Boxing communications
Wireless call boxes are being put to the test. Businesses are looking for effective communications with readily available responses. Wireless call boxes can enhance customer service, productivity, sales and risk management worldwide.
Call boxes can supply instant, reliable two-way communications and an increased level of safety, security and convenience. With the latest technological developments, these call boxes combine basic and critical operating features.
“We have found in our research that wireless call boxes could be used in a number of emergency and non-emergency applications,” said Jack Pelzman, marketing communications manager for Ritron, Carmel, IN.
These applications include golf courses for emergency response, shopping centers to provide a safe environment for shoppers and hotels and motels for wireless communications at the pool or other common areas. A help box can also be used, which can eliminate the need for employees to be stationed at gates, parking structures and lots, delivery and receiving docks, will-call desks, lobbies or other unattended areas.
Call boxes can operate 24 hours, providing an instant, direct link to on-duty staff. This allows two-way voice communications between staff and the caller. The call box can automatically identify and locate callers.
Scott Adams of Adams Distributing, Wixom, MI, a Ritron dealer, has started seeing increased interest in these call boxes after sending several mass mailings about security issues after Sept. 11. For example, he has installed call boxes in two buildings for a university. The Ritron RQX-454 call boxes were mounted indoor, on the wall.
“They wanted some sort of method for the occupants of the building to be able to get help when they needed it, and they looked at the budget issue of having to wire hardwire phones mounted in the hallways. Their alternative was to go with wireless because it saved them a ton of money and it didn’t require any infrastructure, number one, and number two, it didn’t tie anyone to a fixed desk location; for instance late in the evening or after hours,” Adams said.
East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, Knoxville, TN, had 13 of Ritron’s RQX-454-XT (trunking versions) installed in their parking garage in December. The hospital is using the DTMF ANI feature of the call box with Motorola HT1250 portables that will decode the DTMF and display the corresponding numbers. Mike Russell of Metro Communications, Knoxville, TN, the dealer who installed them, said, “They built a new parking garage for their employees. It was a couple of blocks away from the hospital, and they wanted them to get in touch with security. So we put the call boxes in for them and gave them the coverage that they were looking for.”
For Buddy Williams, head of security at East Tennesse Hospital, it was a learning experience with the new technology. He wanted his employees to have access to him and his officers if they had trouble, but he said that it took two months to get the call boxes working the way he wanted.
Many call boxes require a source of commercial power to operate the radio and lighting. However, this requirement restricts the locations of call boxes to those areas having electric power available. You can trench power cables to a call box location, but that can be expensive. The places where you need a call box could be precisely where there’s no power. Call boxes that require commercial power can’t operate for long if the power is interrupted. To meet some minimum specs about power failure, a large box of batteries must hang near the call box, and there could be an enormous cost of replacing those batteries every year or so. Power storage cells have an expected life of three years. Replacement of the battery takes minutes and costs about $60 per call box. Call boxes are available with high-capacity solar chargers that keep the internal batteries fully charged.
Radio range varies depending on radio power, which frequency is used and your particular application’s terrain and environment. A typical range at 4W of power with an antenna mounted atop a 16-foot pole is six to 10 miles. An available yagi antenna can extend signaling range as much as 20 miles.
All voice messages are recorded directly into the call box before or during installation. Voice messages can be re-recorded (to accommodate relocation or changing circumstances) at any time without a technician.
A feature that was added to East Tennessee Children’s Hospital’s call box was a relay and light that comes on when the box is activated. It is a flashing blue strobe light that when activated, can aid responders in locating the alert site, and attract attention to the area.
“When the button is pushed on the call box, we did some modifications for them so that a beacon or strobe light would come on and would remain on until an officer responded,” Russell said. “And so what it’s done for him (Buddy Williams) is to provide peace of mind for his employees.”
A need to speed players through the ninth hole led to call boxes being installed on golf courses. It is common for courses to be arranged so that the ninth and eighteenth holes are near the clubhouse. Unfortunately, players coming off the ninth hole often drop in to the clubhouse for food or drinks before continuing to play the final nine. This results in delays and restaurant workers struggling to keep up with the crowd of golfers. “We get them (call boxes) out on the fifth or the seventeenth hole where they can call in their meal order at the clubhouse or get help if there’s a medical emergency,” Adams said. This reduces the number of people waiting at the clubhouse and allows golfers to play more rounds.
Retailers of all sorts are enhancing responsiveness with the help of wireless call boxes. With a competitive marketplace that requires the highest level of responsiveness to customers, how quickly you respond to your customers’ needs links directly with satisfaction and loyalty.
San Diego-based Indyme, which designs, builds and installs communications equipment, systems and software, has discovered many benefits from using wireless call boxes for shoppers. To convert shoppers to buyers, prompt customer service is needed. With these call boxes, customer wait time is reduced. It can create a more pleasing shopping experience for customers, including faster checkout, carry out and price checks.
The call boxes allow the shopping center to measure its service performance and trend, and they identify where more help is needed for the business. It allows the business to evaluate and compare its store activity chain-wide. Obtaining assistance when and where it is needed increases sales, creates repeat customers and even helps avoid safety hazards.
With the touch of a button, shoppers can easily call for assistance at various locations throughout a store. Once shoppers press the button, an automatic message is sent to the output device until store employees respond to the customer’s request. This shopper call box requires little programming and maintenance. It is low-profile with a single-button membrane switch, easily activated and easily reset. It operates with other call box styles. The wireless and portable call box uses a radio signal to communicate with the control unit. The box is compact and mounts directly to locked cabinets, fitting rooms and paint cages.
Indyme’s front-counter call boxes allow store employees to request assistance from multiple store departments, such as security or management. Once activated, a message immediately directs assistance to the requesting location. In addition, response information can be tracked through the reporting function. This unit eliminates lost staffing hours, which reduces wait time for employees and customers. The front-counter call box instantly alerts officials to a potential problem.
For fitting room assistance, Indyme created call boxes mounted inside the dressing room areas. These provide shoppers with a means of requesting immediate assistance. When a customer needs assistance with a different size or color, they can call for help with a push of a button. The customer’s request will continue to page an associate until the customer is helped and the call box is reset. Fitting room call boxes can improve customer service and increase employee-customer interaction.
With this new advancement in wireless technology, call boxes have addressed real safety and convenience issues for a wide range of applications.
Roberts is editorial intern from the University of Kansas. Photos courtesy of Ritron, Carmel, IN.
