What do you think is the most dramatic change to the industry in the past 30 years? Technology and the features we have to offer now that we didn’t when I began: being paperless, calls are recorded, text messaging, amazing reporting options, and storage capabilities just to mention a few! Can you provide a timeline with the company and include where you started, offices, positions, etc.? Telephone Service Representative-8/11/1980-Dallas, Bookkeeper 1981-1990 Dallas, Houston Regional Office Manager 1990-1996, Dallas Regional Office Manger-1 1/2 years, then to trainer-Dallas,(6 months if I remember right!) then to Customer Service Manager where I have found my niche! (12 years) What was it like when you started? Can you describe “a day in the life” back then? Wow! Memories! We had 6-7 switchboards for our daytime service, and a daytime and a 24-hour Telescan table, all in one pretty small room! We had a round table with 4 seats around it, and a big wheel in the middle of the table, with hundreds of slots where we put our clients messages after we hand wrote them and timestamped them! They stayed in the slot until they called us to pick them up-then we timestamped them on the back of the message and wrote a name of who we delivered the message to. In order to bill our clients, we had a scale we would put their stacks of messages on and the scale would count them based on their weight! Then a couple years later we went paperless with our Cass system. We thought it was so cool to not have to handwrite messages any longer! Then came Tascom, where we could answer up to 6 calls at a time and keep them in personal waits just for us! I worked 8 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and I always lived in the area of Keystone Park, so if need be I could walk to work, especially when it snowed or iced over! No matter what the weather was like, Hilde was at work! Do you have any special highlights with A Better Answer? Every anniversary has been celebrated, and because I have only worked for A Better Answer, I am not sure there are a lot of companies out there that do that! At too many companies, you are a number or a face. With A Better Answer you are really somebody who is cared about, both professionally and personally! The family atmosphere is wonderful at A Better Answer. I wouldn’t work anywhere else! What are your favorite memories of working here? Lunches and dinners at all kinds of restaurants, traveling over the years with Dee by plane or boat! 5 year pool parties, babies born and watching them grow to young adults! Fall family festivals and the preparation of, yearly planning meetings, quarterly meetings, are what come to mind. There are so many of them to name! There is never a dull moment in the life of anyone working for A Better Answer, you get to wear many hats and work with many personalities. It is both a privilege and honor to work for such a great company! 

A Better Answer recently remodeled their offices in Ft. Worth. The purpose of this recent update was to improve the aesthetics of the office as well as its functionality for employees and clients. “We’re very excited about the new look,” said marketing coordinator Jessica Janosko. “We want our employees to be proud of where they work and we want our clients to feel comfortable. This remodel was a step in the right direction.” A few of the changes include new ergonomic desk chairs, new desks, lockers, acoustical upgrades as well as new carpeting. As a result, Canadian employees are much happier, have a new and more comfortable work space, and clients now have a quieter environment.

We here at ABA are very excited about our venture into the blogosphere!

Long Distance and Wireless Carriers are doing their part to connect American residents with the people they care about that may have been affected by the devastating earthquake in Japan on March 11.

Dee Hawkins, CEO/President, and David Epstein, Executive Vice President, accept the ATSI Award of Excellence plaques for consecutive years of qualification.
A Better Answer ...

Award of Excellence by the Association of TeleService International (ATSI)

Our Annual Office Thanksgiving Luncheon was this Tuesday and was it ever delicious! Employees came and brought their special home recipes for an early celebration of the holiday meal; there must have been at least 30 different dishes at the table! It was a great way to enjoy everyone's company before the busy holiday times ahead!

At ABA we love to brag about our wonderful Telephone Service Representatives (TSRs)! We always recognize our TSRs for a job well done, and now we want everyone to know through our new ABA Spotlight!