I used to be involved with answering-service trade groups. I’ve served as president of two national associations and was a board member for a couple of others. I became knowledgeable about the politics of my industry and enjoyed communicating with my peers.
Sixteen years ago, just after my systems mindset insight, I gave a presentation to sixty answering-service owners in Las Vegas. The topic was “Procedures and Their Importance.” At the beginning of the one-hour session, I asked the group, “How many of you have written procedures for your operation?” No one raised a hand! I’m still shocked to think of that moment, of the sudden realization that the vast majority of small businesses operate without any written guidelines.
Too many business owners are looking for answers to their chaos problems in the wrong places because they have not gone through the dissection process that thorough documentation demands. They don’t see the internal inefficiencies of their systems, so they seek spur-of-the moment global solutions: some quick fix—a magic pill—that in one fell swoop will make everything better.
Often, the magic pill they seek is a God-like new manager, a mind reader and fortune-teller; an extraordinary human being who will flawlessly oversee the business and, with little guidance, take it to its deserved success. Of course, no such people exist.
Here’s what most small business owners don’t get: terrific employees are out there, but in a non-documented business none can function anywhere near their potential because mind reading and fortune telling are not things humans can do, no matter how advanced their IQ or educational pedigree. (See Appendix G for a trade publication essay I wrote about leadership and employees.)
At the risk of impudence, I ask, is it any wonder that Centratel can advertise itself as the highest-quality telephone answering service in the United States? Our people know exactly what to do and exactly how to do it. Errors seldom occur because we relentlessly tweak internal mechanisms to perfection. And when there is an error, that error spurs us to devise an even better mechanical process for the future.
Again: We don’t spend our time coping with random bad results that are the products of neglected systems. We’re down in the basement, working our systems so random bad results won’t happen upstairs! It’s elementary: if each component of an organization is nearly flawless, the organization as a whole will be nearly flawless, as evidenced by profitability, net worth, customer satisfaction, client longevity, staff longevity, reputation, etc.
Centratel’s nine managers are tenacious in applying the work the system strategy. They assertively search for inefficiencies, revel in devising enhancements, and enthusiastically create or adjust Working Procedures to make those more efficient systems permanently efficient. Their individual rewards include reasonable-length workweeks, personal freedom with lots of room for creativity, and intense pride in what they do and where they work. Also, they are highly paid.
Systems, systems, systems!
Note: Centratel CEO and international business consultant Sam Carpenter has written extensively on the concepts of system improvement and the systems mindset. 24/7, Centratel assists more than a thousand small to medium sized businesses in the U.S. and Canada such as medical clinics, veterinary clinics, HVAC operations, property management companies, cable companies, home health and hospice services, funeral homes, high tech firms, etc. throughout the United States and is, by a variety of statistics, the highest quality answering service available among the approximately 1,500 services nationwide.
Image credit: Ashleigh Brilliant
Price quote request
To Apply for Service, fill out the form below. If we receive your request on a non-holiday weekday between the hours of 7am and 4pm PST (10:00am and 7:00pm EST), a member of our sales team will do their best to call you back on the same day. As an alternative to filling out the form, you can call our sales line direct at 1-800-664-7159, or email us at sales@centratel.com.
By clicking on the sections below you will find information regarding prerequisites for service, Centatel’s service guarantee, details of the 30 day free trial, pricing and comparison shopping considerations, determination of cost, an outline of the “human factor” element, the Terms of Service Agreement…and a gift for you.
We are sorry but we do not take applications for new or “start-up” companies. Note also that Centratel does not accept all applications for service. We serve businesses or professional offices that have been in operation over two years, and owners/managers who are clearly searching for quality rather than simply price-shopping. Also, in order to keep our service quality high, we only accept new accounts that fit into one of our ten specialty categories. Note that our average client tenure is approximately seven years.
We do not ask for a term contract for service because we believe our clients should have the opportunity to evaluate their arrangement real-time, without constraint. Our Terms of Service are simple and straight-forward. Accounts are billed on a month-to-month basis. Your first month is free, with no obligation.
Important! At Centratel, we use a “monthly” billing cycle in which invoices are compiled from the first day of the month to the last day of the month. When soliciting quotes from other telephone answering services, be sure to ask if the base rate charges are monthly, or if they are billed on a “28 day billing cycle.” 28 day billing cycles have become popular with many answering services as some customers, without careful consideration, assume 28 days is equal to a month. Customers billed on a 28 day cycle actually receive 13 billings per year and therefore overall costs for service are higher.
Starting as low as $58 per month, our pricing is affordable and competitive.
Our most popular plan includes 120 calls per month for just $200.
Yes, that’s based on the total number of calls per month, not on minutes or seconds like some other answering services that can drag out calls to increase cost.
Apples and oranges: Comparing pricing from one answering service to another is difficult. There isn’t an industry standard for billing, and each service has its own formula. Also, some services charge by “time,” others by “work units,” while others might combine the two. At Centratel, we charge for the work we do, not by the time we spend. This is important: At no risk to you, the 30 day free trial will not only give you an idea of the quality of our service, but will provide you an accurate estimate of ongoing monthly costs.
In order to provide you with an initial cost estimate for service, it’s helpful for you to provide us the average number of calls you expect Centratel to process in a monthly period, as well as a description of how your current service delivers messages to your office and/or your on-call staff. Please consider that even with this information it will still be impossible to provide you an exact figure. We won’t have a truly accurate estimate of your account’s monthly costs until we have handled your call traffic for at least one month (remember, this first trial month is free, with no obligation).
Remember, the first month of service is at no charge. Whether you decide to stay with Centratel or not, you will NOT pay for this first month of service. During their free trial, many of our new accounts choose to continue to keep their current answering service account active, simply forwarding their phones to us for the duration of the trial. In the unlikely event that Centratel service is not satisfactory, returning to the original answering service is easy, just a matter of forwarding the phone lines back to the original service again. If the new account chooses to switch permanently to Centratel, after one month of paid service, we will credit the monthly base charge billed from the former answering service during the trial.
Answering service quality is 100% dependent on human decision making, and in the course of a day a multitude of human decisions are made by the people who handle the calls, our Telephone Service Representatives (TSRs). Sometimes these are “gray area” judgments. Errors can be made. Also, telecom equipment can fail. But note that Centratel’s error rate is light years ahead of industry standards. Our most recent Customer Reported Error Rate (October through December, 2018) was 1 customer-reported error for every 11,034 message transactions processed.
Here’s a recent testimonial from a new medical client that just finished their 30-day trial:
Hi Angie,
Of course, I love the “per month” amount as it is pretty close to the amount I was allowed by the president of the company. I did tell him that if we did not continue with Centratel, I would resign as the Director of Customer Service and I meant it. I never make those types of statements unless I am ready to be accountable for both options. It’s a great fit, we have had NOT ONE complaint from a client which, as you know, we received daily (with our former answering service). I love how the reports are being generated by first name. Everyone here is just so happy and I don’t know how you do it, but that daily report is in at exactly 9 am; not 9:01 and not 8:59. I keep each one in my Simple Nursing Centratel folder, and it’s a great review for me to make sure all the calls are going to the correct person, and they always are. That part is certainly difficult because the calls can be vague and could easily be sent to the wrong person.
I love you, Centratel and the price. I’m ready to sign whatever documents you require.
Thanks for the great service, the free month, your reliable calls and your willingness to find easier ways to make me happy.
To a great partnership,
-KB, Phoenix
If you talk to us about answering service, we will send you a free hardcover copy of Sam Carpenter’s book Work The System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less. There’s more information regarding the book at workthesystem.com. First published in May 2008 and now in its 3rd edition and revised for 2019/2020, the book is also available on Amazon and in your favorite bookstore.