AnswerAmerica is a virtual receptionist company with 50 locations across the US. The company has been around since 1984 and is headed up by Gary Pudles. I’d say that definitely makes them a pioneer in this space, despite their outdated looking website (at press time).
With their virtual receptionists being based in the US, this service is definitely suited to business owners in the US. Although they do operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, so you can use their services anywhere in the world.
Virtual receptionists give smaller businesses the opportunity to have a receptionist on call at a much more affordable rate than employing someone full-time. This not only provides a better service to customers, it gives the impression the business is a lot larger than it may actually be.
About AnswerAmerica
As you can imagine, being in business since 1984 makes AnswerAmerica one of the longest running virtual receptionist companies in the market. This gives customers some added reassurance that not only do Answer America have a wealth of experience, they aren’t going to disappear anytime soon.
The company offers cost-effective telephone answering services, and their receptionists are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The receptionists answer calls on a cost per call basis. They can also carry out some other receptionist tasks such as booking appointments, making notes, and forwarding on calls and emails.
Services
The company covers a range of services all revolving around taking calls on your behalf. This includes setting appointments, processing orders and taking messages. You can provide scripts for the virtual receptionists to use when taking calls, they also support scripts in different languages.
The company states that they put their virtual receptionists through in-depth training and are constantly monitoring the response time to answering calls. Putting the needs and expectations of their customers first and providing a high standard of work. They offer several different specialist answering services, and tailor their service to different industries.
You can request the receptionist’s forward specific calls on to you, send you an email about a call, or an SMS if that’s more convenient.
The service is designed to be flexible and customer-friendly, so whatever your requirements are you should communicate them to the customer care team at Answer America to see how they can accommodate you.
A feature that stands out as being particularly helpful is their online transcripts. You can log into your account and read transcripts of calls the receptionists have taken. Allowing you to catch up in your own time and be aware of what’s been said.
Signing Up for AnswerAmerica
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Plans and Pricing
There is a flat rate of $1 per call. This rate falls to $0.75 a call on larger packages that are available on request.
There are no monthly, or other additional charges unless you add on some bespoke options. All you need to do is load up a minimum of $20 credit to your account, then keep an eye on your account and top up when necessary.
AnswerAmerica Alternatives
Ruby Receptionists is probably the most well-known company in the virtual receptionist space. Conversational and Gabbyville also offer similar services, although their pricing models are based on paying for minutes rather than calls. So it’s difficult to compare them on a price-by-price basis.
Your Turn
Have you had AnswerAmerica acting as your virtual receptionist? If so please leave a review below to help others with their decision.
HORRIBLE COMPANY!! You will lose business if you deal with them. They will charge you even if a caller refuses to leave a message. If a caller sneezes, you will be charged for the call. If they hang up, you won’t, but if they utter a word, you’ll get charged even if it is “Sorry, wrong number.” There is NO management there. They do NOT provide any service. We are suing them for negligence and we will ultimately get them shut down or absorb their company. Rude, cocky employees that do not follow the on-screen directions given to them by customers.
DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY! I signed up with them and made a deposit. The first phonecall that went to them to answer was on hold for 4 minutes before hanging up. I immediately realized that this would not work for my business and requested to have my account closed and balance refunded. They told me that per the “terms and conditions” when I signed up (there were none) that my deposit was nonrefundable. I told them that I wish I had seen all of the other negative reviews before signing up.
I don’t recommend answer america at all. They gave me a number and then a few month later after I printed business cards and advertised it across the web they took the number away. I have a 2nd account for a different business and when I wanted to cancel, was told I forfeited any monies I have deposited and wouldn’t be refunded.
I used AnswerAmerica for a number of years and recommended them to a lot of people. I was very happy with their service.
But they changed their model and it is now totally unacceptable. They used to answer the calls within 2 to 4 rings which is perfectly acceptable. However, we recently began receiving irate emails from customers whose told me that my company was impossible to get in touch with. They spoke of calling multiple times and never getting through.
I checked for myself and while the phone was immediately answered by a recorded voice, I was put on hold – a couple of times I gave up after 5 to 10 minutes. I finally got hold of somebody after two minutes and 40 seconds on hold. I asked why did it take so long and all they could say was “I apologize.”
When I contacted my accountant minute straighter at AnswerAmerica they told me that, yes they had changed and calls were “answered” immediately with the automated system and were followed up by an operator as soon as they could get to it. I told him about my experience with customers complaining and not being able to get through to me to make their orders, and they just suggested that I simply stop using this service. They also said that the money I had paid in advance for the service could not be refunded.
Unfortunately, this company has turned from a very useful, reasonable, simple service into a useless scam.
Until they change both their way of answering the phone and there no – refund policy, I advise you to stay away.