How Often Do You Thank Your Answering Service Staff?
This Thanksgiving Seek Effective Ways to Show Appreciation to Your Front-Line Employees
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD
Thanksgiving will soon be here. For many people that means a four-day weekend. There may be a grand feast with family, watching a parade or football game, and perhaps a nap. Then there’s Christmas shopping on Friday—or Thursday afternoon for those who can’t wait. Later in the weekend, some will put up Christmas decorations and others will go to a movie. Traditions vary, but for most people Thanksgiving is a break from work.
Not so for those in the answering service industry. Quite possibly Thanksgiving weekend means four days of work. Given the theme of the holiday, being thankful, let’s look for ways to thank staff who will spend time working when most other people aren’t. Some bosses do a great job at this, others not so well, and a few don’t even think about it. Here are some ideas to say “thank you” to your staff.
Use Words: Sometimes the simplest of ways is the best way. Just look each employee in the eye, and say “thank you for all you do.” It can mean a lot. I once had a boss who personally handed out paychecks each payday. Though not the most personable guy, he made a point to say “thank you” as he gave each of us our check. That was thirty years ago. I still remember it.
Give a Card: Cards are nice too, but to have maximum impact, don’t use the premade kind with flowery sentiment and your printed signature. Instead handwrite a short note of sincere appreciation, say thank you, and sign it. For increased impact, include a gift card or cash.
Do Something Special: As the saying goes, “Actions speak louder than words.” What action can you do to show your appreciation to your answering service staff working on Thanksgiving? Maybe you could drop off a treat for them to enjoy during break. How about a small gift awaiting each one when they come into work? Come up with something creative you can do for your staff, and it will have a huge impact.
Avoid the Cliché or the Routine: Some companies give frozen turkeys to their staff on Thanksgiving, and others have practices that have become expected but carry little meaning. Phase out the old, tired convention and replace it with something fresh and new that will have employees buzzing.
Continue Year-Round: Though we think of being thankful this time of year, don’t restrict your appreciation of your staff to one weekend. Continue to thank them and show your appreciation for the hard work they do throughout the year.
Yes, this takes effort and is time-consuming, but so is hiring and training new staff when your existing employees quit because they don’t feel appreciated.
May you and your staff have a happy Thanksgiving.
Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD, is the publisher and editor-in-chief of TAS Trader. Check out his latest book, Sticky Customer Service.
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Hastings Humans Celebrates Seventieth Anniversary
Virtual Receptionist Company Continues to Provide the Human Touch
In 1948 Ann Hastings answered her first call for a business from an extension telephone sitting on her kitchen table. This was the start of her telephone answering service business. Over the years the business continued to grow and is now a highly respected nationwide provider of live telecommunication services for businesses of any size and type.
After serving as a captain in the Army in World War II, Clint Hastings and his wife, Ann, moved to Austin on East 17th Street so he could go to the University of Texas on the GI Bill. Ann wanted to start a family and was looking for a way to work from home to raise some income. She heard of something called telephone answering service. So she started with one phone and one customer. After six months she had three customers and a monthly revenue of 30 dollars.
Ann’s business grew as word spread about her kind, warm, and efficient service. From the 1950s to the 1980s, the company resided at multiple locations in the Austin area. By the mid-80s, the company moved to their present location, 11th and Shoal Creek. About that time Ann and Clint passed the business on to their sons, Mark and Scott. Originally known as Austin Answering Service and then as Hastings Telephone Answering Service, in 2014 the company changed its name to Hastings Humans to better reflect the true benefit of its services—the human touch.
And while Hastings Humans still operates as an answering service, they now utilize the latest technology to meet the expectations of their customers more efficiently. Among the services they now offer include virtual receptionists, dispatching service calls, capturing sales leads, and tier 1 tech support.
All the services Hastings offers build upon the strengths developed over seventy years, such as their expertise in customer service and their ability to respond to the needs of businesses of all types. Hastings continues to invest in technology and expand its commitment to customer service.
Over thirty-five women and men are employed at Hastings Humans. They handle more than five-thousand calls each day, with an accuracy rate exceeding 99.99 percent. Hasting Humans has earned the Association of Teleservices International’s Award of Excellence for twenty-one consecutive years.
As president and co-owner, Mark Hastings says, “We’ve seen a lot of changes over the years. And we continue to see that it is necessary to involve people in business transactions. We will continue to keep our eyes on the needs of our customers, now and in the future.”
Is your answering service celebrating a milestone anniversary? Fifty years, sixty, or seventy? How about seventy-five, eighty, eighty-five, ninety, or more?
Send us your TAS articles and news for consideration in the next issue.
Telephone Answering Service News
Ron Violante to Focus Attention on Pulsar360: Ron Violante announced that he will rep exclusively for Pulsar360. Last year, Violante began representing Szeto Technologies in addition to Pulsar360. Though this was not a conflict of interest, and Violante was able to fully represent both companies for maximum results, it did cause confusion among some members of the industry. To remove any possible concerns that some people may have, Violante decided that going forward he will rep exclusively for Pulsar360. In addition, Violante will continue with answering service acquisitions, where he assists buyers and sellers to put together mutually beneficial transactions.
Amtelco Enhances IS Transformer for Easier Upgrades: Amtelco adds the Dial String Import Wizard to the Intelligent Series (IS) Transformer Client/Agent, a set of tools that transforms information from external sources to the IS database. The Dial String Import Wizard helps with mass transformations of Infinity dial strings to IS client fields, info pages, and contact methods. Dial strings can be imported from the Infinity system list and individual accounts or all accounts. The dial string values can be modified in the dial string import wizard before being transformed into IS without changing the dial strings in Infinity.
Amtelco Introduces Intelligent Series Version 5.3: Amtelco Intelligent Series (IS) v5.3 adds new features, many of which were developed in collaboration with Amtelco customers. Version 5.3 moves voicemail from Infinity to IS for use with the Genesis system. Other key features allow for reassigned parked calls to go to another ACD skill, auto answer greetings play to callers while waiting for an agent, and the conference join and patch call states now include call recording capability. In addition, the IS supervisor application dashboard includes controls to allow users to configure multiple dashboard layouts, filled with a choice of widgets.
Send us your TAS articles and news for consideration in the next issue.
Quotes for the Month
“The happiest is the person who suffers the least pain; the most miserable who enjoys the least pleasure.” -Jean-Jacques Rousseau
“It’s a rare person who wants to hear what he doesn’t want to hear.” -Dick Cavett
“You are stuck with your debt if you can’t budge it.” -unknown