AnswerConnect Turns Ten!
0 comments | Posted by: Terri on April 20, 2012 | Categories:
AnswerConnect is celebrating a special birthday! It’s been a decade since we began answering phones for businesses large and small, and this Sunday we’re gathering at McMenamin’s Edgefield to celebrate our 10-year anniversary.
Joe Baker has been here since the beginning, starting straight out of college in October of 2000. Despite having little business or technology experience, he went to work assembling computers,installing software and answering customer service and sales calls. His versatility has continued to show in the wide variety of roles he’s taken on from Client Services Manager to Sr. Program Manager and Director of Accounts for our Creative team.
Natalie Fung started out as a salesperson in May of 2006. Since then, she’s generated leads as a Senior Sales Executive, led the Sales Team as the Sales Manager and is currently strengthening the partnership between the Sales and Client Services departments as the Business Services Manager.
I cornered Natalie and Joe and asked them to talk about their experience watching AnswerConnect grow from a handful of employees answering phones to an international company offering an entire suite of services from phone answering to scheduling appointments with our own software.
What was AnswerConnect like when you first started?
Joe: There were 5 full time employees when I joined the company, and AnswerConnect hadn’t yet been conceived. We worked in Michael Payne’s garage and often had to put customers on hold or crawl under our desks with our headsets on when the landscapers would use the leaf blower on the other side of the garage door. It wasn’t too long until the plan for AnswerConnect began to coalesce and we moved the office to our first location in Tualatin.
How is it different now?
Natalie: Now, the culture is definitely more modern. Our remote model allows for people to work from their home offices, and the ability to self-schedule allows for a lot of flexibility for our employees. One of the single biggest differences now compared to when I began is the creation and addition of Adaptavant. Having a development team as well as support for Client Services, Human Resources, IT as well as new products has propelled this company forward.
What’s your favorite thing about AnswerConnect?
Natalie: I love what this company stands for. The core values are easy for me to align myself with, and the values inspire me to push forward. The company is constantly evolving, and I am constantly challenged to learn, grow and innovate.
When looking back on all the years you’ve been with AnswerConnect, what are you most proud of?
Joe: I think I’m most proud that I’ve been around to witness unique contributions from so many people throughout the organization, and to have perspective on the amazing journey the company’s taken to get here. I know that we have laid a foundation for an even more amazing next 10 years. We should all be proud of that, but we must not believe we’ve “made it”. We must continue thinking outside the box, looking for ways to improve, and collaborating.
Thank you to all the employees and customers who’ve made the past ten years such an incredible journey. We have more to share! Watch this space for AnswerConnect’s origin story and pictures of the party!
Update: AnswerConnect Goes Mobile
Great news! AnswerConnect has gone mobile! Now you can download our new app free from Google Play.
The beauty of an answering service is freedom from the desk. You don’t have the time or the staff to man the phones 24/7. It’s safe to assume you’d rather not be stuck in front of a computer managing your answering service either.
That’s why we gave AnswerConnect the mobility to go where you go.
You can view your messages instantly from anywhere and respond quickly thanks to clickable phone numbers and email addresses. And we just added a new feature: status updates. Sudden schedule change? Impromptu meeting? Let us know instantly with a touch of the screen.
You can alert us to your schedule changes as they happen, let us know how you want us to handle them and even set time parameters. We conform to your day.
AnswerConnect Mobile takes all the things you love about our answering service—its flexibility, convenience, customization and excellent service—and puts it in your pocket. Head over to Google Play, download it, take it for a run and tell us what you think!
Fund a Global Entrepreneur
One really cool benefit to the contact center industry is the chance to work with smart, far-sighted companies in hundreds of different sectors. This week, we’re offering something special for new clients.
We’d like to introduce you to Kiva, a microloan non-profit that sets up small loans between lenders and entrepreneurial borrowers around the world.
Sign up for new AnswerConnect service between 8/7-8/13, and
- Take $50 off your first month, and
- Get a $50 Kiva Card to fund a small loan for a global entrepreneurs.
Since Kiva’s founding in 2005, they’ve lent over $230 million in loans with a 98.79% repayment rate. You can help a goat herder in Uganda, a farmer in Peru, a restaurateur in Cambodia, or a tailor in Nepal. How many too-big-to-fail financial institutions have that kind of return?
So how does this Kiva Card work?
- Sign up for new AnswerConnect service
- Get a $50 Kiva Card
- Connect with a borrower
- Make a loan
- Get repaid
- Repeat
Why is AnswerConnect doing this?
Our core values are bookended by two crucial points: First, the right people make all the difference. Last, only sustainable models last.
Microfinance encourages innovation where it’s needed, with the right people who know where to put their talents and their capital. And broader economic opportunity is, we think, a sustainable model of global economic health. We see microfinance as one way to transform developing economies into healthy participants in a healthier global economy.
We’re working with Kiva because they strongly believe in small businesses. Even really small businesses.
Wait. What’s microfinance, again?
It helps to envision banks as resources, like clean drinking water, safe highways, viable employment options or well-functioning municipal sewer systems.
Like other resources quietly propping up our society, banks are easy to take for granted. But what if your family was counted among the 80% of world population living on less than $10 USD per day? What if you lived in an economy with few (or no) banks? What if you couldn’t easily reach a bank to get a loan?
Microfinance institutions fill this niche by providing financial services and microloans to people who lack access to traditional banks. That opens doors to economic opportunity and self-sufficiency—to better lives.
We think microloans offer powerful, responsible, direct responses to inequality by focusing on entrepreneurism. Kiva is empowering.
Sign me up!
Cool! Thanks for coming onboard with us. And thanks for making the market a bit brighter.