The phone was ringing before Lauren even sat down at her desk. She picked it up. It was her boss, Michael Reite, the Executive Vice-President of Human Resources. She listened while he rushed through his news.

“They found for plaintiff?” Lauren asked. “How can that be? I thought we had a cast-iron case!”

“We did,” Michael replied. “Apparently, they determined that our record keeping was at fault, and that the employee did comply with work rules.”

Lauren frowned, “How much did they award?”

“Forty-four thousand dollars.”

Lauren sat down. “What do we do now?” She asked.

“That's why I'm calling,” Michael said. “We wouldn't have lost the case if our record keeping was better. This little fiasco just cost us forty-four grand, not to mention the legal expenses. I want you and your team to come up with a solution to this within ten days. Both of our jobs depend on it.”

Lauren hung up the phone. Ten days, she thought. She had ten days to solve a problem that affected more than 300 employees. She closed her eyes and sighed.

Ten days later, Lauren was standing at the end of a long polished table in the executive conference room, presenting her report to the executives and the board of directors. At the other end of the table, scowling imposingly was President and CEO, Phillip Marcus.

“By using a telephone answering service for all our employee-related calls, we have already solved our record keeping problem. Each employee who calls in, whether he is running late or calling in sick is digitally recorded and automically time-stamped. A written record of the call is sent to the employee's supervisor by email or fax and a backup is sent by email to our corporate human resource department,” Lauren reported.

“We don't have to worry about any single supervisor forgetting to document the time or the conversation, and we don't have to worry about turf wars over whose job it is to handle employee reporting. Within 5 days of the original ruling, we had effected this change using our answering service,” Lauren said confidently.

From the far end of the table, Mr. Marcus leaned forward, “This sounds fine, but what about the cost?”

Lauren swallowed hard, but her enthusiasm overcame her nervousness. “Mr. Marcus, this service is 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It solves the problem my team was asked to solve. As far as cost is concerned, the whole year will cost us less than we lost in this one litigation earlier this month. But most importantly, we significantly reduce the risk of losing another suit in the future because we have learned from this experience.” Lauren's mouth was dry, and her voice trembled slightly as she finished.

Everyone at the table turned expectantly to Phillip Marcus. He had one elbow propped on the table, his chin in his hand while his fingers stroked the side of his face. The room fell quiet while he thought.

He dropped his hand and looked at Lauren. "You're telling us this solution was implemented within five days, reduces our liability, and costs less than we lost in the lawsuit?" He paused. "Good work," he added.

Learn more about telephone answering services and discover how the might be able to help you.