The Highest Quality Telephone Answering Service in the United States

Centratel

Telephone Answering Service

Trade Service Answering Service for Contractors

Maximizing Your Trade Service Potential with Centratel’s Professional Answering Service

October 26, 2023
Trade Service
By Centratel

In the vibrant realm of the trade service industry, businesses grapple daily with unforeseen emergencies and persistent challenges. From equipment breakdowns to the skilled labor shortage, each day unfolds with its unique set of trials. Centratel’s Professional Answering Service stands as a beacon of steadfast support, effectively addressing these issues and unlocking unparalleled growth potential for your business.

Navigating Through Equipment Breakdown Emergencies

The Unpredictable Nature of Equipment Breakdown

Every seasoned trade service professional understands the crippling effect of equipment breakdowns. These emergencies not only disrupt the seamless flow of operations but also inflict significant downtime, inevitably affecting the bottom line.

Centratel’s Responsive Support

Centratel’s telephone answering service provides an immediate responsive support system during these critical breakdown events. Our live answering service is available 24/7, ensuring that no emergency call goes unanswered. With meticulous attention to detail, each call is processed accurately and swiftly, ensuring that you receive precise information to take immediate corrective action.

Minimizing Downtime

Downtime is the invisible assailant on your business’s profitability and efficiency. With Centratel as your ally, this is significantly minimized. Our experienced operators facilitate rapid communication between you and your technicians, ensuring a swift response to mitigate the extent of equipment downtime, safeguarding your business’s operational continuity and customer satisfaction.

Addressing the Skilled Labor Shortage

The Daunting Skilled Labor Gap

The skilled labor shortage is a persistent challenge casting a shadow over the thriving landscape of the trade service industry. This dearth not only limits your business’s capability to take on new projects but also puts immense pressure on your existing workforce, inadvertently affecting service quality and customer satisfaction.

Maximizing Productivity with Centratel

Amidst this challenge, Centratel’s answering services become a pivotal asset, acting as an extension of your workforce. Our team is meticulously trained to understand the nuances of the trade service industry, handling every call with the utmost precision and professionalism. This seamless support allows your skilled technicians to focus solely on their core competencies without the distraction of administrative tasks, thereby maximizing productivity.

Customer Retention Through Enhanced Service

In an industry where customer expectations are soaring, retaining clients through superior service delivery is non-negotiable. Centratel’s answering service ensures that every customer call is addressed promptly, with their concerns and requests communicated clearly to your team. This immediate and professional response enhances your business’s reputation, fostering customer loyalty and retention amidst a competitive market.

Efficient Cash Flow Management

Navigating Financial Uncertainty

In the volatile currents of economic fluctuations, maintaining a steady cash flow becomes a daunting endeavor for many in the trade service industry. Timely payment collections, unforeseen repairs, and unpredictable costs all contribute to this financial instability, necessitating a robust support system to navigate through these murky waters.

Transparent Billing with Centratel

Centratel’s answering service integrates seamlessly into your business operations, providing a clear and predictable billing system. Our transparent billing process is designed with your business’s financial stability in mind, aiding in effective cash flow management and planning. With a fixed fee for each call, there are no hidden costs, providing your business with a reliable foundation for financial planning and forecasting.

Prompt Communication for Timely Collections

Late payments can significantly impede your business’s cash flow. Our answering services ensure that communication lines between you and your clients remain open and efficient, facilitating timely payment collections. Through swift and accurate processing of calls, Centratel supports your business in maintaining a healthy cash flow, empowering you to invest in growth and navigate through financial challenges with confidence.

Conclusion

In the labyrinth of challenges and emergencies intrinsic to the trade service industry, Centratel stands as a beacon of reliability and support. From navigating through equipment breakdown emergencies to addressing the skilled labor shortage and ensuring efficient cash flow management, Centratel’s Professional Answering Service is your partner in unlocking the limitless growth potential of your business. Experience excellence and reliability with Centratel. For a deeper understanding and a customized solution for your unique needs, feel free to request a price quote today.

Image by senivpetro on Freepik

A Telephone Answering Service Representative taking calls at Centratel

Centratel is an elite national telephone answering service headquartered in Bend, Oregon. Centratel’s Trade Service Answering Service assists hundreds of businesses, during and after-hours. By a variety of statistics, Centratel is the highest quality answering service available anywhere.

Taking the Next Step

For more specifics on cost, to start the onboarding process, or to just talk to us, fill out this form with your basic information and if it’s during regular working hours (M-F 8am to 8pm EST or 5am to 5pm PST), we’ll get back to you within minutes. Or, during the above hours, you can simply call us at 800-664-7159 or send us an email to inquiry@centratel.com.

(And note: for a quick orientation on how we operate, take a moment to review one or more of the key points listed below.)

For more specifics on cost, to start the onboarding process, or to just talk to us, fill out this form with your basic information and if it’s during regular working hours (M-F 8am to 8pm EST or 5am to 5pm PST), we’ll get back to you within minutes. Or, during the above hours, you can simply call us at 800-664-7159 or send us an email to inquiry@centratel.com.

(And note: for a quick orientation on how we operate, take a moment to review one or more of the key points listed on the right.)

Terms of Service

Why Choose Centratel

BY SAM CARPENTER
September 1, 2024

1.CENTRATEL’S UNIQUE 30-DAY FREE TRIAL

Why is this important? Because it will provide you a truly accurate estimate of cost (we bill monthly), it will demonstrate our quality, and it gives both sides of this equation—you and Centratel—the necessary time to refine and perfect operational details.

Here’s a testimonial from a new medical client that had just finished their 30-day trial: “Of course, I love the cost as it is close to the amount I was allowed by the president of the company. I told him that if we did not continue with Centratel, I would resign as the Director of Customer Service, and I meant it. It’s a great fit. We have had NOT ONE complaint from a patient or in-house which, as you know, we received daily with our former answering service. I love you, Centratel, and the price. I’m ready to sign whatever documents you require. Thanks for the great service, and the free month! To a great partnership! -KB, Phoenix“

2.STATISTICALLY, THE BEST IN THE U.S.?

Answering service quality is 100% dependent on human action and reaction, and in the course of a single day a multitude of human decisions are made by the people who process the calls: Telephone Service Representatives, or TSRs. (Some answering services refer to them as “agents.” Others, “operators.”)

Like any other answering service, at Centratel we’re dealing with real live human beings and so human errors occur. But within this labor intensive service industry that is historically known for marginal quality, Centratel’s error rate is light years ahead of established standards. Our most recent Customer Reported Error Rate (April through June, 2024) was 1 customer-reported error for every 6,491 message transactions processed. That statistic is unmatched.

There’s no artificial intelligence manipulation, we do not offshore calls, and we were founded and have always operated within the United States. (Note that since early 2020, the COVID six-foot social distancing mandate drove thousands of small-to-medium sized answering services out of business. Large, foreign-owned multi-nationals, often disguised by the name of the local answering services they acquired, now thoroughly dominate the industry. Hence, an even further decline in general service quality. See this analysis.)

3.CUSTOMER SERVICE EXTRAORDINAIRE

Your concerns and requests will be instantly acted upon. It’s a work ethic that stands out in stark contrast from the general quality decline in human-to-human business-customer communications. You’ve seen it yourself, all around. At Centratel you will know the customer service people you’re working with by name, appreciating their special listening abilities as well as their take-action-now comportments i.e. see the testimonial in point #1 above. ‘Nuff said!

4.GETTING STARTED: IT’S SIMPLE AND FAST

Getting your new Centratel answering service 30-day free trial started is accomplished within 24-48 hours. From the start, your “onboarding” customer service representative will be with you every step of the way, listening carefully to your concerns, answering questions, and offering suggestions.

5.NEW TO USING AN ANSWERING SERVICE?

A majority of our current answering service accounts switched to us from another service because of quality problems. However, if you have not used a service before, you are not familiar with the options, benefits, and pitfalls. As noted, our 30-day free trial provides you—and us—plenty of time to precisely refine your desired message-taking and delivery protocols; to get things exactly the way you want them to be without any financial risk, undue pressure, or obligation. 

6.PRICING

Starting at $89 per month, our rates rank in the mid-range of the industry. We’ll bill you based on the number of calls we handle per month, not on total minutes/seconds expended. (Be careful here as you shop for an answering service: the time-billing formula naturally induces caller/agent conversations to drag out, thus increasing client cost.)

7.ACCURATELY COMPARING ANSWERING SERVICE PRICING IS COMPLICATED

It’s apples and oranges. There isn’t an industry standard for billing, and each answering service has its own formula. Also, as noted above, some services charge by “time” while others charge by “work units.” Others combine the two. At Centratel, we charge for the work we do, not by the time we spend. The raw truth is that the only reliable way to determine monthly cost for a new service is to use that service for a solid month. Most answering services offer a 7-day free trial or no trial at all.

8.BEWARE: MONTHLY OR 28-DAY BILLING?

Important! At Centratel, we use a “monthly” billing cycle in which invoices are compiled from the first day of a month to the last day of that month. When soliciting quotes from other services, be sure to ask if the base-rate charges are billed monthly or on a “28-day billing cycle.” There is no good reason for a 28-day billing cycle! It’s bait-and-switch: customers billed on a 28-day cycle actually receive thirteen billings per year and therefore the overall cost is higher.

9.NO CONTRACT AND SIMPLE TERMS OF SERVICE

We do not require a yearly contract for service because we believe you should have the opportunity to evaluate us real-time, without restraint. Our terms of service are simple and straight-forward.

10.VALUABLE FREE GIFT FOR CONTACTING US

If you take the time to discuss answering service with us, on the same day we will ship you a hardcover copy of Sam Carpenter’s bestselling book, Work The System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less, now in its 4th edition…but soon to be released in a 5th edition (August 2024). We’ll send you a copy of this 5th edition, too, when it’s released. (Sam is the founder and President of Centratel. December 1st 2024 marks his fortieth year of ownership.)