THE CUTTING EDGE
Broward County. Our market potential went from hundreds of businesses to thousands, overnight. In one fell swoop, we achieved the first milestone I set for the company when it was originally named, Broward Business Services. Now we could service all of Broward County! Soon, we added blocks of numbers for Dade and Palm Beach giving us another huge leap in marketability. The bottom line, we started to grow. Innovation continued at a quicker pace after that. We found each new feature essen- tial. For example; Call Forward - No Answer, solved the problem of someone forgetting to forward their phone. Multipath Call Forward- ing allowed us to take more than one call at a time from a single phone number enabling inbound telemarketing. These features also created ‘stickiness’ with our clients. They required orders with the phone company to make changes. Clients were more apt to deal with service issues instead of switching to a competitor. We became an essential part of hundreds of businesses. Also, with an inventory of hundreds of phone numbers, we could issue them directly so clients could advertise in the newspaper or on television with our numbers. A new industry evolved, Telemarketing. Calls would roll in like waves from television
We were among the first telephone answering services to install new computer technology. Our first foray into the world of computers was with an early system called, Telescan. This small unit, painted blue, sat on a desk with just a couple of buttons and a small three-dig- it numerical screen. Six operators were placed around a table with a carousel hold- ing our client’s instructions and the messag- es we collected. A call with a flashing number prompted the agent to pull the instruction card from the carousel and press a button to answer. Seasoned operators would learn these instructions by memory. Once the message was taken another agent would dispatch it as needed. The system worked by using, Call Forwarding. Clients would forward their calls to one of a block of phone numbers we provided. It was a huge advancement, but a worri- some task. It forced us to rely upon the client’s secretary not forgetting to forward the calls. It became especially troublesome at 5 pm when everyone wanted to go home at the same time. Call Forwarding changed our business overnight. It opened the market to whoev- er could dial one of our phone numbers toll-free. In other words, just about all of
Telescan computerized switchboards. Ding-a-Ling Answering Service, West Palm Beach 1986
Agents surropund Telescan switchboards. 1986 Ding-a-Ling Answering Service, West Palm Beach
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