Howdy,

I'm a mental health professional. I don't have the revenue or the
office space to support a secretary. I'm usually unable to answer the
telephone, because I need uninterrupted time with patients, but every
caller must get excellent service, from a human being when necessary,
24 hours per day, seven days per week. A crummy answering machine or
numeric pager just won't do! I've looked at telephone autoattendant
systems with PBX, but they are expensive and difficult to maintain. I
have a local alpha-page answering service now, but their quality of
service is uneven and it's very difficult to modify my outgoing
message. Their service is pretty much one-size-fits-all.

What I hope to find is an alpha-page answering service (probably
national, with an 800 number) that allows me to alter my outgoing
messages at will by logging onto a user-friendly web site. The
operator would read from the screen I have currently provided via the
web site.

Ideally, the service would also provide various call handling options
(e.g., hold my calls for later retrieval, send my messages to my alpha
pager, fax my messages to a number I provide, email my messages to an
email address I provide, and so on. Also, patch certain callers
through to my cell phone or back line.)

Ideally, the service would also offer at least one level of
autoattendant (i.e., press 1 if you're a new patient seeking
treatment, press 2 if you need directions to the office, press 3 to
reach a human being right away, etc.) This would keep my costs down by
diverting many calls to a pre-recorded message instead of a more
expensive human operator. (I'd be able to alter my menu and
pre-recorded messages conveniently, as well.)

Ideally, the service might offer the option of automatic switching
from one menu and outoing message to another, depending on time of day
and day of week.

Like I said, all of this would be easily configurable by me, by
logging onto my private page on the company's web site.

I'm not asking an answering service to develop a web site just for me,
to meet my specifications. That would cost thousands, maybe millions.
I'm looking for an answering service that was designed from the ground
up to operate in the manner I've described. I'm not certain that such
an organization exists at all, but it seems likely that at least one
does, maybe several.

I am a cost-sensitive shopper. I'm willing to pay generously for an
answer to my question, but I can't afford to pay a lot of money in
long distance fees or a large sum per message. That would really add
up over the months! I'm definitely looking for companies that are
willing and able to provide the above-described services for a
reasonable fee.

I don't need research on every detail. On the other hand, I can get a
list of hundreds of possible URLs for free on Google. What I am asking
for is a pre-screened list of strong-candidate URLs. I'd like the
candidate URLs to be close matches of my requirements. They don't need
to be exact matches. I'll make the final inquiries myself.

Thanks, Timothy Miller, Ph.D.

Dr. Miller,

Thanks for your question.  It is obvious that as a professional, the
image provided to your patients must not only be professional, but it
must also be effective and reliable.  You are looking for a lot of
features in an answering service that not many companies offer, as you
pointed out in your question.  In researching your question, I came
across several services that offer some of your requirements, but not
all of them.  The listings below are the few that I think will provide
the majority of the services you are looking for.  I have taken the
information about the respective services directly from their website
so that you can "pre-screen" and determine which will best fit your
needs.  The one feature you mentioned, management through a web
interface, doesn't appear to be available.  All of the services below,
however, are highly customizable and the comapnies will work with you
to determine the best fit for your needs.

Professional Communications Messaging Service
http://www.pcmsi.com/
888-776-2661 
tas@pcmsi.com

From their website:

"FEATURES:
24 - HOUR SERVICE : Our service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week. Call forward your calls to us all the time, after hours, on an
as needed basis, when your phone lines are busy, or ring more than a
pre-determined amount of times. This insures you always stay in touch
with your customers.
PERSONALIZED ACCOUNTS: All of your calls are answered in your company
name. Once the operator answers your call, all of the information you
have supplied to us is shown on the computer screen, telling the
operator how you want each call handled, and what actions they are to
take.
FLEXIBILITY: Our customer service representatives can make changes and
update your account as your requirements dictate.

OPTIONAL TELEPHONE ANSWERING SERVICE ENHANCEMENTS - PRE OPERATOR
ANNOUNCEMENT
Customized greeting that is played prior to an operator answering your
line indicating office hours, etc. (Screens calls and saves time prior
to the operator answering.)
Announcements can be based on the time of day and the day of the week.
Announcements that give the caller the option to choose which
department they wish to be connected to.

VOICE MAIL (Unified Messaging)
Calls taken by the operator are recorded into a voice mail box. 
Voice Messages can be sent to an email address and played over the
speakers of your personal computer.
Voice and Fax Message can be sent to one or multiple email addresses.
Callers can call your voice mail and leave a recorded message press 0
and talk to an operator or be routed to an office, home or cellular
telephone.
Time dependent greetings that change based on the time of the day and
day of the week.
Gives you the ability to bypass the operator and access your new
messages immediately.
Will page a pager at pre-set time intervals, to notify you of new
messages. If a new message is not picked up, the voice mail will page
another pager, or call the operator indicating the message has not
been accessed.

FAX AND EMAIL MESSAGE DELIVERY
Fully computerized faxing and emailing of all messages. 
Faxes and email can be sent at pre-determined times and days of the
week, or immediately after taking a call.
Receive hard copies of all of your messages via fax or email. 
Email to one or multiple addresses. 
Saves time, by not having to call in to check for messages. 

ALPHANUMERIC TEXT MESSAGE DELIVERY
Detailed messages are sent directly to pagers, cellular phones and
various wireless devices, showing the caller's name, phone number, and
message. The device carrier can immediately respond or hold the call
in the pager memory for later action.
Enables the wireless device carrier to be almost anywhere and
immediately receive messages from the service.
Text Messages are numbered and time stamped in sequence and can be
faxed emailed as a backup."
 
The Answer System, Inc.
http://www.theanswersystem.com/tas.html
marketing@theanswersystem.net
800-564 1995 

Another service that appears to offer the majority of what you are
looking for.  Again, no web interface options, however, they have a
great variety of services, including various voice mail options that
they can combine with their answering services.  From their webpage:

"Message Management
All of the Call Connection/Response services are offered on a United
States and Canada basis with the following options:

800 numbers - We will provide an 800 number (or use your number) to
cover the United States and Canada.
Pre-Screening - By using a voicemail "front-end" to provide the caller
with various options, only time sensitive and/or important calls can
be selected for operator processing - a money saving feature. You can
also collect both routine and urgent messages in one call.
Quick Retrieval - Have your messages stored in a voicemail box. You
can get them at any time with no delay.
Patching of emergency/time sensitive calls - Our operator/technicians
will call the designated ("on-call") person and connect the caller
directly.
Fax your messages at a prearranged time 
E-mail your messages 
Nationwide paging. 
Delivery of messages to residence, mobile phone, office, or
voicemail."

MessagePlex
http://www.messageplex.com/
1 877 447 7555

Nice combination of voice mail and live answering.  Their services are
listed on their website with demos, so placing the information here is
difficult.  They have demos online of their options so I would
recommend you visit the site and look the demonstrations.


AI Business Services
http://www.successfuloffice.com/

They offer some other services that you aren't looking for such as
mail forwarding and address services, but they also offer answering
services:

From their website:
"Private Phone Number answered in the manner in which you choose. You
will be issued a local NYC number, and a toll free number. The numbers
issued to you are exclusively yours. You may use your numbers on
business cards, stationery, advertisements, etc. (for as long as you
are our client). You will not be charged extra for usage of the toll
free number, it is included in your service.

Customized Call Answering. We will answer all calls with the greeting
that you provide us with. Callers will be given answers to basic
questions, and messages will be taken according to your instruction.
We will represent ourselves as your full time staff. If you would like
different callers to receive different responses, just let us know.
You may be in a meeting, with a client, on another call, or we can
patch the call directly to you - it's all up to you!

Fax Number to be used on advertisements, stationery etc. Or any other
way you need it!  All faxes will be scanned and emailed to you.

Messages will be sent to you at intervals of your choice. You can be
notified immediately, hourly, or all at the end of the day. Messages
will be sent to you via fax, alpha page to a pager/cell phone, or
e-mail. You may also call in for them, or have them all placed in your
voicemail box for you to check at your leisure 24 hours a day 7 days a
week.... It's all up to you - it's your office!

Private and Personalized Voicemail Box. You may access your password
protected voicemail box 24/7 from anywhere on earth. You will also
have the flexibility to customize and change your voicemail greeting
whenever you choose."


Thank you for your question.  If you need additional clarification,
please let me know and I will do my best to meet your needs.  If none
of the above services meet your needs, please let me know and I will
continue to research for additional resources.

Regards,

-THV

Search Strategty:
answering services

I'm not sure what to think. The rater did what I asked. I probably
asked an easy question for $100. For five stars, the rater would have
maybe contacted some of these organizations to find out somewhat more
specifically what they do and don't do. I've contacted them myself
now, and probably one of them will work out, but there's still a lot
of information to sort through.

What you really need is a service called Virtual PBX it will do
everything your asking and more and has no hardware to maintain can
change recordings on the fly and has internet based management go to
www.virtualpbx.com

In regard to infojunky's reply, virtualpbx.com looks promising, but it
doesn't look like they have human operators and alpha-paging when
needed. Maybe they do. It's hard to tell from their web site. If
anyone subscribes to this service, please let me know what you know.
Thanks. Tim miller