I remember full out running to answer the phone that hung on our kitchen wall many years ago. Now, many of us dread phone calls so much that only 20% of phone calls are answered. That’s a real problem when you’re calling about an alarm trip, and needing to verify whether to dispatch or not. If no one answers and cancels it, we have to dispatch.

False alarms aren’t a common issue for our customers, but no one ever wants to have the police come out when they are not needed. If you haven’t tripped your alarm recently, you might not know about this tool: interactive text notifications.

Our central station has implemented text notifications that are interactive. The texts are automated to go out immediately upon receipt of an alarm signal by the central station. You can respond to the text and request to dispatch or request to cancel it, possibly even before the phone call is made to verify it. All of the members of your alarm call list that have text notifications activated are updated as to the status of the dispatch.

The text includes the central station callback number, address of the alarm, and the zone (door or device) that was tripped. All of that is helpful information to have handy if you’re trying to determine the cause of the alarm, review camera footage around that time, or put the zone in test mode to prevent additional problems.

We’re just a phone call, email, or text away if you’d like to add this useful tool to your alarm system. You can also request this change to your call list via webform at RampartKC.com