What is an "answering service" (definition)?
How can an answering service help my business?
Will all of my customers' calls be answered in the United States?
What is call center outsourcing?
Are there any contracts to sign?
May I advertise TAS's 800 toll free numbers or local numbers?
Can I keep my number if I decide to leave TAS?
How do I transfer/call forward my telephones to the TAS call center?
How long does it take to setup answering service accounts?
How can telephone answering service deliver my messages?
What options are available for updating who is on call?
How long does it take to update the on call in TAS's systems?
Is there a limit on the number of people I can forward a single message to?
What types of businesses does an answering service typically work with?
What is call patching or a warm transfer?
Can TAS take my customer's orders?
How can TAS deliver my orders to our company?
Can TAS accept credit cards from my business's customers?
How many messages can be store in TAS's voice mail system?
How does my bill accumulate charges?
Are there any setup fees?
"What is an "answering service" (definition)?
An "answering service" is a telephone call center that provides customer service representatives to answer customer calls for a wide variety of
business applications. Typically used when the client's office is closed or unavailable, answering services provide a signficant benefit to those
companies by providing cost effective customer service solutions to their customer base such as after hours emergency support, sales support
and order entry, and live operator help 24/7.
How can an answering service help my business?
Some well-trained "answering services" will expand your company's availabilty to your customers by 320%. We accomplish this by taking your
company from having a live person available from 9-5 Mon-Fri, to having a live person available 24/7/365. Did you know that people are 30% more
likely to leave a message with a live person when compared to a voice mail system?
For large businesses 
Our high volume call center can handle complete call center outsourcing, call overflow, expanded service hours, handle faqs, home office data
integration, and many other aspects of the modern call center. Our larger clientele have dedicated operator teams who are assigned to only
answer their specific account. All of these features are available for a fraction of the cost of running an in house call center.
For small businesses
Our business answering services can handle customer inquiries at any hour of the day with no extra charges for support on holidays. The telephone answering service can perform general message taking, dispatching, order entry, appointment taking, and most of the tasks that your average secretary can handle. For a list of all of the services our busienss answering service offers to our small business clients, please contact us.
For medical practices
Our medical answering services takes care of patients when the office is closed by offering support for frequently asked questions, patient care assistance, appointment setting, as well as other patient necessities.
Will all of my customers' calls be answered in the United States?
All calls answered by TelephoneAnsweringService.com are answered right here in the United States. We refuse to ship American jobs overseas in this economy.
What is call center outsourcing?
Call center outsourcing is when a company sends their customer service calls to a 3rd party, such as TelephoneAnsweringService.com. TAS can be setup to act as an offsite customer service department to assist companies that have a large volume of inbound/outbound customer calls. Our customers include Fortune 100 companies.
Are there any contracts to sign?
At TelephoneAnsweringService.com, we don't rope our customers into any type of contracts. Instead, we let the quality of our services speak for themselves. We're so confident that you'll love the services provide by TAS, that on top of our 30 day money back guarantee, we also prorate your fees based on the day your service starts to the day you choose to leave. No more 60 days notice required!
May I advertise TAS's 800 toll free numbers or local numbers?
Absolutely! We encourage our customers to use the numbers they use to connect to our answering service in advertisements. It's also much more cost effective than call forwarding a standard business line to the numbers we provide you with. Subscriber lines from local phone service providers can be as much as $50/month!
Can I keep my number if I decide to leave TAS?
If you ever decided you wanted to terminate your service with TAS, we can transfer your number anywhere you want us to for $15/month per local line and/or $15/month + $.09/minute for toll free lines.
How do I transfer/call forward my telephones to the TAS call center?
Below is a comprehensive guide on how to take advantage of all of the benefits call fowarding has to offer.
User's Guide For Call Forwarding
How long does it take to setup answering service accounts?
Most accounts can be setup within 24-48 hours. We offer emergency setup for an additional $25 that can have basic accounts (~90% of accounts) setup with 1-2 hours.
How can telephone answering service deliver my messages?
Here at TelephoneAnsweringService.com, we offer message delivery via email, text messaging, faxing, digital pager, alpha pager, online account access, database integration, and operator call outs.
What options are available for updating who is on call?
Answerweb, TAS's online utility allows you to login to your account with a username and password, and select from a list of your employees. Simply click save, and the oncall is updated in our systems. You can also call into the call center and update your oncalls via any customer service representative.
How long does it take to update the on call in TAS's systems?
Updates via Answerweb as well as through TAS customer service representatives is instantaneous.
Is there a limit on the number of people I can forward a single message to?
TelephoneAnsweringService.com can forward a single message up to 99 locations.
What types of businesses does an answering service typically work with?
TAS works with all types of businesses, both large and small. Our largest clients may get tens of thousands of calls per month, while our smallest clients may only receive a few. We work with medical professionals, service companies, property management firms, and all companies in between.
What is call patching or a warm transfer?
Call patching or a warm transfer is the equivalent of a 3 way call. Typically, a customer will call in with an emergency, and the operator will need to dispatch the call immediately. She places the caller on hold, contacts the oncall, brings the caller off of hold and into the conversation with the oncall, and then backs out of the conversation.
Can TAS take my customer's orders?
Absolutely! TAS's telephone based computer systems were designed with the specific needs of order management and processing in mind. Perhaps one of TAS's greatest strengths is our ability to quickly and precisely handle inbound order entry.
How can TAS deliver my orders to our company?
The most popular method is to simply enter orders through TAS's customer's website. If this is not an option, we offer a wide variety of message delivery options to suit your business's needs.
Can TAS accept credit cards from my business's customers?
Yes. However, it is required by law that you open your own merchant account. TAS offer's merchant account services.
How many messages can be stored in TAS's voicemail system?
Up to 100 minutes.
How does my bill accumulate charges?
All of our charges are on a per minute basis that accrues at a per second interval. For instance, a 50 second call, and a 60 second call would mean that your account would incur 1 min 50 seconds of charges.
Are there any setup fees for my account?
Our standard setup fee is $29.99/hour capped at 3 hours, and covers all account programming and operator training. The majority of accounts can be setup in less than 1 hour. Future account updates are included free of charge.