often come when someone, after using Total Response for a while, spends some downtime revisiting our online Application Training courses—or simply explores the application more deeply on their own.
Options that may have merely been seen as interesting to a new user suddenly become significant with experience. As in: “That makes a lot of sense!” and “Cool! Didn’t realize I could do that.”
A Powerful Tool for Onboarding New Hires
In addition to being a critically valuable tool for 911 call centers implementing Total Response software, our online Application Training should be an essential step in onboarding new hires after deployment. The time spent going through our Application Training courses provides two major values for new hires:
1) Application Training walks new hires through the Total Response software to help them feel comfortable using it and to demonstrate the value it brings to the call handling process.
2) Application Training accelerates the acquisition of knowledge for new hires, helping them perform more efficiently while upholding and building upon a call center’s existing standards of excellence.
The more comfortable new hires feel about using Total Response, the greater the benefits for them and for the entire call center.
Application Training’s Logical Progression
We’ve designed the Application Training to have a natural and logical progression by dividing it into two components:
- Call Handler: Divided into six modules, the Call Handler course covers the basics of Total Response. It begins with the user interface, commands, and menus, and finishes with a complete run through of how Total Response provides decision support for a motor vehicle accident call—from start to finish. Each module includes an instructional video and a self-paced knowledge check to confirm understanding of the material. Users progress through the material at their own pace and can return to revisit modules to refresh and deepen their knowledge—even weeks or months later. This is often when new Aha! moments occur: When they revisit lessons with their newly acquired real-world experience as a 911 call taker.
- Protocols & Procedures: The Protocols & Procedures course guides users through several of the most frequently invoked protocols and procedures within Total Response. While Total Response includes many additional protocols and procedures, our research identified the seven most accessed and we provided specific training examples for each. As with the Call Handler training, after each instructional video, users are given a knowledge check to confirm their understanding of the material. The seven protocols covered are: Assault, Bleeding and Lacerations, Chest Pain, Domestic Disturbance, Mental Health, Stroke & Cardiovascular Event, and Structure Fire. The four procedures covered are: Choking, Infectious Diseases, Naloxone, and Submerged Vehicle.
Application Training: Always Available
PowerPhone created the industry’s most powerful application for supporting call takers through the emergency call handling process. We help ensure the right resources are dispatched as soon as possible—while providing life-saving guidance during the precious minutes before help arrives on the scene. We are there to help you save lives.
Conversations with our users have shown that many agencies embrace the practice of encouraging call takers to revisit our Application Training after they’ve been on the job for a few months … and periodically thereafter.
The good news is that with our Site Licensed Training portfolio, there is no per-user or per-course training fee. When you enroll in Site Licensed Training, you are free to dive into our Application Training, or any other courses, whenever, and as often as you like.
There’s an old saying that completing the journey of wisdom is to return from where you began with the ability to see what previously wasn’t visible. Our online Application Training is designed to help your users take that journey.
About the Author
Jim Murtagh is the Training Manager for PowerPhone and has experience in both the public and private educational sectors. His formal education in Instructional Technology fostered his passion for developing e-Learning content.
