FAQ

Helpful FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions and Answers

We hope you find these questions and answers helpful. Don't see your question here? Contact Answermed Telecom Inc today for more information about our services and how we can help you.

General

Q: Sorry to bother you by text earlier. My office manager forwarded an email shortly afterward. We may wait until Monday to change our auto-attendant. I did have a couple questions: 1. When a parent calls, what information do you plan to obtain and forward to our cell by text message? Something like: a. Child name, DOB, nature of concern b. Parent name, phone number 2. When a doctor, nurse, or pharmacist calls, will you patch them directly to our cell? 3. If you do not get an “ok” acknowledgement from the on call doctor within say 20 minutes after sending a text, can you call our office manager’s cell?
A: Good evening Doctor, You don't ever have to apologize for contacting us anytime! Communication is key. You can reach our staff any hour of the day or night at 888-207-5679 or 888-661-9358, by fax 860-896-9089, e-mail ---- whichever is most convenient and efficient for you. And of course Chris is always available on his cell if you need him for anything. We can set up your account absolutely any way you would like. Our standard format for on call messages is typically: Parent / caller's name, facility name (if applicable), telephone number, child's name, DOB, nature of concern, pharmacy name / number (if applicable). We have added to your account to patch doctors, nurses, and pharmacists directly to the on call. And we will most definitely reach Mark on his cell phone if we do not get a confirmation within 20 minutes. Generally, when calling with account changes, it is best to ask for Mary or Chris in the mornings and me, Meg, in the afternoon / night, though you can speak with anybody on our staff if Chris or Meg are not in. We are all here to help. Feel free to contact us anytime and we will get everything finalized. We look forward to getting started.

Q: Can we try you for a month without a contract? Don
A: Yes of course. Our standard agreement is month to month with no setup fees unless a Flat Rate Structure has been agreed to. Try us for 30 days and if you decide we're not for you I'll pay the bill.

Q: Hi, we are a tow company with contracts for Florida and need a reliable company to dispatch our calls. Each contract call needs to be called to the driver with 15 minutes. Can you do it? Jim
A: Hi Jim, I'm sorry but we only answer for medical clients. Please call me for a company I know quite well that can help you.

Q: Hi Chris, It's a Monday morning and as usual my calendar was not followed and calls were paged to the wrong Doctor all day Saturday. We are still picking up the pieces with angry parents and hospitals. How do we know this will not happen at Answermed Telecom Inc?
A: I'm assuming the calendar was your on-call schedule and I'm sorry for you. What a mess to walk into on a Monday morning. First, the service should have known with the first dispatch that the schedule was wrong. I must assume you have calls confirmed and if not you should. Second, all callers should have been notified by the operator to cb20 "call back in 20 minutes" if not hearing from the on-call. We do this with all dispatched calls without exception. This places the responsibility on the parent to call back if the call was missed by the on-call or there was an error with the pager or text messaging. All the procedures we follow ensure errors like this do not snowball out of control and are easily found and corrected. Please call me and we can come up with a simple plan, flat rate and great service. 888-661-9358

Q: Do you offer a set rate for unlimited use?
A: We do offer a Flat Rate based on current use. Before entering into any flat rate we must look at several months of use. Once I see that we can come up with a flat rate billed monthly. Please email or call me and I would be happy to go over the details. Chris

Q: Can you answer in Florida? We are in Tampa.
A: Hi and thank you for visiting Answermed Telecom Inc. Yes, we answer for Medical practices and Pediatricians throughout the USA. Our office is located in rural Tolland Connecticut. Toll-free numbers are so affordable that we assign one to all clients. No toll calls are ever charged even if a client is overseas on vacation. It's just a part of business and I refuse to nickel and dime my clients.

Q: Hi Chris, We are cardiac pediatricians and are have a lot of hold time. I just cannot have our calls sitting on hold for 5 to 10 minutes. What is your hold time and how about texting to iPhones? We all have them in our office. Doris A.
A: Hi Doris, Thank you for the question. First, five to ten minutes is a disaster waiting to happen and compromising the quality of care for your patients. You need to get out fast before something happens. We have the ability to make certain accounts a priority and we do this for urgent lines like yours. All we do is answer it as the next call "within seconds", and if it's busy, ask if the call is urgent, if not that call is then taken in the same manner as all other accounts. If it's urgent, that's what we're here for, that call is a priority for that operator until it's completed. Hold time is just not an issue at Answermed Telecom Inc and if we have a little it's just a simple burst of calls. When you make your change be sure to only go with an experience medical and pediatric answering service. Read our new blog and get some tips. We dispatch to iPhones and androids of all types. They're great and most of our clients reply with a simple "ok" and then we know they got the message and only then do we deliver that message. Please feel free to call me at 1-888-661-9358 Chris.

Q: Do you offer Nurse Triage Services?
A: Answermed Telecom Inc offers a unique partnership with Night Nurse, Inc. Pediatric after-hours Triage. We also work with most nurse triage service or anyone you choose to use.

Q: Where will my phone be answered?
A: All your calls will be answered in Tolland Connecticut. We have never outsourced our services.

Q: Will we incur any long distance or toll charges when we forward to you?
A: No! We have low cost toll free lines for our clients to forward your phone to. We have never charged any client for a toll call.

Q: How long does it take to start service?
A: We can get you started within only a few minutes but we like to start within 24 to 48 hours of receiving all your information. In order for Meg, our account manager, to start an account we need your forms account set up instructions. All can be found online. Once we get those Meg will send over the programmed information for your review. While many answering service will set you up in just minutes we think it's important to spend the extra time talking about your needs and programming your account right the first time. Meg will set everything up and test prior to you going live to ensure you don't have any problems.

Q: How do you handle call schedules and how and when are they changed? We have two on calls each night for hospital and patients calls will this be an issue?
A: Hi, all schedules are either faxed or emailed and filed for each client. Each account states in our status box when a change is needed and a reminder is set for that time. We have several clients who use two on calls without issue. Trouble does come up when on call changes are not called into us.

Q: How do I activate my answering service?
A: First fill out all setup forms and Chris or Meg will contact you for the final copy and programming. Commonly, our clients use call forwarding. Several types of forwarding plans are available (e.g. call forward busy, call forward no answer, etc.). We will consult with you on the option to best suit your needs. We provide, at no cost, a toll free number for all out of state accounts. You will never incur a toll call!

Q: How is Answermed Telecom Inc different?
A: First, the bottom line is that your calls will be handled by a human being and the quality of service will be 100% dependent on that person’s training, attitude and experience. At Answermed Telecom Inc, our wages / benefits are substantially higher than 98% of competing medical answering services nationwide, thus insuring low turnover and top quality performance from long-term, employees. Working conditions are superb: Answermed Telecom Inc provides a peaceful, pleasant operations department in vivid contrast to many answering services that provide an isolated, windowless and cramped ”boiler room” atmosphere. At Answermed Telecom Inc, our answering service operations department is literally in the center of our office space and is not relegated to a back room, hidden from visitors. Second, Answermed Telecom Inc operates with a focused concentration on the Pediatric and Medical Community. The classic telephone answering service and call center caters to the entire range of business and telemarketing and the end result is a lower quality of service for all clients as TSRs attempt to meet the needs of a seemingly endless array of business and professional client demands. At Answermed Telecom Inc, the goal is to meet the exact needs of a limited range of clients, with a superb level of answering service quality and excellent staff we attain this goal.

Q: What is your hold time?
A: We strive to answer all calls within the first or second ring, but at times call volume requires some calls to be placed in waiting. Our monthly average hold time is less than 13 seconds when a call goes into waiting. The industry average is well over a minute. We guarantee your experience at Answermed Telecom Inc or you money back - no questions asked!

Q: Will my calls be answered live or by a recording?
A: This is up to your practice needs. Most of our clients utilize voice mail screening as a tool to keep live operator minutes to a minimum thus reducing your answering cost. Voice Mail Screening is customized for each client's needs and is included in our base rate.

Q: Are you available 24 hours a day?
A: Answermed Telecom Inc operates 24/7/365. Our staff is available to answer your phones no matter the time or situation.

Q: How can you save me money without compromising the quality to my patients?
A: Our Staff! Almost all call centers have a tremendous amount of employee turnover which in turn creates an around the clock training program and staff who must take time to look through clients screens to find answers and procedures for each client. All this attention takes time which all services must bill you for. In 2011 we hired only 3 employees. What this means for our clients is less time looking through our accounts to answer questions or dispatching procedures. Our staff knows our clients' needs, procedures and likes and dislikes. This saves us time taking messages, less mistakes for you, and ultimately, saves our clients both time and money. We guarantee it with our Flat-Rates Plans!
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