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Appletree Answering Service Company History

Appletree Answering Service was founded in 1995 by John Ratliff, Appletree's current President/CEO, in his two bedroom, commercially zoned apartment in Wilmington, Delaware. For the first few years, John was handling all aspects of the business including answering the calls, marketing the company, and sales efforts, all while trying to operate the business. Since this time, Appletree has experienced steady growth and has maintained at least a 30% growth in revenue each year due to our intense dedication and determination to make Appletree successful.

John founded Appletree with the belief that exceptional quality drives everything and that we should always make our employees our #1 priority. Our Core Values of Employees are Critical, Think Like a Customer, Integrity Matters, Be Quick, but Don't Hurry, Small Details are Huge, and Take Care of Each Other are still what drives Appletree to be the company that it is today.

A significant factor in the growth of Appletree has been the acquisition of existing answering services. To date, Appletree has had the opportunity to acquire 12 answering services across the country. The first two acquisitions took place in 2003 and included offices in Pensacola, Florida and Portland, Maine. The next two acquisitions occurred in 2005 and were offices in Reston, Virginia and Anaheim, California. In 2006, Appletree acquired 2 additional sites in Dayton/Cincinnati, Ohio as well as a second office in Anaheim, California. In 2007, Appletree acquired 4 new offices located in the following cities: San Juan, Puerto Rico; Kansas City, Missouri; Houma, Louisiana; and Sacramento, California. In 2008, Appletree acquired 1 new office located in St. Louis, Missouri. In 2009, Appletree will be opening a new office from scratch for the first time since the company was founded! This new office will be located in Boston, Massachusetts and will open in March.

In recognition of the Company’s rapid growth and service quality, Appletree has also been recognized in the telecommunications industry in several ways. Appletree was recognized in 2004, 2005, and 2006 by Inc. Magazine as one of the country’s fastest growing privately held businesses. On a regional level, the company was designated as one of the Philadelphia 100 fastest growing businesses in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008. Starting in 2004, Appletree participated in the Award of Excellence Program for both ATSI and CAM-X and many of our offices have won these awards in various years since then. Furthermore, Maine has had the honor of earning top 5 finishes in several of the years that they participated.

Appletree continues to excel in the telecommunications industry by focusing on providing personal customer service and technological advancement to our customers and a great place to work for our employees.

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