This document provides insights for selecting a telephone answering service (TAS), discussing various billing methods, service considerations, and a comparison of different TAS companies. Key aspects include differences in billing structures and operator training, emphasizing the importance of understanding service capabilities and costs. It also outlines the significance of proper staffing, quality assurance, and certifications within the TAS industry.

1. Telephone Answering Service Considerations
TAS
Considerations
Our goal of this document is to provide you with insight that we
hope will allow you to make an informed decision when choosing
your Telephone Answering Service (TAS). A discussion of the
various billing methods used by TAS companies is covered first.
Then, other service and company considerations are discussed.
We have included a TAS consideration comparison worksheets
that we hope you find useful in your research.
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2. Telephone Answering Service Considerations
Jamey Hopper
President
Because service considerations and billing methods are closely related, a discussion of various billing
methods used by TAS companies is covered first. Other service and company considerations are then
covered.
There are many variations within each of the individual categories. Two companies quoting the exact
same price and the same pricing structure may end up billing the customer vastly different amounts for
the same time period and traffic usage. This is due to different TAS equipment tracking minutes or calls
in different fashions or even different TAS offices with the same equipment using different methods to
calculate minutes. For example, one office with a very low per minute rate includes ring time and non-
working hold time in its time calculation. Another issue is that some TAS companies bill on a 28 day
cycle resulting in 13 invoices a year, while some bill monthly resulting in 12 invoices per year.
The most significant issue with the different methods from a TAS perspective is the training that is given
to the operators. With a flat rate, message count or service unit billing method it is to the TAS advantage
to have the call end quickly. The incentive is to take a limited amount of information and terminate the
call. With time-billing the incentive is to be thorough with the information taken from the caller. Clearly
either system can be taken to extremes by the individual TAS. The largest component of TAS expenses
is employee salary and benefits. There is an incentive for the TAS to reduce the amount of time an
operator spends on a call. Some of the billing methods encourage a setup where the customer would
realize a reduction in TAS billing by automating systems or by the customer taking on certain service
steps such inputting on call information rather than having the TAS perform this function. Voice mail on
the front end of any variable rate system (that is, all except flat rate) will also generally reduce customer
billing.
518 Patin Rd. • Carencro, LA 70520 • (337) 236-8300
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3. Telephone Answering Service Considerations
Billing Methods
Flat Rate | Message Count | Service Units | Dedicated Operator | Time Usage | Other
ANSWERING COMMUNICATION SERVICES
Flat Rate Message Count Service Units
Pro Pro Pro
Allows for budgeting as the Ideal for business who may only A client with limited people on
amount of the monthly bill is need someone to collect a call and every message sent to
known in advance. name and number and no other their smartphone would be ide-
information. ally suited for this system.
Con
Usually a higher rate per billing Con Con
cycle as this method carries Most of these services count Generally each point of contact
more risk for the TAS. every call as a message, includ- is a “unit”. That is, each call,
ing hang ups, wrong numbers, page, fax or email, text mes-
Brief etc. The customer service rep- sage, each customer check-in,
This method is usually associ- resentatives will simply make a etc.
ated with small or poor service message ticket for “lady hung
TAS offices. Flat rates generally up” or “man will call back” as Brief
do not allow the TAS to cover the complete message. This style of billing is ideally suit-
their variable expenses, which ed for simple service accounts.
are primarily operator related, Brief
so customers may unexpectedly Was used throughout the indus-
find their account in the hands try in the days of handwritten
of an unfamiliar provider as the messages.
flat rate TAS either goes out of
business or is bought by a larger Used much less now with the
service. The rate must be ad- availability of sophisticated
justed periodically as call traffic scripted messaging software.
changes.
518 Patin Rd. • Carencro, LA 70520 • (337) 236-8300
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4. Telephone Answering Service Considerations
Billing Methods
Flat Rate | Message Count | Service Units | Dedicated Operator | Time Usage | Other
Dedicated Operator Time Usage Other Charges
Hourly
Pro Pro Brief
Dedicated operators usually The training focuses on thor- Many TAS offices will include ad-
become more skilled when han- oughness in message taking, ditional fees. Some examples
dling only one type of call. rather than brevity. This can include:
lead to more complete mes- Holiday surcharges, email
Con
sages, and also to higher billing delivery, fax delivery, message
Difficulty in matching call traffic
due to longer time of operator storage, caller ID, monthly
to number of operators staffed.
involvement on a call. reports, email response, voice
Can become expensive for the
client as occupancy rate of mail, yearly line charge, pag-
dedicated operators is lower Con ing or alpha dispatch, SMS text
than pooled operators: however, Generally the “billing clock” is on delivery, web access, monthly
when there are too few dedicat-
when an agent is actively work- maintenance, etc.
ed operators their occupancy
rate can become so high as to ing on a call.
lead to errors and burnout.
Brief
Brief Used by the vast majority of TAS
Operators are dedicated to one offices, especially in the pre-
client only. mium service level group.
Frequently requires a hybrid
system with some dedicated
operators and some overflow
to a general operator pool (for
example for overnight and mid-
day call traffic).
518 Patin Rd. • Carencro, LA 70520 • (337) 236-8300
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5. Telephone Answering Service Considerations
Service Considerations
Staffing | Occupancy | Distribution | QA | Dispatch | Training | HIPAA | Systems
Staffing Ratios
• Staffing too low will lead to long ring times and poor service levels.
• Staffing too high can lead to poor service due to operator boredom as
well as high prices.
Occupancy Rates
• The ideal occupancy rate for our industry is between 55% and 65%;
higher than that level will lead to mistakes and burnout.
• Extremely high occupancy rates do not allow time for coaching, training,
quality & performance reviews.
Distribution and Routing
• Some use a general distribution system in which any call can be routed
to any operator.
• Some services use sophisticated call routing systems. A sophisticated
skills based routing system will direct calls for a particular customer to an
operator, or a group of operators, trained in handling that specific ac-
count or account type.
Quality Assurance (QA) Systems
• Most TAS companies grade calls regularly.
• Some offices have sophisticated QA systems, insuring consistent grading
and statistically significant results.
• Many TAS offices have extensive call logging systems and store the text
and voice recorded messages for various periods of time.
518 Patin Rd. • Carencro, LA 70520 • (337) 236-8300
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6. Telephone Answering Service Considerations
Service Considerations
Staffing | Occupancy | Distribution | QA | Dispatch | Training | HIPAA | Systems
Take and Dispatch System
• Some TAS companies have the operator taking the call also dispatch the
call. This has the advantage of having the operator able to answer a
question should there be information requested that might be difficult to
include in a message (like the demeanor of the caller).
• A take and dispatch system has the advantage of a single operator
gaining experience with message delivery, knowing where the different
company employees are at each time, knowing how they like to be
reached and being able to review the message and correct any mis-
takes or unclear aspects of the message itself.
Training Program
• All TAS offices have some form of training.
• Some companies train on the operations floor, some train in a remote
training office.
• Some companies have ongoing training, specific customer training,
customer type training.examples: training for home health customers,
funeral home customers, physicians or any other industry type
HIPAA Protocols
• Many TAS offices are hiring consultants and enacting extensive HIPAA
provisions.
• Some TAS offices are less aggressive, while some are doing nothing at
all.
System and Software Capabilities
• Some TAS vendors provide complex scripting software allowing for exten-
sive customized messaging for individual offices.
• Other systems provide alternative messaging systems such as inbound
and outbound faxing, voice mail, email & SMS text message, linkage
with database applications (for example the ability to provide clock in
and clock out services with a voice mail system) and allow real time
backup capability.
518 Patin Rd. • Carencro, LA 70520 • (337) 236-8300
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7. Telephone Answering Service Considerations
Associations Awards Certifications
Award of Excellence
Joining and actively participat- ATSI & CAM-X offer Award of ATSI and CAM-X offer various
ing in the various associations Excellence programs. These levels of certification.
generally results in TAS com- are essentially mystery shopper
panies with better systems and programs where a “shopper” will Site Certification is designed to
procedures. Most of the as- call a TAS and grade the opera- insure 99.9% up time of the TAS.
sociations focus on educational tor on up to 28 different criteria Site Certification also examines:
programs for their members, for each call. A TAS averaging compliance with labor laws,
including the topics mentioned over 80% on the ten calls grad- EEOC guidelines, policy manu-
in the section above. ed during a six month period will als, insurance coverage, etc.
win the Award of Excellence.
Industry
Association of Teleservices International
(ATSI)
Canadian Call Management Association
(CAM-X)
Regional
Southern Telemessaging
Western States
Great Lakes
Others
Groups
National Amtelco Equipment Owners
(NAEO)
Startel National Users Group
(SNUG)
Others
518 Patin Rd. • Carencro, LA 70520 • (337) 236-8300
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8. Telephone Answering Service Considerations
Company Considerations
Associations | Awards | Certifications | Preparedness | IT Management Staffing | Ownership
Preparedness IT Management Ownership
In addition to Site Certification Some TAS offices have full time Some TAS companies are owner
some companies have taken in house IT staff while others operated, some are owned by
large steps to insure continu- engage outside contractors for IT large companies.
ing operation in the event of a support
disaster. Some of the large companies
hire professional managers
Some TAS companies have to run an office; some of the
detailed Disaster Plans and ex- owners of small services are at-
tensive backup systems, includ- tentive but untrained in many as-
ing redundant switches, servers, pects of business management.
telephony and Internet providers,
etc. No model would appear to be
perfect in all circumstances, but
it is something that should be
examined carefully.
518 Patin Rd. • Carencro, LA 70520 • (337) 236-8300
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9. Telephone Answering Service Considerations
Billing Compairsons
Flat Rate | Message Count | Service Units | Dedicated Operator | Time Usage
Billing TAS #2 TAS #3 TAS #4
Consideration
Flat Rate Not available at this time
Message Count n/a
Service Units n/a
Dedicated n/a
Operator
Pricing structure is based
Time Usage on the time used on your
account.
Optional customer selected
Other Charges features
Billing Cycle Monthly
Holiday Surcharge No holiday surcharge
518 Patin Rd. • Carencro, LA 70520 • (337) 236-8300
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10. Telephone Answering Service Considerations
Service Compairsons
Staffing | Occupancy | Distribution | QA | Dispatch | Training | HIPAA | Systems
Service TAS #2 TAS #3 TAS #4
Consideration
Staffing Ratios Monitored weekly
Occupancy Monitored hourly
Rates
Distribution and More than 10 levels of
Routing operator distribution
Our QA department reviews
thousands of calls every
Quality month scoring each call on
Assurance (QA) more than 30 criteria which
Systems are regualry reviewed with
staff and management
Take and Yes
Dispatch System
Once hired, new employees
participate in extensive class-
room based training under the
Training Program supervision of a dedicated
and experienced training
department
HIPAA Protocols Yes
System and Monitored on site by our
Software dedicated IT team
Capabilities
518 Patin Rd. • Carencro, LA 70520 • (337) 236-8300
dexcomm.com

11. Telephone Answering Service Considerations
Company Compairsons
Associations | Awards | Certifications | Preparedness | IT System Mgmt | Ownership
Company TAS #2 TAS #3 TAS #4
Consideration
ATSI, CAM-X, NAEO, Southern
Teleservices Association,
National Federation of Inde-
pendent Business, BBB (Baton
Rouge, LA and Lafayette, LA),
Associations Louisiana Association of Busi-
ness and Industry, Greater
Lafayette Chamber of
Commerce, Partners1 Trade
Organization, Trust Acadiana,
Crescent City
ATSI Award of Excellence
2004-2012, CAM-X Award of
Awards Excellence 2008-2012, LSU
Top 100 Fastest Growing Tiger
Businesses 2011-2012
ATSI 24/7 Gold Site Certifica-
Certifications tion, ATSI Customer Service
Representative Certification
Equipped with a super
fuel tank, generators, and
dedicated on-site server
Preparedness rooms and on and complete
fully-redundant, real-time on-
and off-site backup systems
Three full-time employees that
IT System include a Systems Engineer,
Management Systems Developer and an Ap-
plication Analyst
Ownership Owner operated
518 Patin Rd. • Carencro, LA 70520 • (337) 236-8300
dexcomm.com

12. Telephone Answering Service Considerations
The first step in developing an effective business relationship is to understand your needs,
goals and strategies. An answering service is an extension of your business, don’t allow just
anyone to represent Your Voice. When you are ready to form a winning partnership, our
staff is ready to answer any questions about our services and pricing.
CORPORATE SALES wWw
518 Patin Rd 877.339.2666 dexcomm.com
Carencro, LA 70520 337.296.0254 @dexcomm
337.236.8300