Put Your Incident Management System to Use for Faster Response Times

You’ve built your incident management infrastructure.

All your personnel is operating in unison.

Your team members from Police, Fire Rescue, Security, IT, Maintenance, and Housekeeping are loving your new software solution.

You’ve read our article on improving communication across departments, and it shows!

Kudos.

You’ve implemented your incident management system for useful analytics.

All your planning, scheduling, and practicing have paid off.

You and your team have role-played every possibility imaginable.

You’re confident; your team is confident.

Now what?

You’ve made strides in your ability to lead, and you’ve gotten yourself this far. How do you ensure your operation keeps moving forward in the direction of your vision?

How do you put your incident management data to use for faster response times throughout your operation?

You know, the factor of your success that truly matters.

Keep reading because we have a relatively good idea of how you can come out ahead.

An Incident Management System is Worth its Weight in Gold

We’re not rocket scientists, but we’re aware you already know why you’ve put an incident management system in place to handle incidents and issues throughout your property.

Analytics, yes!

That’s why you did all this.

Your team worked so hard for this.

Your system will give you the ability to analyze your operational effectiveness.

Your new infrastructure gives you the ability to capture the critical data you've always needed to use to understand your operation’s alignment with your vision entirely.

You’re a savvy manager.

So we get that you already understand logging incidents into the system is…well, just the beginning.

All the greatness comes from the plethora of measurable and invaluable data gathered by your system – for you to use!

Data-Driven Leaders Call for Response Time Reporting

You can measure and improve your response times with your well-formed infrastructure and incident management system in place.

It will help you stay on course during your pursuit of operational perfection.

But before we dig into how to use response time reporting to enhance your property’s operation, we’re sure you’re wondering why response times even matter.

Here are four reasons why you need to pay close attention to your data for shrewder, FASTER response times at your property.

1. Increased customer satisfaction leads to higher customer retention. Quickly handling customer issues a few minutes sooner – that’s what legends are made of in 2020. Your efforts will be noticed. Remember, the goal of retention is to keep them coming but never leaving.
2. Faster response minimizes short term and long-term impact of incidents, protecting you against liability. A minor medical situation turns severe due to delayed response, leading to a legal case that affects your property financially.
3. Response times have an undulation effect influencing other areas of your operation. The good…the bad…the potential incidents you don’t want ever coming to the surface again. It doesn’t matter, because as we know, Murphy’s Law can come around anytime, unannounced. Long response times will throw your operation off-kilter. You need to be moving forward, not playing catch-up.
4. Analyzing incident response times provides you an understanding of your weaknesses. That way, you can improve your processes through smarter planning and preparation. Faster response times gives your operation the momentum to stay above the curve.

Ask Yourself, Sincerely Ask Yourself

You get the importance, so let’s shred the data.

Let’s open your response times report…and dig in.

It’s time for an incident management data deep dive!

You’ve got a rock-solid system at your fingertips. Use it.

You can confidently answer these questions and use the answers to create your benchmark for a sufficient response time.

How long does it take to receive a call?

The time it takes your customers to identify a situation, send a text message using your text alert system, call it in, or even for your team to report an issue through mobile communications to your staff in the operations center.

How long does it take to dispatch the incident?

For example, a call for loitering comes in with the possibility of a fight.

It’s determined there are narcotics on scene.

Your dispatcher must notify police, fire rescue, and housekeeping to bring protective gloves if the situation has escalated before on-scene arrival.

How long does it take to get on scene to the incident?

From the moment the incident is dispatched to all departments, you can effectively determine the length of time each associated department takes to arrive on the scene from their current location or post.

Indulge in the Fruits of Your Data

These questions help you understand the appropriate response times.

They’ll also give you the foresight you need to enhance your incident management protocols dramatically.

Before your incident management infrastructure and solution were put into place, your response time to a loitering call is seven minutes.

Following your software solution's implementation, the time to respond to a call dramatically decreases to two minutes at your property.

Your return on investment is absolute, and the results are worth bragging about.

Indulge a little and enjoy your peace of mind.

Your success is all because you've put in place an incident management system that allows you to record comprehensive data, excessively analyze it over and over, and then use it to augment your operation continually.

We mean you and your team with smarter analytics, accurate documentation, full awareness, and enhanced communication.

Over to You

We discuss all the actions that lead to increased or decreased response times a lot. We’re familiar with awareness and communication.

But we sometimes talk about response times without actually focusing on the actual value of response times and why they are crucial for your property.

We believe this article will help you see the light at the end of the tunnel. Your efforts have a purpose, and all your data can be put to work. Respond to one more incident a little quicker.

One last thing. This stuff matters. That’s why we need your help.

Over here, we’re about sharing the wealth. We're sure there are reasons we can add to the list that relates to your property. Ones we didn’t consider.

You’re the experts anyway.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in November 2014 and has been updated for comprehensiveness and freshness.