AnswerLive

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the President of McWhorter Tire & Auto Repair. We are a tire sales and automotive service company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AnswerLive?

We were looking to offer 24-hour tire services in order to maintain our Goodyear status.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

AnswerLive provides after-hours call center services for us. Their team determines the severity of the call, ensuring that a roadside official is necessary before dispatching whoever is on call. One individual from their team handles the line for a week at a time.

What is the team composition?

We don’t have a project manager, so we interact directly with the individuals who man the line.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested about $450 per month with AnswerLive.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement with AnswerLive began in January 2011.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

The quality of their work is great. It’s been a great timesaver for our in-house team.

How did AnswerLive perform from a project management standpoint?

They always get the information they need from the customer and pass it on quickly to us. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They always have enough people to answer the phones. In the past, we’ve worked with vendors who were understaffed, but that’s not the case here.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only problem we’ve had is that when they switch from one person to the next each week, nothing the first person learned is passed on to the second. For example, as soon as the new person takes over, they have no idea who’s on-call on our end. That’s caused a few hiccups here and there.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Let AnswerLive know what you need, and they’ll take care of it. Provide them with as many specifications as needed.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Tire and Auto service Vice President

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire AnswerLive?

After hours answering service

What were your goals for this project?

24 hour service for our commercial fleets

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Random selection

Describe the project in detail.

We switch our phones after we close the business each day. Calls are fielded and a contact is made to our on call person. We are then patched through to get details of the call.

What was the team composition?

We normally rotate each week as to who is on call. Usually 4 persons rotate.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

This gives us 24 hour coverage to offer after hours service to our customers who require the service.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We have issues at times when the service does not have the right person on call. We call in every Friday evening and give them the name of the person on call. Not sure why it does get recorded properly. Most of the time there are no problems.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They are very professional when answering calls. Never have any complaints.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Do a better job of recording who goes on call each week when the information is given to them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the operations & maintenance foreman at SJWD Water District.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AnswerLive?

We were looking to improve the efficiency and accuracy of our data collection. We also wanted to streamline our response protocol for after-hours calls.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had a few initial meetings to loop them in on our procedures and to inform them of our requirements. Since then, AnswerLive has received and fielded all of our after-hours calls. In the event of an emergency, they report to a designated member of our team that’s on call. They also text us about any arising issues.

What is the team composition?

We have an account manager who serves as our sole point of contact.

How did you come to work with AnswerLive?

Our previous answering service helped field prospects, so we were optimistic about trying AnswerLive.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent somewhere between $5,000–$10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in March 2019, and they continue to provide services for us.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

They’ve been very helpful; their work has improved our customer management.

How did AnswerLive perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate through phone and text. The communication has gotten better over time, but we’re always striving for continuous improvement.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They always respond in a timely manner.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’ve run into some issues with redundant calls; since they seem to have more than one office responding to our calls, we frequently get multiple reports for the same incident. We also had some challenges with a language barrier. Because of that, some of our employees prefer texting them over calling.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Decide beforehand what you want the process to look like. Practice it, and make the necessary adjustments. Allow for some flexibility to make changes to protocols.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of Centrex Pressure Washing Service.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AnswerLive?

I didn’t want to use an answering machine or automated service; I wanted a live person to answer my phone and redirect calls.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I mainly use them for call screening. They answer the phone and redirect my messages through text messages and email to me, so I can respond wherever I’m at within minutes.

How did you come to work with AnswerLive?

I was referred to them by a friend.

How much have you invested with them?

We began working together in 2002 and the work is still ongoing.

What is the status of this engagement?

We pay a monthly service, but we’ve spent between $5,000–$10,000 so far.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Most of my customers are commercial instead of residential and they’ve done a great job with fielding those calls. They’re really good at screening out unnecessary calls from telemarketers and know which ones to push through for me to answer, so they help both me and our customers efficiently. Every once in a while, customers compliment the people on the phone.

How did AnswerLive perform from a project management standpoint?

They have a backlink website where I can go through all my calls and it goes back months. This service has helped me manage my calls better; if someone tells me they called, I can just go back and check.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re so good that customers actually think the person on the other end of the line is in my office. Also, they’re like an inexpensive secretary for me.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I think they could train their operators a bit more consistently. Every once in awhile the script is a bit off or they’re not very familiar with my company.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Write your script, keep it updated, and make sure they present it in the way you want. It may take a little more effort to do that, but it can be very successful for you. If you write your own script, you can make tweaks and fine-tune it along the way to best meet your customers.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the manager of maintenance for Conduent Inc. We’re a transaction processing company in the tolling business. We provide operational maintenance after the agency or state accepts the tolling system we deploy.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AnswerLive?

We offer 24/7 maintenance support onsite and remote. We needed a way for state and agency staff to reach us after hours. We specifically wanted onshore human interaction.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

AnswerLive provides 24/7 answering services for our clients. We provide scripts, and their agents take a message that notes the caller’s name, phone number, location, and problem in one sentence. They then pass the message to us, but they’re instructed to never just leave a message. 

If an agent can’t reach one of our employees over the phone after five minutes, they instead follow an escalation spreadsheet to call someone in a higher position. It goes all the way up to our director. Every message is considered critical and treated equally.

What is the team composition?

We have contracts with five site locations in our offices in New Hampshire, New Jersey/New York, Maryland, North Carolina, and Michigan. I have one immediate point of contact for adding new sites or invoicing issues. We’ve never had to contact her to report an AnswerLive employee not doing their job.

How did you come to work with AnswerLive?

The company had been working with AnswerLive before I joined the company. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spend about $15,000–$20,000 per year. 

What is the status of this engagement?

The partnership began in July 2010 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

It’s nice to know that when a person in Michigan calls our number at 3:00 a.m., they’ll get a human being on the phone. That makes a big difference when other businesses are going to automated systems. The biggest issue we’ve ever had in the 10-year partnership is that from time to time, a customer is on hold for five minutes. They’re so infrequent that I remember those instances, and we always bring them up to our point of contact to take care of.

How did AnswerLive perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been extremely responsive. When we end contracts in given locations, we get just as much support as when we open a new location. Our account manager and I mostly communicate by email, but we have talks when necessary. She’s very responsive. We have a really friendly relationship.

What did you find most impressive about them?

To me, AnswerLive is a success story. We’ve recommended them to other people looking for this kind of service because they’re truly responsive 24/7. They’re also always professional. Our local maintenance supervisor sometimes calls our number to get a sense of how the agents are doing, and we’ve yet to be disappointed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. We’re not even upset with their price. Over 10 years, they haven’t inflated or changed their structure. They’ve also stuck with us through significant transition periods within our company. 

Any advice for potential customers?

Communicate. Form that personal relationship by finding that commonality.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the clinic director of an outpatient treatment center.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AnswerLive?

We needed them to handle our after-hours phone calls. This would allow us to communicate with the hospital without having to give our personal cell phone numbers. When we receive after-hours calls, we have to write down the information being relayed about the patient.

Because it’s after hours, we naturally get these calls during our personal time and weekends.  When this happened, we’d have to write the details on a napkin or whatever was nearest. This occurred while we were driving, eating, or in the middle of everyday errands. AnswerLive helped us address this challenge.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

AnswerLive answers all our phone calls that come in after hours. They established a secure texting system that relays the information through SMS. If one of our patients is in the hospital and we receive a phone call from them, the call gets transferred to AnswerLive. AnswerLive answers it and then whoever is on-call from our clinic will receive the text message. We’re then able to respond to the hospital directly, but AnswerLive always fields the messages first.

What is the team composition?

I’m not sure of their team composition, but they’re on-call 24/7.

How did you come to work with AnswerLive?

My company has been associated with them for several years now — long before I started here. However, I was present for the transition to the text messaging system. AnswerLive suggested it to us, and we cheerfully jumped on board.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested between $10,000–$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our partnership began in 2015 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

AnswerLive is great and easy to work with. I’m always able to get in touch with them when needed. Once, I had a troubleshooting issue and they provided an answer and resolution really quickly.

Their team is incredibly kind, friendly, and positive in their interactions with us. When I get frequent messages I — and I know I can speak for some of my peers — get kind of cranky. However, AnswerLive is always very pleasant even though we may not be.

How did AnswerLive perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management style is extremely efficient. They’re willing to work through any barriers or issues we have as an organization.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m most impressed with how efficient and reachable they are. Their team is easy to get ahold of. Never have I had to wait a long time on the phone in order to reach someone. They answer my questions quickly and in my business that’s not always the case — it’s a breath of fresh air.

During our transition to the text messaging system, I was impressed with their proactivity in suggesting the system to us. There was nothing wrong with the previous way, but their recommendation showed they truly took us into consideration. Now with the SMS system, we get a notification and can respond at our own convenience.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything at this time.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Robert R. McGill Air Conditioning, Inc. is an air conditioning service, maintenance, repair and installation contracting company based in Lantana, Florida. I am the Administrative Assistant for the business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Victorious?

We hired AnswerLive to field all of our after-hours and weekend calls from our customers. When our office is closed, AnswerLive receives all of our phone calls.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal is to provide our customers with service 24 hours and seven days a week in their time of need so we can satisfy their air quality comfort issues.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I am unaware of how AnswerLive was originally selected.

Describe the project in detail.

AnswerLive receives all of our phone calls while our office is closed. Live operators greet our customers and gather their information. They ask specific questions that relate to the customer's needs. 

After the call, AnswerLive's operators then relay the information to our on-call service technician. In addition, they send detailed reports to our office staff on a daily basis. They make sure any follow-up that may be required gets completed.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have been a client of AnswerLive for a minimum of 12 years, since 2007 or earlier. I’m not aware of the exact date of our initial agreement. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any statistics or metrics that speak to the quality of their work and impact of the engagement?

AnswerLive is our first step in reassuring our customers we’ll be able to help them in their time of need. Being greeted by a live operator makes a big difference for them. 

We receive an average of six calls per day after hours. During the summer months, the amount of after-hours activity and number of calls can rise. The loss of revenue from all these missed calls per day would be extraordinary if we didn’t have Answerlive’s support.

 AnswerLIve’s availability to accept calls in our office staff’s absence enables us to assist many customers we couldn’t otherwise. 

How did AnswerLive perform from a project management standpoint?

We provide all of our parameters and instructions for fielding our customer after hours calls. AnswerLIve enters all this information into our customer file so their operators can follow preset protocol.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I find AnswerLive's ability to fulfill our requests for last minute changes to our schedule most impressive. Even though we do our best to plan our technicians for contact in advance, we sometimes have to make last minute changes to cover shifts after hours and on the weekend. AnswerLIve is always accommodating. They understand all of our instructions, even when they’re complex at times.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We tend to receive duplicate messages from time to time. However, we would rather receive a message twice than not at all.