When your alarm goes off, our monitoring center will make attempts to contact you before dispatching the police. If they can’t get a hold of you, they’ll dispatch law enforcement and then continue reaching out to the rest of the folks on your call list.
So, who’s on your call list? Friends? Neighbors? Your work line?
Building your contact list is a big responsibility, but not to worry — we can help.
We recommend dividing your contacts into Primary and Secondary groups.
Primary
The primary contacts are phone numbers contacted after your alarm sounds but before the police are dispatched. (The monitoring center reaches out to the primary numbers before dispatching police to help avoid response by emergency personnel to false alarms.) Our recommendation for your primary contacts are the landline phone number of the residence and you, your spouse, or roommate. If your home does not have a landline, mobile numbers can be used.
When the alarm sounds and the monitoring center calls, the agent on the line will ask for your passcode. This is the word you chose when you installed the system that identifies you as a resident of the house. (For more information, click here.) Keep this in mind when you select your primary contacts. Your primary contacts need to be able to answer the phone quickly and provide the passcode to the monitoring agent.
If your spouse is prone to forget the passcode, list your own number as the primary contact. If you work in a job position that does not allow you all-day access to your mobile phone, perhaps you should list your spouse’s number, first. These are all things to consider when listing your emergency contact numbers.
Please note that you can set more than one primary number. If you would like both you and your spouse to be contacted, let your sales representative know. We can easily make a note of that in your account.
Secondary
If none of the primary contacts answer the monitoring center’s phone calls, police will be dispatched and the secondary contacts will be called. Your secondary contacts do not need to know your passcode, but they should be folks who are invested in what happens at your home. Great secondary contacts include neighbors, adult children who do not live at home, work colleagues, or friends or family who live in town.
If you add someone to your contacts, be sure and tell them. Explain what it means if they are contacted and what their responsibilities are. It may be helpful to set up expectations and a contingency plan. What would work best for you and your contacts? Should they go over to the house and investigate? Should they try to get a hold of you? Getting these details nailed down will help everything go smoothly in case of an emergency.
So, who’s on your contact list?
You can always change your contacts if you need to. Also, if you have been a customer for more than a few years, you may want to update that contact list. Give us a call and we can update your contact list at the click of a button.
