Robin peered through the water cascading down the windows. Tree branches, roofing materials, and garbage streamed past the window in a swarm of debris, dirt, and rain. With a loud crack, she watched her 60 foot Sugar Maple tree split, and crash to the ground, blocking the driveway. Then, the lights went out.

While Robin watched the storm, her insurance agent, Terry Cullen, was monitoring the storm. The thunderstorm began around 7:15, just as he and his wife were finishing dinner. Around 8:05 that evening, the storm began releasing extremely powerful blasts of wind, some in excess of 70 miles per hour.

Terry's home telephone began ringing around 8:30. Some clients were calling to report that their homes and cars had been smashed by falling trees and tree limbs. Others were calling to report basement flooding, broken windows, and collapsed sheds. Robin called to report that a grill from the deck had been blown through a bedroom window. The calls slowed around 10:30, and Terry turned the ringer off and went to bed.

Terry stared at the ceiling in his dark bedroom. His wife, Becky slept quietly at his side. Unable to sleep, Terry worried about work. Sheila, Terry's his trusted administrative assistant was out on maternity leave, and wouldn't be there to help him wade through the hundreds of losses he knew would be waiting for him at office in the morning.

Needing to talk to someone, Terry called his answering service at 3:30 am. They already handled his alpha-numeric messaging service. He wondered if they could do more. He explained about the storm, and the dozens of calls he had already taken at home that night. He also explained that Sheila was out on maternity leave. His answering service knew exactly what to do.

By 8:00 am, that morning, they had Terry's office calls and his home calls forwarded to their office. They had written a preliminary instructions to get all the information Terry needed to process his customers' claims and help them recover from the storm. They also put together a priority schedule to make sure that Terry's personal calls would be directly messaged to his text pager. He would be able to go to work, triage his emergency work, and focus on settling claims.

The next day, Terry remarked that not one customer had been left unserved, and no call had been left unanswered. His office had the company's single highest turn-around rate for claims due to the storm. He also elected to continue the answering service, even after Sheila returned. With the answering service's help, Terry said, he expected to become the single most productive office in his territory - and at the lowest cost.

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