AnswerFirst Nominated For Tampa Bay Business Journal Fast 50 Awards

We're proud to announce that we've been nominated for the Tampa Bay Business Journal’s Fast 50 Awards!!

The TBBJ is the Tampa Bay area TBJ publication that circulates over 9000 printed publications each month while also receiving more than 175000 monthly visitors to their website.  The TBBJ holds 11 annual events including the Fast 50 Awards.  The Fast 50 is a list of the fastest growing privately held companies in Tampa Bay with rankings based on percentage of annual growth over a three year period.  Companies on the Fast 50 list must meet the following criteria: the company must be privately held and locally owned, it must be headquartered in Hernando, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk or Sarasota counties, the company must have been in operation since 2008 or prior, and the company must have had annual revenue of at least $1 million in 2011 with no revenue requirement for the years 2009 and 2010 as long as revenue has grown each year.  Each year, the final rankings are revealed at an awards luncheon with the top 5 companies receiving special recognition.

Matt Herron, AnswerFirst’s CEO, stated, “The economy has been very weak these past few years, but we’ve been able to continually improve the efficiency of our business model, hire the right team members and invest in effective marketing techniques; these are just a few of the administrative decisions that have allowed us to grow in this rough economic climate.  I feel fortunate that we are able to employ people during a time when many Americans are out of work and I’m very proud of our entire team for making this nomination possible.”

If you'd like more information about AnswerFirst, our answering services or virtual receptionist solutions, visit our website or call us today at 1-800-645-2616.

Attention Laywers & Law Offices: Need A Live Agent?

Does your law office need a live agent?

Are you guilty of...

• sending your clients' calls to voice mails?
• neglecting your phone after-hours?
• misplacing phone numbers and messages?
• letting emails pile up in your inbox?

We provide 24/7/365 Answering Services, Inbound Email Processing, Virtual Receptionist Services, Appointment Scheduling and Customer Service Solutions.

Download our free document, Costly Mistakes Lawyers Make at www.answerfirst.com/Lawyers

Contact us today for more information about what we can do for your law office, 1-800-645-2616, or visit www.answerfirst.com/pricing

How Does AnswerFirst Deliver Messages?

We deliver messages via fax, email, text messaging (SMS), alpha pager, digital pager, verbally over the phone and via the web.
Select any of these options in any combination. For example, we can send a text message to your cell phone, and then you can later retrieve or review that same message on the web, and then via a summary email the next morning. Also, based on your account setup, you can have different dispatch protocols for different types of messages (i.e. emergencies sent via text message and then called to confirm receipt but all routine calls held for the next morning). 

For more information about our services, please visit one of our websites: Affordable Answering Service, Answering Service, Lawyers' Answering Service or our corporate website, AnswerFirst.com.

AnswerFirst's Receptionists Can Do Anything!

AnswerFirst live receptionists can do anything!

Our U.S. based live agents are awesome at:

• taking phone messages and sending them to you in whatever format you choose
• providing customer service to your clients
• scheduling appointments
• acting as an extension of your business
• giving your clients directions to your location
• answering your inbound emails and phones 24/7/365... yes, even on holidays and weekends

...and a lot more! 

Call us or visit our website today for more information about what our agents can do for you and your business: 1-800-645-2616 or AnswerFirst.com

Avoid the Sting of Bad Customer Service!

Reliable & Cost Effective Customer Service Solutions for Any Business!

• Eliminate the loss of important revenue generating calls
• Answer with a human, not a machine
• Respond to time sensitive emails
• Be available day and night
• Free yourself with more time; focus on your business
• No long-term contracts; simply pay-as-you-go
• Recordings and reports at your fingertips

We provide answering services, call center solutions, inbound email processing and customer service solutions for businesses in every industry.  

Want more info about what we can do for your business? 
Visit our website to download a free pricing and plans packet or call us at 1-800-645-2616.

Use An Answering Service To Improve Your Customer Service

There's no excuse for foul customer service!

Consistent, prompt responses to your business communications lead to happy customers, business growth and a reputation of great customer service for your business.

Our Motivation 

We only collect a $20.00 base rate up-front; we actually have to answer your calls and respond to your emails to earn any additional money. This makes us HIGHLY motivated to answer every inbound communication in a timely and professional manner. Services that make you pay upfront for a package of calls, minutes or units do not have this same level of motivation because they’ve already been paid. At AnswerFirst, a lost call from one of your customers tired of waiting in a hold queue means potential lost revenue for you and guaranteed lost revenue for us.

Total Dedication to Delivering Results

• Prompt and Professional Responses
• Agents With Customer Service Experience
• Dedicated Dispatch Operators
• Reliable and Redundant Infrastructure

Services Include:

• 24/7 Live Answering Service
• Answering Services
• Inbound Email Processing
• Virtual Receptionist
• Online Order Fulfillment
• Call Center Solutions
• Technical Support
• Scheduling & Reservation

Value:

• Pay Only For What You Use
• Free Client Web Access Portal
• Full Unlimited Access to All of Your Call Recordings & Reports
• Redundant Power, Data & Telephony Infrastructures for 99% Uptime

Try us before you buy at www.AnswerFirst.com/demo

Looking for more info? Download a free Pricing & Plans Packet at www.AnswerFirst.com/pricing

Answering Service & Call Center Industry Terminology

At AnswerFirst, we feel that it's part of our job to educate our clients about the services and products we offer and part of that process is teaching clients about some of the more technical aspects of a call center including the terminology that goes along with learning about it.  With that goal in mind, here is a list of answering service and call center industry terms with layman's definitions.  This list of terms consists of words and acronyms that we use almost every day when speaking with our current and potential clients; these definitions are useful for anyone who is new to dealing with answering services and call centers.

IVR or Interactive Voice Response: A technology that allows humans to interacts with computers through the use of voice and tone inputs.  When you call a business and a machine picks up that asks you to make choices by speaking or pressing buttons on the phone you are interacting with an IVR system.  Most callers find IVR systems to be annoying because many of these systems don't work well; this can result in substandard customer service experiences.

CSR or Customer Service Representative: These are AnswerFirst staff members that will be answering your phone calls and emails.  Our customer service representatives must have prior customer service experience; it's their job to answer all of your business communications according to the protocols you have created while being both professional and friendly.

DID or Direct Inward Dialing: Your DID is the number that is designated as your direct line in our call center.  When this number is dialed and the phone rings in our call center our agents know that these calls are for your account.

CWA or Client Web Access: This is our version of a free online customer account portal.  You can access your messages, check your invoices and change the way your calls are handled by logging in and taking advantage of the many features of CWA.

If you're currently shopping for an answering service you might also want to check out our answering service comparison chart.  Even if you decide that our services are not right for your particular business needs, we hope you feel that you've learned something about the services you were shopping for during your interactions with us.

Looking for more information? Give us a call at 1-800-645-2616, tweet or Facebook us.