During hurricane Harvey, Answering Service One provided emergency response services to people affected by this unprecedented storm. And they did so without leaving home. Instead of traveling to a distant city, they used the telephone.
Hurricane Harvey hit the city of Houston, Texas, hard. Houston is home to several telephone answering services. One of them was affected by the hurricane. Though their office wasn’t damaged, some of their employees’ homes were, and other employees couldn’t make it into work. This left the Houston-based answering service severely understaffed and at a time when telephone communications were essential.
Within minutes after making a call for assistance to Answering Service One, their employees were mobilized, logged into the Houston-based system, and began taking calls. This went on for two weeks, with Answering Service One staff taking thousands of calls around-the-clock for this answering service in Houston. In doing so they assisted with critical communications during the height of the storm and in the precarious days afterward.
It’s important to point out that during this extraordinary effort by Answering Service One, they did so without any impact to their own clients. This is because their staff picked up extra shifts and even worked overtime to handle calls from Houston, as they worked around their regular schedule with Answering Service One.
The answering service employees were happy to work these extra hours and shifts, because it was a practical way for them to provide hurricane relief without the need to travel over 900 miles to get to Houston.
The motivation of Answering Service One to get involved was to help those in need and provide essential communication services during this disaster and in the perilous days that followed. They didn’t do this for the publicity or to gain notoriety, but this happened anyway. An industry support company, Call Center Sales Pro, featured the efforts of Answering Service One in their recent whitepaper about hurricane Harvey and the importance of having a disaster recovery plan.
For its part, however, Answering Service One was simply happy to be able to help. After all, helping people communicate is what they’re all about.
Peter Lyle DeHaan is a freelance writer from Southwest Michigan. Check out Answering Service One to see if they’re the right answering service solution for your business.