The Difference Between a Call Center and a Telephone Answering Service
I am often asked the difference between a Call Center and a Telephone Answering Service. To be frank the lines have been very blurred in recent years but let me offer some insight into how Appletree segments it’s business between Call Center and Answering Service. One hint, it is not by customer size!
It really comes down to the complexity of the customer needs. We have very large customers that have very simple name, telephone number, message type needs, and we would clasify them as traditional Answering Service. They are processed on our state of the art call center platform, and have access to all the same services and features, it is just that their needs are simpler.
In contrast to that we have some small customers that have highly customized needs. As an example we have an emergency response account that responds to tractor trailer accidents that occur within their fleet. There are a multitude of notifications and forms that must be completed when there is an incident, and we have built out a complete call handling script to cover all possible combinations of events. The script took over 100 hours to build, yet this customer averages about 5-10 calls PER YEAR! Certainly not a big customer in terms of call volume, but definitely a Call Center type of account.
Essentially, the Telephone Answering Service Industry, in partnership with our equipment vendors, have brought high level Call Center type services to companies of all shapes, sizes and configurations. We are proud to service members of the Fortune 50, many of the Fortune 500 as well as sole proprietors and thousands of small businesses. At any level of sophistication…
Have a great week.
Tags: Answering Service, call center, Telephone Answering Service