The Highest Quality Telephone Answering Service in the United States

Centratel

Telephone Answering Service

veterinary answering service

Ensuring Rapid Response to Veterinary Emergencies with Centratel’s Answering Service

October 24, 2023
Veterinary
By Centratel

As a veterinary clinic, every day brings its unique set of challenges, emergencies, and the constant juggling between small and large animals, from feline and canine to exotic avian. From traumatic injuries to operational challenges, it’s a profession where rapid response and accuracy can make all the difference. And that’s where Centratel’s telephone answering service steps in to ensure that every call is handled with precision, dedication, and human warmth.

Understanding the Landscape: Veterinary Challenges and How Centratel Can Address Them

Traumatic Injuries and the Need for Accurate Call Handling

When it comes to traumatic injuries, whether it’s an accident involving an equine or a small domesticated canine, time is of the essence. These injuries require immediate attention, with every second counting. Here’s how Centratel’s 24/7 answering service can make a difference:

  • Authentic Human Engagement: With Centratel, you won’t have to worry about AI mishandling or misinterpreting urgent calls. Our team guarantees genuine human interaction, ensuring that every call related to traumatic injuries is prioritized.
  • Efficient Communication: With a fixed fee per call, our operators are trained to prioritize the accuracy and speed of processing. Whether it’s a question about orthopedics or neurology, they ensure urgent matters are addressed immediately.

Respiratory Emergencies and Prompt Notifications

From feline asthma to respiratory issues in avian species, respiratory emergencies require swift action. Missing out on such critical calls can have serious consequences. Centratel’s answering services for small businesses like veterinary clinics ensure:

  • Prompt Notifications: With predetermined screening criteria, non-urgent inquiries are filtered out, guaranteeing that customers are promptly informed about critical calls.
  • Multiple Delivery Options: Be it via email, SMS, or alpha-pager, receive messages at no extra cost, ensuring veterinarians are always in the loop.

Operational Challenges and Streamlined Communication

Operational efficiency is vital in ensuring that the myriad of services, from radiology to geriatric care, are provided seamlessly. Overlooking a call about an ovine or caprine’s dermatology concern can throw the day’s operations off balance.

  • Online Access to Message History: Centratel offers clients the ability to access past messages online, drastically reducing the time spent on phone calls or staff inquiries. Whether it’s a query about rehabilitation or behavior counseling, get answers efficiently.
  • Detailed Call Records: With every call recorded, any operational query can be resolved through a quick review of the call-TSR dialogue.

Endocrine Emergencies and Comprehensive Billing

Endocrine emergencies in animals, such as diabetes in felines or Cushing’s disease in canines, require a dedicated approach. Similarly, Centratel’s answering call service focuses on offering transparent and predictable costs:

  • Monthly Billing Cycle: Unlike others with a 28-day billing cycle, Centratel’s monthly billing ensures clarity, helping veterinary clinics manage their finances efficiently.

Technological Challenges and Authentic Interaction

In an era of rapidly advancing technology, the personal touch is becoming rare. Despite offering services ranging from ultrasound to endoscopy, a veterinarian’s primary focus remains the welfare of animals.

  • Commitment to Human Interaction: Centratel stands by its commitment to human engagement, ensuring that technology doesn’t overshadow the essence of care and concern.

Incorporating Centratel: A Seamless Experience for Veterinary Clinics

In a domain as specialized as veterinary medicine, where the spectrum ranges from gastroenterology to wildlife medicine, ensuring timely and efficient communication is paramount. Centratel’s professional answering service bridges the gap between emergencies and timely intervention. From managing calls related to cardiology issues in equine to dermatology concerns in porcine, the team ensures every call is treated with urgency and care.

Veterinary clinics looking to learn more about how Centratel can enhance their communication efficiency can dive deeper into our specialized services on our Veterinary Answering Service page. For a detailed understanding of our service charges, the Price Quote page offers comprehensive information.

Conclusions

Centratel’s telephone answering service is more than just a call management solution. It’s a commitment to ensuring that veterinary clinics can focus on what they do best – caring for animals, from exotic creatures to beloved pets. With Centratel’s commitment to precision, clarity, and genuine human engagement, clinics can navigate the intricate web of challenges with ease and efficiency.

Image by Freepik

A Telephone Answering Service Representative taking calls at Centratel

Centratel is an elite national telephone answering service located in Bend, Oregon. Centratel’s Veterinary Answering Service assists hundreds of veterinary businesses during and after-hours, throughout the United States and is, by a variety of statistics, the highest quality answering service available among the approximately 800 services nationwide.

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
October 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 (July through September, 2024) was 1 customer-reported error for every 6,077 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. For call processing, we charge by the “transaction unit” rather than the duration of time spent handling calls. Large “mega-services” operating in the U.S. prefer time billing because it ensures the company is compensated for lower-paid/high-turnover — and thus slower — agents. No matter the quality or how long they keep your callers on hold, they still make a profit. And yes, it can get expensive.

In any answering service, it takes a long time for a new agent to become fast, efficient, and stable. At Centratel, we pamper and reward experienced agents (via higher pay and great benefits) and therefore have extremely low staff turnover. Needless to say, experienced agents make fewer errors than trainees who learn on-the-job.

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 agent “time” while others charge by “work units.” Some 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 5th edition. We’ll send you a copy just for contacting us. (Sam is the founder and President of Centratel. December 1st 2024 marks his fortieth year of ownership.)