Answering Specialists to add staff

BONNERS FERRY — One of the larger Boundary County employers is one that many locals have no idea even exists, and now Answering Specialists is looking to hire people to work from home.

In a small office off El Paso street, approximately 55 employees of Answering Specialists are on the phone 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year. They don’t do telemarketing, or sales calls, though.

Answering Specialists is solely an answering service, providing a live person to help mainly small business owners with scheduling, order processing and other receptionist services they may not be able to afford to hire someone to do.

“We provide receptionist services for a large variety of companies, from doctor’s offices, plumbers and HVAC companies to lawyers and many other types of professionals,” said company owner Tim Harlan. “Most customers have no clue where we are, and most are in major metropolitan areas.”

Having an answering service is very important for businesses in big cities, Harlan says. Here, people may have only one or two choices forservices like a plumber, but in a big city with 20 or 30 choices, whoever answers the phone first gets the business, Harlan says.

“Our average customer spends less than $100 a month,” Harlan said. “One job can pay for the whole month’s service.”

Through the magic of the internet, Answering Specialists is able to give businesses in 350 major metropolitan areas across the U.S. and Canada a local number for their customers to call and responds to each call according to the business’s wishes.

Originally from the Seattle area, Harlan was attracted to North Idaho when a college professor of his moved to the area. Harlan and his family found property north of Bonners Ferry and moved the business to Idaho in 2006.

“We can run it from anywhere,” Harlan says. “It’s nice to be able to live in a place like Bonners Ferry and turn out work all over the country.”

Harlan likes being able to bring in outside money to the area, and found a number of other benefits to employing Idahoans. His turnover rate was greatly reduced from the Seattle area.

“People here are very dedicated and loyal,” he says. “They’re happy to have a good job.”

Harlan was pleasantly surprised to find his tax rates were around a third of what they were in Washington, too.

Harlan and his team at Answering Specialists designed and wrote their own program to help operators answer calls from upwards of 1,700 companies.

Their screen shows who the call is coming for, and exactly how the customer wants it treated. As communication technology has grown, the company and its systems have grown along with the technology. They have the ability to send customers a text or e-mail, process the call through their own system or use one of a customer’s choosing to dispatch, take orders or schedule appointments.

The major hurdle Harlan has had to overcome in Bonners Ferry is the connectivity issue. He has to stay connected to the internet at all times, and first started with five DSL connections before moving to a T1 connection. The company is now working on moving all the infrastructure over to a fiber optic line. Harlan uses redundant internet connections from multiple sources in case one provider goes down. He also has on-site generators to provide power in case of an outage.

“Even my backups have backups,” he says.

Recent expansion into cloud-based networks have allowed Harlan to explore hiring people to work from home — all they need is a decent computer and a reliable internet connection. Taking his proprietary answering service program to the cloud can also allow Harlan to provide coverage for other small answering services nationwide, especially on nights and weekends and to be able to pick up overflow from other call centers.

The unique 24-hour nature of the business means that Harlan can work with anyone’s schedule to find a time when they want to work. Since many of his employees are mothers, especially single mothers, Harlan has decided to look at expanding into the building adjacent to his call center, the former Sandpoint Pediatrics building to provide day-care services to his employees.

The day-care would be able to run at extended hours the same as his call center, providing valuable child care services for his employees on evenings and weekends.

“I like to find solutions to the problems that present themselves,” Harlan says. “I don’t let them be obstacles, I make them opportunities.”

The daycare building would be the third occupied by the business in Bonners Ferry. Harlan says he just can’t find the square footage in town to house all his operations under one roof, and may eventually have to build a 10 to 20,000 square-foot building in the Three Mile area to meet the space demands of his growing business.

“We process around 200,000 calls a month,” Harlan says. “The business is kind-of recession-proof.” When the economy dropped, customers hired Answering Specialists to replace receptionist employees they could no longer afford. As the economy grows, the service is needed more, Harlan said. Local layoffs in 2007 meant Harlan was able to pick up a number of very talented local employees.

“Your business is never any better than the people you have working for you,” he says.

Harlan has started using a payment structure that rewards his employees for the call volume they are able to process — the money they earn is a direct reflection of the amount of time they spend on the phone, he said.

He also believes in operator development and coaching, and has employees in charge of monitoring calls for quality control. Harlan is very protective of his employees, and is not afraid to fire clients that are rude or abusive to his employees that work with them.

“You have to define who you are,” he says. “Some clients just aren’t worth having.”

Answering Specialists is currently hiring, and applications have been slow to come in, Harlan says.

“Any shift, full-time or part-time - if you want to work, we have a spot for you,” he says. To get in contact with Answering Specialists, call (866) 503-7025 or log on to answeringspecialists.com