Family Calling

Tamara Barendregt spent two decades as a registered nurse by the mid-1980s when she noticed the medical industry's emphasis turning quickly from patients to profits. Whatever complaints anyone has ever had about HMOs and PPOs, she was able to witness directly.

“I felt like the rules of the game changed,” she says. So she made a change of her own as a result, serving doctors and patients in a much different capacity.

Barendregt is president and CEO of Answer Excellence Inc., a Clearwater-based telephone answering service that specializes in taking calls for doctor's offices.

With nearly 50 employee, Answer Excellence operates from a discreet office along Hercules Avenue north of Sunset Point Road. Phone banks are secured in compliance with federal regulations intended to keep patient information confidential, yet it's far from being a bunker setting.

Actually, aquarium might be a more appropriate description. Posters and other decorations reflecting the popular “Fish!” series of morale-boosting books are found throughout Answer Excellence's office, providing levity amid the tense calls its operators often encounter. After all, no one really ever calls a doctor's office or hospital when they feel fine.

Employees at Answer Excellence are pre-screened to determine that they are good listeners and can respond well to callers' needs. Previous experience with other answering services is a must.

“It's all about serving customers. They don't care what happens behind the scenes,” says Barendregt, who launched Answer Excellence in 1986 with a friend who worked with her in home healthcare services. They tried unsuccessfully to buy an existing answering service before starting their own, she says.

She eventually bought out her friend's share of the business and began advertising in the Yellow Pages. That generated a client base that grew from dentists and doctors to law offices and other professionals.

The majority of Answer Excellence's clients are in the medical field, though the company is looking to expand that base as well as its service offerings. The company is uses social media to generate new clients, mainly LinkedIn, after having scrapped its prior phone book ads, yet still reaches prospects at trade shows and by e-mail.

Barendregt has help with the technical aspects of the company from a reliable source. Her son, Wayne Robinson, joined Answer Excellence after a 20-year career developing software applications.

“I wasn't initially interested in working in the family business,” says Robinson, whose title is information technology director but has duties far beyond keeping the computers humming. He says he is comfortable working at Answer Excellence, regardless of the fact that his mother owns the company.

Barendregt emphasizes operating her firm within a family atmosphere, which mainly means employees can speak their minds without any serious reprisal. “If I have an idea that stinks, they're not afraid to tell me,” she says.

Eventually, she wants to expand the company beyond Florida, especially given the amount of out-of-state competition from answering services. The company is now advancing a new service called Consult Manager that helps nurses and hospital staff better handle the doctor consultation process.

The company recently won its sixth consecutive Award of Excellence from the Association of TeleServices International, based in Atkinson, N.H.

The ATSI awards earned by Answer Excellence are based on both customer feedback and the employees' feelings about the company. “The time we spend training and coaching all our front-line team members has paid off,” says Steve Bower, the firm's operations director.

Answer Excellence's Web site features a broad range of favorable testimonials about the company, though Barendregt emphasizes the importance of not-so-positive feedback, too. “A customer who complains is doing you a favor because they tell you what you need to fix,” she says.