Thanks to modern technology, we have unprecedented access to everyone and everything. This can either help or harm your business, especially when it involves social networking. If you try to avoid social media—or worse, don't run your social media platforms correctly—it could harm your business as consumers flock to your more social media-savvy competitors.

A Better Answer recently moved its Houston Regional office to a new location and is hosting a grand opening ceremony on Wednesday, June 29. If you’re a local business owner, we’d love to see you there!

Floods, tornadoes and hurricanes, oh my! Natural disasters are a big problem for businesses that communicate regularly with customers—especially if you’re in a disaster-prone area like Tornado Alley or near the coast. Sometimes it seems like a new natural disaster season is always around the corner. So what happens to your business when there’s a natural disaster? If you’re not prepared, you could lose your communication abilities, leading to lost revenue and customers.

There’s a difference between cost and value. Cost is the actual price for something. Value is how much it’s worth to you. If you’re a business owner considering a call center, this is an important thing to keep in mind. Just because one call center may offer the cheapest price, it doesn’t necessarily mean they provide the best value for your business.

Big corporations enjoy many benefits from outsourcing their customer service processes to third-party providers. But did you know small businesses have the ability do the same thing?

It’s a question any business with inbound calls must ask itself: live answer or interactive phone menus? While it’s true that businesses with interactive phone menus and automated systems can handle a higher volume of inbound calls, a recent report from the CFI Group — a company specializing in improving customer satisfaction — clearly shows that reaching a live representative instead of an automated phone menu makes a significant difference in customer satisfaction.

This month’s hero maintained a positive attitude and provided excellent customer service while escalating a particularly complicated call.

Many call centers and phone answering services offer a wide range of services. From basic call handling and after-hours support to web applications and order entry, there are a lot of options out there for businesses that receive inbound calls.

The only question is, which ones are most popular? Which ones do businesses request the most? To answer both of these, here is a list of the top five most popular services from an answering service (as well as the other names they go by).

Contrary to popular belief, answering services these days aren’t limited to just answering calls and taking messages. At A Better Answer, we take full advantage of the latest technology in telecommunications to offer innovative services that go beyond the basics of an answering service. These optional add-ons not only provide valuable convenience and organization, they give you peace of mind and let you get back to running your business.

Customer service is a huge part of any business. After all, studies show that two out of every three people will switch brands due to a poor customer service experience. When people move away from your company or brand, it can affect your bottom line. So, there’s obviously a direct relationship between customer service level and the bottom line. But how do you increase the former while decreasing the latter?