Por Michelle Weiss

Con cada año que pasa, los delincuentes están encontrando nuevas maneras de utilizar cuentas, encontrando códigos, datos, e hasta la información más segura.  Estoy segura que el 2011 no será diferente, con nuevas maneras fraudulentas, virus e historias de violación de seguridad en las noticias.  Esto ejerce presión a las compañías de repuesta a mantener información segura y disponible solo para las personas que pertenecen al proyecto que han sido asignados.

Nosotros en AnswerNow!  quisiéramos pensar en nosotros mismos como algo más que un servicio de contestador.  Somos un socio de confianza  donde puede poner su proyecto o información más importante.  AnswerNow!  toma todas las medidas necesarias para proteger la información y datos que son proporcionados por usted y sus clientes.  Miembros de nuestro equipo son sometidos por un entrenamiento extenso para aprender la importancia de confidencialidad.  Solo utilizamos las aplicaciones más seguras y programas para mantener bases de datos y la información de cliente.  Mantenemos los programas y el software anti-virus y contrafuego en todos los quipos utilizados en la compañía.  Miembros del equipo solo se les permiten el acceso a la sala de operaciones a través de tarjeta de acceso y dejan todos los artículos personales incluyendo el bolso, teléfonos celulares y otros artículos en los armarios, mientras que trabajan.

Lo que estamos tratando de decir es que AnswerNow tiene los intereses de su negocio cerca del corazón, y trabajamos muy duro para tratar su compañía como la nuestra protegiéndolo a usted y la información sensible de sus clientes.

As a business owner, you already know that it’s easy to take on all the responsibilities of a business and hard to pass them off. Delegate? That’s not even in your vocabulary. When was the last time you were able to specifically list out how your hours in a day were spent? Context Switching, defined as quickly switching from project to project and then back to the original project, is a problem that never seems to go away. However, it can be alleviated. Do you hate when you are in the middle of a task and the phone rings? You don’t want to miss it in case it is a prospective client or another important phone call, but it is also hard to unwrap your mind from the duty at hand.

This is where AnswerNow fits into the puzzle.  Allowing us to handle your inbound calls will allow you to concentrate on your business without losing any. Following customized instructions given by you, our Team Members handle each call for your business how you deem fit.  We send detailed messages via email, text message or voicemail allowing you to return messages at your convenience, but your customers never have to have a machine answering their calls. We can also patch your VIP calls directly to your phone so that you don’t miss a thing.

Perhaps you have others in your office answering phone calls for you. Have you thought about how much time is wasted due to context switching in your employee’s days? A lot of businesses assume they only need an answering service when their call volume is high; however, whoever is answering your phone calls in your office has to stop what they are doing, answer the call and take care of whatever the person was calling for, and then switch gears to get back into what they were doing. It may not seem like a big deal, but as I recently read in another blog post “Nobody gains anything from loading up [employees] beyond their capacity to perform the work, both employer and employee stand to lose their reputations at every turn when work is performed poorly.” (Source: Changebowl) Outsourcing your inbound calls to a provider can help you avoid wasting time and poor customer experiences. No matter how many or how few calls you receive, you will notice the difference an inbound answering service will make in the quality of work your company puts out.

Le ha pasado hasta a la persona más organizada antes; una cita paso debajo del radar de un calendario de Outlook, BlackBerry o una agenda. Al proveer a sus clientes con un sistema automatizado de citas por teléfono, drásticamente puede mejorar las operaciones de su negocio. AnswerNow tiene tres razones de porque debería considerar agregar un sistema de recordatorios a su servicio:

1. Mejorar el Flujo de Interacción con el Cliente Nuestro sistema automatizado de mensajes recuerda a sus clientes de eventos importantes que ayudan al flujo de su negocio. También demuestra a sus clientes que son importantes y que son apreciados, que a su vez aumenta la satisfacción al cliente. También demuestra el nivel de profesionalismo de su compañía.
2. Reduce las Faltas Otro beneficio a nuestro sistema automatizado es la reducción de faltas a sus citas. Ha habido varios estudios mostrando que ofreciendo a sus clientes un recordatorio de su cita puede reducir las faltas de hasta 50% o más.
3. Ahorre Tiempo y Dinero Teniendo a AnswerNow como su sistema automatizado de mensajes, usted no tendrá la preocupación de tener personal que haga esas llamadas, o puede utilizar sus empleados para otras responsabilidades más importantes. Nuestro personal ofrece la flexibilidad de trabajar con usted para crear un sistema automático que funcione para sus necesidades en el empleo.

Take a minute to think about the last time you had to call a business for a problem or to ask a question and had a great customer service experience. What part about that call made it so wonderful? Was it because you were greeted by a machine and had to punch a dozen numbers to get to the department you needed? Was it a long hold time? Was it because the person who did answer was snippy and unprofessional? It’s pretty doubtful it was any of those reasons.

You were most likely spoke with a live representative, and were treated with care by a helpful person. Wouldn’t you want your customers to have the same experience when calling your company? It is not always feasible to have someone in your office cheerfully and professionally answering your phone calls all day every day. That is where an effective remote reception service can come in. Outsourcing your front reception duties is a smart idea and will help your business bloom, and here is why.

1. Be the Exception to the Rule. A remote receptionist can make your company the exception to the rule – stand out from the competition by giving your customers more than they expect, give them better service than the competitors. Don’t allow their calls to go to voicemail whenever possible, and don’t make them wait on hold. Remote receptionists will provide your customers with an immediate response and leave them feeling happier and satisfied with the high level of service they received.
2. Get Real. A live receptionist is the closest you will come to providing a human connection over the phone. If you are unable to staff an onsite receptionist, then hiring a remote receptionist service is the best move for your company. Your customers will always want to talk to a real person and not a machine. There is value in human interaction and a great answering service will have Team Members who care about your customers as much as you do. A machine will never be able to gauge the urgency of a phone call, collect the right information or calm down an upset customer.
3. Increase Productivity. Satisfied customers mean a difference to your bottom line, including repeat business and increased word-of-mouth. A remote receptionist also means that your staff is more productive during work hours due to fewer distractions. Knowing your calls are being handled quickly and effectively will allow you and your staff to focus on running your business. Your team will never have to stop work on an important project, or put a customer on hold- AnswerNow will get it!

By now everyone has most likely heard about the biannual St. Joseph’s Health and Wealth Raffle, which has now become the largest raffle of its kind in the United States!  The Fall 2010 raffle has just begun, with the final draw entry deadline of September 23^rd. For $100, you are entered to win amazing prizes such as a Million Dollar Penthouse, or His and Her Mercedes plus $37,000 in cash, exotic vacations or even a road trip for two with the Phoenix Suns or Arizona Cardinals. This doesn’t even mention the THOUSANDS of other prizes you have a one in eighteen chance of winning! Proceeds from the tickets sold benefit programs and research at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Barrow Neurological Institute.

So How Does AnswerNow fit in?

We have been an integral part of the Health and Wealth Raffle since it was founded in 2003 by taking all calls at their 1-866-390-9034 number. AnswerNow is the voice and high-quality service behind the phone! We offer bilingual, around the clock service to their callers, having taken over 500,000 calls to date for the Health and Wealth Raffle since its inception. We train members of our team specifically on the Health and Wealth Raffle account so that we provide each donor with a warm and professional greeting, assisting them with any questions they have and also to help purchase their raffle tickets. Our service allows the organizers of the raffle to focus on other important duties pertaining to the event and also save them time, energy and the money it would cost to staff phone personal for these phone calls 24 hours a day – especially on high call volume days such as the Early Bird and Appreciation Cutoff. We are dedicated to this cause and believe in its purpose, which makes it that much easier to provide the quality customer care that is evident in AnswerNow’s fantastic team.

Since we believe so much in this cause, we encourage our readers to also become involved. You can learn more about the raffle at www.healthwealthraffle.org or call 1-866-390-9034 for any questions or to purchase your raffle tickets. We’d love to hear from you.

Let’s face it; the graveyard shift is not usually the most popular shift in the mix. Does your company have volunteers lining up at the door to answer those 2 AM phone calls? Probably not. However certain industries cannot avoid having this shift’s phones covered. Insurance companies can and will have people get in accidents at all hours. Retailers who run late night commercials need someone to be ready to answer the phones to respond to the midnight shopper.

Whatever your situation, the phone has to be answered, so why not leave it to the experts who are here around the clock? No need to hire or manage that graveyard shift! No more rotating schedules for your employees. No more having to worry about staffing your internal call center in the hours between 5 PM and 8 AM and having to pay higher wages for graveyard shifts. You can offer your staff better hours, while spending less time and money.

Not only can we handle your graveyard shifts, but we can also take calls for holidays, weekends, or whenever you need! A 24-hour service company can still offer their employees a Monday through Friday, 8 AM – 5 PM work week with the help of highly trained and professional answering service like AnswerNow.

Outsourcing your call center and customer service calls may just be the best idea an entrepreneur could have. It does not matter the size, age or revenue, every company can benefit from partnering with the right call center partner. More and more, small and medium sized businesses are realizing that outsourcing their call center will help grow their business quickly since you can focus on what you do best; business development and not answering day-to-day questions on the phone!

We Do More than Just Answer the Phone!

AnswerNow! can offer you a large selection of call center services to assist your business. We can take orders and even process orders after typical business hours. AnswerNow! also offers help desk and product help lines to answer customer questions before they order your product or service. Do you need assistance with appointment setting and reminders? AnswerNow! can not only handle your schedule and appointment book, but we can make sure your customers are reminded of their appointments and avoid no shows. Our services will give that final polish to your business that will keep your customers happy and give you an edge on your competition.

Professionalism is our Middle Name

AnswerNow! has a reputation for delivering quality, professional call center outsourcing services that will exceed our customers’ expectations. We train our team members to be an extension of your staff and treat your customers as if they were our own. All services are completely customizable by you and you have complete control over how each of your calls are handled. There is no list of details too long for our representatives and we pride ourselves on attention to detail.

As our company grows and expands, we are constantly looking for new technologies, concepts and trainings that will help us improve our service. This includes new marketing and networking strategies involving the use of social media tools, including this very blog that you are reading (feel free to retweet this article).  Since AnswerNow! is relationship focused, whether it is with our customers or our employees, what better way to build relationships than through a strong online presence? Our company has come a long way since 1976!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Are you on Twitter? If so, we invite you to follow us on Twitter @AnswerNowInc. AnswerNow! is using Twitter as another outlet to connect to our customers as well as other great people in our network. We provide informative information, article and blog posts, as well as fun and informative tweets on what is happening in the AnswerNow1 offices. We would love to “talk” with you on Twitter, hope to see you soon!

Like Us on Facebook!

Not too long ago, AnswerNow! started a Facebook fan page on to connect with current customers and our employees. We are starting to build up our fans and would love for you to join us for discussions as well as other pieces of information. Plus we have the occasional contest for prizes, but you can’t win if you don’t “Like” us! Stop by, join in the conversation and let us know what you’d like to see on our page, we want to hear from you. AnswerNow feels very strongly about connecting and communicating with our clients. A strong client-vendor relationship builds a great business!

Kay Mornes: Center

AnswerNow! is pleased to recognize Kay Mornes for her achievements within the organization over the last eight years. When Kay first started with our organization, she had never worked in the healthcare or call center industry. Kay, however, had amazing determination during her training, and worked diligently to perform her best work. A truly loyal employee, Kay maintained perfect attendance with AnswerNow! for over eight years before retiring in August 2009. We were sad to see Kay leave, but knew she wanted to spend more time with her family. When Kay called us in December 2009 and asked us if she could come back to work part time, we were delighted to welcome her back to the team. For almost nine years now, Kay has continued to maintain perfect attendance, a perfect 100% quality assurance score, and nearly flawless work. Kay is frequently recognized by callers for providing outstanding service, and has received multiple client compliments on a monthly basis. We are so pleased to have Kay as a part of the team, and hope she will continue her position with AnswerNow! until she makes a decision to retire, again.

A Word from Kay:

I have been employed by AnswerNow! as a Team Member for. I was hired in April of 2002 and retired in August 2009. Then, in December 2009, I applied for a part time weekend position and was graciously allowed to return. I moved to Arizona from Western Pennsylvania after my husband passed away to be with my only daughter Diana. I had never worked in the medical operations field before; however, with excellent training, I found this opportunity to be the best fit for me in Arizona. I thoroughly enjoy my day to day duties. I have been offered promotional positions, however I truly enjoy assisting callers on the phone and helping them with whatever problem they may need solved or solution they may be seeking. It has been rewarding, knowing I am helping others by providing this service. AnswerNow!’s incentive programs are awesome! Through different incentives available, I was afforded the opportunity to take my four year old granddaughter Samantha to Disneyland – not once, but twice! Since December 2009, I now spend my time with family during the week, and work part time on the weekends. Thank you to Margo Weiss and the AnswerNow! Team for acknowledging me, and for truly being the best.

Despite a “bad” economy and low job ratings in the state of Arizona, AnswerNow is continuing a natural growth and is expecting a large expansion over the next few months. This includes adding team members to handle the influx of business. So that means AnswerNow! is hiring! Our plan is to add 20-25 new people to our team, with applications being taken immediately! If you are interested in becoming a member of our team you can apply online at www.answernowinc.com. All jobs are a result of natural growth, and are not replacement positions.

AnswerNow!: Best Places to Work

Many businesses will tell you they are a great place to work, but we have it in writing. AnswerNow! has been a recipient of The Phoenix Business Journal’s Best Places to Work several years in a row. In order to win the award, we had to submit our nominations and then we were picked based on employee surveys submitted to Quantum Workplace. Our employees have spoken, they love being a member of our team! As hard as we work, we play equally hard. Our break room has satellite television, Wii gaming consoles, computer with internet access and a Ping Pong table that has been the center of many employee competitions focused around winning the coveted Ping Pong trophy. AnswerNow! also holds fun company competitions, where winning teams are rewarded with fun evenings at places such as Dave & Busters.