Background
Answer Me This is an answering service that was started in 1978 by Shirley and Pat Thompson. The couple started the business just for supplemental income. Pat worked as a police officer, and Shirley stayed at home with their three young children. The business was run out of an office in their home. The main purpose was to provide a dispatching or secretary type service for those companies who needed a real person to answer phones any time of day, or time of year. The company started off small- a couple of businesses for after hour and lunch time call pick-up, a funeral parlor to call directors in the middle of the night for notification of a death, and a 24 hour, 7 day a week service for Orca Petroleum company. Orca provided the backbone for their business in future years- and became a central purpose of the company.
Answer Me This would receive alarms notifying the dispatcher that a gas well was not functioning and the dispatcher would then notify the field technician of its status, and the well would be repaired in a timely manner. In 1978 this started as a handful of wells, and one gas exploration company. By the mid 1990s this would grow tow eight major gas exploration companies and over 500 gas wells, and three mechanic companies dedicated to this field.
As the demand for an answering service grew, the business flourished. When the business first started, Shirley and Pat ran the business by themselves without any additional employees. Within five years of creation, the business employed 6 people.
The set up for employees was a little different than most places. One person worked per shift. If one needed to communicate with someone, a note was left. If there were any customer problems or situations, the employee was to notify the next shift. If there were any problems that needed the owner’s attention, the owner was available day or night, and was able to fix the problem at hand.
The Thompsons treated their employees well. They couldn’t afford many benefits, but tried to compensate with salary. Overall, the employees were happy, and most stayed with the company for years.
In 2006, the Thompsons decided to sell the business due to increased demand, and health problems. The company was sold to a local company, Telecom Support Services. The business owned by Bob and Linda Fink was an office communication installer. While the company did not have experience with an answering service, they felt the Answer Me This had potential, and were eager to help the company grow.
Transition
The sale of the business went quickly, too quickly in fact. Bob and Linda had wanted a new building to accommodate both of their growing businesses. Instead, they were forced to clear out a small corner of their office to create a cubical for the answering service.
Bob and Linda had wanted to expand the business from a local business to a regional business. The previous owners, Pat and Shirley, mainly relied on word of mouth, and the occasional yellow pages look up to generate new business. Expansion was more of a welcome surprise than a priority. They focused on customer service, and telephones. Bob and Linda wanted to make Answer Me This an office solution- not just an answering service, but also provide businesses with temporary office workers, and even smaller businesses with conference rooms. Unfortunately, these ideas slowly faded away.
Bob and Linda kept the same business structure as Pat and Shirley. There would be six workers. Four of the workers would be half time, while two were full-time. When Pat and Shirley owned the business, their full time day shift worker, Claire, acted as office manager. She would handle smaller problems around the office such as disagreements between workers, or different customers. She acted as a buffer between the business and the owners. Day to day operations was to be directed by Claire. If anything required more attention, Claire would inform the owners of the situation. Bob and Linda appreciated the efficiency of this role, but wanted a little more control than the previous owners. All internal and external problems, as well information about the customers needed to go through Bob and Linda. Claire acted as a reporter.
Communication problems
Bob and Linda’s ideas were great, and had potential to work, however it didn’t seem the effort was put forth. While Bob and Linda invested a great amount of money into the business, they were unable to invest time into learning a new business. Instead of learning how their business operated, they relied heavily on the employees that came from Answer Me This to run the business. Although all information had to go through the new owners, neither one of the owners knew how the daily operations were conducted. They did not understand the importance of many documents that landed on Linda’s desk. This information consisted of schedules, employee lists, company policies, etc. Many times, the papers would lay on the desk for days before Linda remembered to turn the papers over to the answering service. Linda made one attempt to train with the employees, but after a few hours became frustrated, and gave up learning. All billing, scheduling, and day to day business tasks were now the employee’s full responsibility.
Bob and Linda also did not trust the new employees. These were not hand chosen by them, but by the previous owners. Even though these employees had been with the company for years, the Fink’s were leery. The employees of the answering service were notified that they would be under video and audio surveillance. If an employee of the service voiced their opposition, they were chastised by Bob and Linda, or simply ignored. Within 6 months of acquisition, two of the six long time employees were fired.
The attitudes exhibited by the owners, created added stress for employees. The employees resented their new bosses, and began arguing amongst themselves. Workers would only do their job, and nothing beyond. Work became sloppy as employees lost interest. Customers of the answering service were used to precise attention to detail. The loss of dedication, combined with higher pricing caused many businesses to leave the answering service
All the tension that had been building up in the office came to a head when the funeral home called one day. The funeral home had hired a new director two weeks prior, and the information and schedule for the new employee had sat on Linda’s desk. There had been a death the night before, and the new employee had been on call. Unfortunately, the night time dispatcher did not have the new information or schedule, and it had taken two hours to locate the information.
“Scott Funeral Home just called,” Cassie said when she approached Linda’s desk, “they are about to stop using our service. They had sent over schedules two weeks ago with a new employee’s information and we still haven’t seen it. Why did this happen?”
Linda immediately became defensive. “I cannot do everything at once. I am running two businesses. Scott’s should have called and verified we received the package, I can’t do everything!”
Claire had seen how disagreements led to being fired, and needed her job. “Fine!” she exclaimed, and walked back to her desk. It was now her job to apologize to the customer, and assure them that the mistake would not happen again.
Communication Challenge
Bob and Linda recognized the need for changes within the business. If the problems were not addressed, their investment would be lost, and any plans of building on would never come true. As an organizational development specialist, what problems do you see? What would you suggest to fix them?
