Overview
The benefit to you of operating a Telephone Answering Service (TAS) business lies in
the long-term recurring revenue stream the business can generate. The message services
you will provide are important to your client’s business success. Servicing as few as
200-300 clients can realistically produce annual revenues in excess of $600,000. Most
important, once your business and clientele are established, this recurring revenue
stream is almost assured. Further, because this is a business where operating costs
are readily identified and controllable, pre-tax profits in the 25-35 percent range
are not unusual.
Services Provided
You can design your TAS business to provide multiple services, tailoring it to suit your interests
or your experience while filling the needs of your the clients. Here are some types of services that
can be provided:
Telemessaging and Paging Solutions
24-7 Telephone answering and message taking, bilingual services, virtual
receptionist service, emergency dispatch, local paging, regional paging, national paging, medical
answering services, physician tracking, number verification, physician to patient patching, office
call over flow, wake-up service, automatic message dispatch services to alpha-pagers, fax machines,
or to an email address.
Order Entry/Telemarketing Solutions
Inbound national toll-free numbers, outbound-inbound telemarketing and
telesales, television and advertising media responses, inbound catalog sales, information requests,
order taking, credit card processing, and seminar and event registration
Customer Relationship Management Solutions
Help desk, disaster back-up, customer service, corporate hotline,
e-mail response service, shared operator service, travel services, sales call scheduling,
appointment scheduling, order processing, credit card processing, and dealer locate service
Target Clients
Virtually any business can benefit from the services provided by your Telephone Answering Service
business. For clients, like doctors or emergency service providers, a live-answer message service
is a must. Other clients simply desire a more professional business image. Still others might wish
to differentiate their business by having calls answered first by a person rather than an automated
answering system. Finally, many clients need to have specific information gathered from a caller in
order to properly service the client. The range of potential clients includes:
Air conditioning companies, alarm monitoring services, cable TV companies,
car dealerships, churches, cleaning companies, doctors, dentists, electrical Contractors, EMS transport
services, fencing companies, fuel oil delivery companies, funeral homes, medical centers, heating services,
hospice nurses, hospital equipment providers, manufacturer representatives, medical equipment specialists,
municipalities, psychiatrists, refrigeration companies, restaurants, roofing companies, towing companies,
and more.
The important point is that in spite of recent advances in communications, the need for personalized,
live-answer messaging services will remain a requirement for a substantial segment of businesses.
Download the 11-page WORD version of "Starting a TAS Business"
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