The toll-free service is also convenient. There is no need to take time off from work, arrange for baby sitters, or stand in lines. FEMA's service representatives are thoroughly trained. Refresher training courses, downtime exercises, pre-shift quizzes and program knowledge tests are part of the continuing education process. Calls to the phone banks are frequently monitored.
Monitors are valuable assistants in the training process.
Service representatives are monitored at random to ensure that the utmost professionalism is maintained during calls. Monitors critique telephone etiquette and program knowledge and score a performance evaluation in the interest of further enhancing the quality of the telephone interview. After a call is taken and a disaster application recorded, the processing of applications begins. The computer systems also help assure that each caller is mailed important custom tailored information regarding the types and nearest sources of various forms of disaster aid specific to each caller's needs. Finally, the databases provide a variety of statistical analyses, reporting and tracking services to FEMA and other agencies active in disaster relief.