A Better Answer Top Collin County Area Women Owned Business

In April’s edition of the Collin County Business Press, A Better Answer was ranked #2 in the Top Collin County Area Women Owned Businesses List. Congratulations, ABA! It is always an honor to be featured in lists like these and to be recognized in our local area as a great business!

A Better Answer Gets a New Look!

Welcome to A Better Answer’s redesigned webpage!

It’s been a long time coming, and we are proud to unveil our new look to everyone! With new standards and technologies and design changing constantly, we thought it was time for an upgrade. We think the new design is easier to navigate, much easier to stay current and updated and easier to find all the information you are looking for as well as get in contact with us quickly!

Clients, you’ll find that your page still has prominent links to your calendar and on call scheduler as well as important links and information. We’ve added a mini blogroll so you’ll always be current with industry news and what’s going on with A Better Answer.

We pride ourselves with our superior communication skills over the phone, now we’d like to continue the conversation through our website!

Tell us what you think!

Leave us a comment on our facebook, send us a tweet, or post a comment below!

Answering the Call for 40 Years!

When I was a teenager, I was a speed demon on the manual typewriter and took Pittman shorthand in high school. At that time I wanted to become a court reporter when I grew up. I majored in English in High School and Business in college. So, in early 1971, when my ex-husband needed a manufacturer’s representative office, I felt I had all the skills I needed to open a small secretarial and answering service with a small office in the back for him—my version of an executive suite. On August 1^st, 1971 that small dream became a reality when we opened Keystone Park Secretarial & Answering Service.

The company began that day with 12 customers whom we had contacted who were already officed in the Keystone Park complex of buildings on Central Expressway and Spring Valley. Hard to believe it now, but we were only open from 8a-5p, Monday thru Friday. We started with a 20-button call directory (I was assured that it would last me a couple of years!) I did all the work by myself – from getting coffee for the walk-in customers, to making copies, to answering telephones and typing whatever needs my customers had.

Well, business grew… and grew very fast! Before 6 months went by, I had totally filled all the buttons on the call directory and now had to add a separate telephone for each new client. Before the switchboard was installed, I had black rotary dial telephones all over my desk. Each time one of those telephones rang, I had to jump up and throw myself over all of them in order to figure out which was ringing. What an amazing time! Finally, my new (vintage 1920 model) switchboard was installed and all my customers’ lines would ring into it. I thought of myself as a ‘baby’ Lilly Tomlin then. Once I reached 60 customers, I was forced to hire my very first part time telephone receptionist so I could deal with all the secretarial and other office business services I offered.

Over the next 5 years, we installed many concentrators in order to handle business outside of our telephone exchange area. Ultimately, it took more than 15 concentrators in order to handle the business, as well as a string of switchboards with many telephone secretaries. After 5 years in business, the marriage went south. The business was divided, but my answering service continued to thrive. I offered not only the standard business times of 8a-5p Monday-Friday, but also 8a-11p Monday-Saturday.

After successfully competing in the industry with my small service, I brought in the latest call handling equipment which allowed clients to call forward their telephone line to me. Our company was the fifth answering service in the United States to have this very wonderful equipment. I have always enjoyed all the bells and whistles in software and equipment services before my customers even thought they needed them. How nice it was to be ahead of the game!  After just 2 more years, I expanded my service to be operational 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It was at that point that I changed the name to “A Better Answer Telephone Answering Service”.

Ultimately, I operated 5 executive suites and 5 telephone answering service locations. As the need for executive suites lessened, more energy was focused on the answering service/call center business. I started each office single-handedly, and flew to them regularly. Over the years, technology progressed to the point that I was able to share calls between offices and offer specialized staffing in certain fields for all offices.  Later, I was able to trunk lines between offices and merge resources, and now I have 3 full service networked offices in Fort Worth, Houston and Dallas (Plano).  Over the past 40 years, each office was moved to a new location a minimum of 2 times, with equipment changing at least 3 times in each office.

Today, A Better Answer’s customers consist of a blend of call center clients, full range of clients in the medical field, as well as traditional telephone answering service customers. Electronic scripting has allowed all of our customers to have each of their lines answered according to their preferences, and provide personalized messages that contain special requests.

ABA Employees pose for a group shot with the boss!

We are proud of the fact that A Better Answer’s staff has an average of 15.5 years tenure, and each office manager has been with A Better Answer in excess of 30 years. The dedicated employees of A Better Answer have allowed the business to prosper and provide a solid future for everyone. I am extremely thankful to be alive and well so that I can celebrate these 40 years with all of them. A Better Answer Call Center is truly the Best!         – Dee Hawkins

A Better Answer Celebrates 40 Years of Business

Dee Hawkins, ABA’s CEO/President was surprised with a cake and champagne by members of her staff in our Dallas regional office. A Better Answer Call Centers, a telephone answering service, was celebrating its 40th Anniversary as an answering service.

Dolores “Dee” Hawkins opened the doors of ABA on August 1, 1971 as the sole employee with only six customers and six telephones; and took the first message. Within months she had grown the answering service to 36 customers and 36 telephones. It was time to hire her first employee. Shortly there after it became necessary to install the first telephone switch (recent photo above with Dee seated at her first switch). It was getting too difficult to determine which of the now 39 phones was ringing.

The award winning A Better Answer Call Centers now has regional offices in Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston with the capability of serving clients needs anywhere on the globe from our centralized location in Texas. We strive to operate with the most up-to-date, advanced equipment for our industry to meet the rapid development of global communication technology. Pictured above is Dee and our Executive Vice President, David Epstein, with some of our Dallas staff standing in front of many of our awards for excellence.

Our staff has honored Dee in recognition of her many talents and business experience that has guided A Better Answer to be becoming the best bilingual telephone answering service in America. The Dallas Business journal will also be honoring Dee at a luncheon on August 18th as one of the Top 25 Women in Business. When it comes to answering your phone, we are “A Better Answer!”

A Better Answer Receives ATSI Award of Excellence for All Offices!

We here at A Better Answer are so thrilled and proud to announce that all 3 of our offices have won the ATSI Award of Excellence for the 2011 year. This year marks the 13th year in a row our Dallas office has won, 9th year in a row for the Houston Regional Office and 8th year in a row for our Fort Worth Regional Office!

“Our employees work hard to keep our clients happy by representing them well and consistently offering the best customer service possible to their customers.” says our CEO and Founder, Dee Hawkins.

Founded in 1942, The Association of TeleServices International (ATSI) represents 400 of the most sophisticated agencies in the world and is the only national trade association representing the live telephone answering, voice mail and teleservices industry. With over 350,000 customers in the U.S. alone, the members generate revenue in excess of $1 billion.

The Award of Excellence is awarded to the best of the best in the industry at providing services to the public. The award follows more than six months of testing by a team of independent, specialized judges contracted by ATSI to evaluate message services. Organizations are judged on their courtesy, response time, accuracy, overall service to their clients and the newly added “Wow Factor”.

Basically, this is the call center’s Super Bowl! Since more and more companies are realizing the benefits of winning this award, the competition grows each year.This year, additional details and categories were added to make the attainment of a high score more difficult. Even with the tougher standards, ABA was still able to score a perfect 100 on one-third of all of the phone calls that were judged! How hard is it for a company to score 100? Take a look and see for yourself: How The Judges Score.

We know that if we are able to score well in a competition like this, then we are able to provide excellent customer service as we proudly represent your company as an outsourced phone service.

Dallas Business Journal Announces Dee Hawkins as one of 2011 Women in Business Honorees

Our Founder, President and CEO of A Better Answer has just been announced as one of the 25 honorees in Dallas Business Journal’s 2011 Women in Business! The Dallas Business Journal staff crunched down a list of over 150 women down to just 25 and we are extremely proud to have our boss on the list!

For the full list of all 25 women, see the official announcement release from the Dallas Business Journal: DBJs 2011 Women in Business Honorees Announced

A Better Answer Returns From NAEO!

A Better Answer’s IT Manager just returned from New Orleans where she attended the National Amtelco Equipment Owners Conference, NAEO.  This annual conference allows A Better Answer to view upcoming software and hardware revisions which will allow our support services to run more smoothly.  A Better Answer makes upgrades a priority to ensure our equipment and software are always on the newest and greatest versions so that our customers receive seamless service.  Stephanie says “There is always something new at our annual conference!  I always come back to the office excited to share what new features will soon be available for us to share with our customers.  Our business is ever changing and it’s wonderful that our CEO – Dee Hawkins enables the employees of A Better Answer to learn and grow by attending these conferences.”

A Better Answer will also be attending a quality assurance conference hosted by our national association ATSI (Association of Teleservices International) that will be held in Austin this June.  We are in the running to receive the Excellence Award for quality in messaging.  This will be our 13th year to receive the award so keep your fingers crossed!