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We are proud to be one of the few answering services in North America to have achieved the high quality necessary to earn the ATSI & CAM-X awards of excellence for outstanding telephone answering service! We also earned the prestigious
Focus is 1 of only a few
Focus is a
MBE - Minority Owned Business
Order Entry
Telephone Answering
Service
Voice Mail
Fulfillment Delivery of Messages Answering phones
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Focus Returns to Expo “Pssssst, did you see those gals in their pajamas over on the other aisle? Check ‘em out!” Focus was the buzz at the PMExpo (Property Management Expo), held recently at the Prince Georges Sports and Learning Complex, when sales Associates Kathy Powell-White and Anne Postich, and Lannette Gerbrick, VP of Business Development here at Focus, manned the booth. Wearing pajamas and clutching teddy bears, our team was there to remind visitors that they could “Rest Assured” that Focus was taking their calls throughout the night. It was so good to see so many of our clients, and it was like old home week for the folks who turn their lines over to us every night. Putting a face with a name is always nice for clients and staff members, but in this case, the faces and names of so many attendees were familiar and friendly. Focus has enjoyed a niche in the property management industry for over 20 years and answers for hundreds and hundreds of condos, apartment communities, and commercial buildings all over the country. Many other services throughout North America use the criteria developed by us to take messages for their property management accounts. We send out thanks to all of the people who welcomed us back so enthusiastically after our short hiatus. We missed you, and we’ll see you next year!
Heat is on the Way! We’ve had a couple of days that have teased the 80 degree mark in the past few weeks and we all know that we can, and often do, have many hot days in a row during May. Call volume will increase as the summer approaches and people find that their air conditioning is not working, or their spring and summer allergies are bothering them. There are lots of reasons for people to make more calls, and need more assistance, as the season changes. As a result of increased call volume, we will see higher invoices, so this seems like a good time to remind our customers how to make the best use of our time. These suggestions will decrease the time it takes for us to deliver your messages – and thus lower your costs as much as possible. 1. Ask us to place an automated voice mail greeting on your account giving specific guidelines on how air conditioning calls are handled. 2. When checking in for messages, or when on-call for emergencies, have pen and paper handy. Spending time searching for these items eats up precious minutes 3. Inform your customers ahead of time of any weather-related policies. This will save the time an angry caller might spend trying to convince our staff that their call should be handled differently. 4. For service companies, advise us if you’ve reached your limit for emergency calls for the evening. We can relay this information to your callers and take their information for the office for the following day. 5. Our job is to be here when you need us, so, if “the heat is on” in your office during the daytime too, you can always forward to us so that you can catch a breather; however, please keep in mind that this will increase your bill. Also ask about our ability to send text messages to your cell phone – it may be the most economical way for you to receive your messages.
IMPORTANT!! We have had an excellent response to our request for either an e-mail address or fax number to which we can send your invoices. If you have not indicated your preference please do so TODAY. Beginning July 15 we will start charging for paper invoices sent in the mail. If you have a compelling reason that you must have a mailed invoice, please contact Jim at 301-236-6554.
E-Mail Delivery of Messages Our customers are delighted to have their messages sent to them via e-mail. It’s so easy to download and paste them into other documents and files. This convenience is great for record keeping and for routine messages. We highly recommend it. HOWEVER… E-mail is NOT the preferred method for delivering ER and urgent messages! An e-mail can be delivered almost instantly one minute and the very next one may take over an hour to reach its destination. There are lots of reasons why this happens, all having to do with the carrier, the bandwidth, and even the atmosphere. It does not have to do with Focus. We have little control over the delivery of e-mail. Once our agent presses the send key, the matter is out of our hands, and we have no way of knowing if the message is received by its intended target or not. That is why we recommend e-mail delivery of messages for routine messages, or copies of messages, where time is not a critical issue, but we do NOT recommend it for time sensitive messages. If you depend on having your messages delivered as quickly as possible for your business survival, or for health and safety issues, stick to the tried-and-true delivery methods such as pagers and phones.
Top Op Results The results are in, and we are pleased to announce our winners for March and for 1st Quarter, 2008. Our Top Op for the month of March was Davita Mitchell, who earned the honor with a fabulous score of 97.50%. Other monthly winners included Martha Mina and Emily Snyder, who tied for 2nd Place with a score of 96.88%, and Zachary Crouse, Abhishek Mahendru, and Rebecca Spolnicki, who tied for 3rd Place with a score of 96.25%. Our quarterly Top Op prize went to veteran Martha Mina, who is consistently one of our top scorers. Her score of 96.23% has been our highest quarterly average to date. Second place honors went to Abhishek Mahendru, also no stranger to the line up, who earned a 95.92%, while third place was earned by Emily Snyder with a score of 95.49%. Rounding out the Top 5 were 4th Place Rebecca Spolnicki, who scored a 95.46%, and newcomer to the quarterly contest, Zachary Crouse, 95.06%, who took 5th Place. If you happen to speak to any of these fine agents on the phone, please let them know they’re doing a terrific job!
21... It’s the lucky number in Black Jack The number of guns in a famous salute In dice, the number of spots on a single die The age at which one is “legal” The number of our current century ...and the number of years Focus has been in business!
Happy 21st Anniversary Focus!!!
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