Answering Service - Links

Answering Service, in the context of business, is an umbrella term to describe the human powered equivalent of the automated voice system. Typical answering service functionality includes order taking, customer service, appointment taking, emergency technical support and answering services.

Voicemail is a specific application of an interactive voice response system. In its simplest form it mimics the functions of an answering machine, but uses a centralised system rather than equipment at the individual telephone. However it can be far more sophisticated, with the ability to forward messages to another voice mailbox and send simultaneous messages to multiple voice mailboxes, add voice notes to a message, store messages for future delivery, make calls to a telephone or paging service when a message is received, transfer callers to another phone for personal assistance and play different message greetings to different callers.