Answering 365

Thirty-five years of live answering from Los Angeles

Answering 365 is an American telephone answering company that has been operating since 1989, with its headquarters in Los Angeles. Its operators take calls for hospitals, medical practices, property managers, trade businesses and small firms, and the company says no caller is sent to voicemail or a phone tree. Coverage runs every day of the year, including holidays and severe weather.

Medical and clinical answering

Healthcare is one of the areas it stresses most. The company describes systems and training that meet HIPAA standards, and it lists specific lines of work: dental offices, medical clinics, hospitals, home healthcare, mental health practices, clinical trials and doctors' offices. Operators schedule appointments, take messages, and dispatch urgent calls to whoever is on duty.

Trades, property and legal work

Outside medicine, the site sets out separate answering programs for HVAC and plumbing contractors, pest control, disaster restoration, real estate, property management, IT and tech support, and law offices. For each field the operators are trained in the vocabulary of the trade, so a call about a burst pipe is treated differently from a rental inquiry. Legal intake, hotline support, secure lead capture and alert monitoring appear among its listed services, along with emergency dispatch.

How calls are handled

Each client gets a script written around its own business, so callers hear a consistent, branded greeting. Operators can warm-transfer a call to a named person, book a meeting, take a message or dispatch an emergency call. A web interface gives clients access to their messages and settings. English and Spanish are both covered from the Los Angeles operation, so bilingual callers are not turned away.

What the company says about itself

Answering 365 states that its operators are US-based rather than offshore, that it offers no long contracts, and that it has won the ATSI Award of Excellence more than once. It also offers a free first week for new clients. It argues that missed calls cost businesses real revenue, and that being reachable at any hour is what keeps a practice or contracting firm growing.