PowerPhone was founded by Phil Salafia in 1983, after he finished a distinguished career in law enforcement with the Connecticut State Police and as a tax investigator with the Connecticut Department of Revenue.
Throughout his time as a state employee, Phil would often become frustrated with the way people in his department would answer the phone and talk to callers. He felt that a poor attitude on the phone conveyed a bad image for his department. To improve customer service, he began conducting training sessions for his team-teaching them how to properly answer the phone, question callers and project a positive image for the department.
After leaving the Department of Revenue, Phil took his training sessions to the next level. He formed PowerPhone, Inc. with the purpose of training organizations how to use the power of the phone to improve their image. The young company conducting programs in customer service and telephone answering techniques for clients such as Ford Motor Company, American Mobile Satellite, Microsoft, Fidelity Investments, Amoco and other leading organizations.
In 1986, PowerPhone changed directions. The company switched its focus to providing crisis communications training for the public safety market. The reason for this goes back to an incident during Phil's days as a State Police Trooper.
As a young trooper, Phil was dispatched to pick up a man who had escaped from a psychiatric hospital and was hiding in his family's house. When he arrived at the home, he found the escapee waiting for him-and holding a loaded gun in his hand. After some tense moments, Phil was able to peaceably take the gun from the man… but after the incident was over, the thought occurred to him that the dispatcher should have asked whether there were any weapons in the house. That information might have prepared him to approach the scene differently.
9-1-1 was spreading across the country in the 1980s and Phil recognized public expectations of the service would be rise in the coming years. He reorganized PowerPhone to provide training that would prepare 9-1-1 operators to better answer the phone and use their skills to save lives.
Phil set standards for the 9-1-1 industry that are in wide use today. Under his direction, PowerPhone developed the first pre-arrival instruction systems for police- and fire-related call handling. PowerPhone was also the first company to offer integrated training in all three emergency dispatch services-police, fire and EMS.
Over the next 25 years, Phil's vision propelled PowerPhone to train hundreds of thousands of public safety professionals across the world. Under his leadership, PowerPhone achieved milestones that put it at the forefront of the 9-1-1 industry.
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