9-11-01 to 5-01-11: Honoring Contact Centers Who Were, And Are, On The Line

| Contact Center/CRM Views and Analysis

9-11-01 to 5-01-11: Honoring Contact Centers Who Were, And Are, On The Line

I have not yet found the words to fully and adequately describe my reaction when I heard and saw the news late Sunday night, 05-01-11, that Osama bin Laden had been killed by U.S. forces.

The closest is a heartfelt thanks to the brave men and women both uniformed and civilian who have been relentless in pursing the perps and bringing them to justice at the risk to their lives. And to the families who support them.

My prayers go out to the families of the victims…

My wife and I had witnessed the attacks on the World Trade Center while commuting from our-then home on Staten Island to midtown Manhattan. We saw the smoke billow from the north tower. I watched the second plane crash into the south tower. My sister-in-law heard a loud boom on her subway train as it rumbled underneath what would become forever known as “Ground Zero”.

With strong memories of building and train station evacuations and “security alerts” while growing up and later working in the U.K. I called my wife and sister-in-law and said we’re getting out. Our offices were located near the Empire State Building and Madison Square Garden and nobody knew then how many planes were still in the air. And shortly afterward our companies gave us the evac order.

Unknown to us our son, a paramedic, was called to the scene. There he watched the people leap from the towers and performed triage on those who could be saved: including on a firefighter buddy who was wandering around in a daze…with a severed hand on his shoulder…

We didn’t know our son was alive or dead--or him us—for two days. The cell towers were knocked out. We had commuted in on the Staten Island Ferry and rode the bus rather than the subway to our offices. And the bus route we took, the M6, went past the WTC.

For weeks, even months afterward there was the wrenching aftermath…F-16s shrieking overhead…family members crying suddenly and uncontrollably on the express buses…security checks that blocked bridges, roads and tunnels…seemingly unending funerals…and the unmistakable and unforgettable smell that wafted downwind…

Yet there came defiance that gave us hope. The Twister Sister hit: “We’re Not Gonna Take It” became the second, Flag-waving car-honking-anthem of Staten Islanders—the New York City borough that had lost more people in the attacks than any other because many residents worked at the WTC and also served as firefighters.

And we didn’t take it…though at the ultimate price that freedom sometimes requires…

Many forests have been used in writing about the police and fire personnel (not enough on the ‘medics but that’s another story) who were there at Ground Zero—and at the Pentagon. Similar tomes have been penned on the American and United flights—and about the men and women who have gone into battle. There has been ink spent in telling the stories of the MTA and PATH subway dispatchers who saved countless lives by stopping and rerouting crowded rush hour trains.

I’d like to take up some paper and ink on those who were called to the scene if virtually…and who did their work under the most extreme pressure that they God willing will ever have to face in their lifetimes…and these are the agents and supervisors at the contact centers that handled the calls…

Namely—but not exclusively—the 911 dispatchers, the City of New York, Pentagon, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and D.C information teams, the customer service at American Airlines and United Airlines, the communications carriers’ tech support desks, the hospitals' and the funeral homes' answering lines…

The September issue of Customer Interaction Solutions has a feature on business continuity/disaster response. I want to hear from contact centers and their managers who were running their operations on 9-11-01 when all hell literally broke loose so I can tell their stories and find out what has changed in their processes as a result of it and since then…

Drop me a line with a synopsis and contact information by the Fourth of July and I’ll go from there…

As one who wrote about the first World Trade Center bombing, interviewing terror experts, who himself appeared as a subway expert on CNN in the wake of the sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo underground as well as having felt the fear of terror directly, I know that sadly that the victory on 05-01-11 will not be the last that is needed.

And that contact centers will be called on again in such events…

 

 

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