Chuck Pierson, owner of Pierson Truck Center, credits his afterhours answering service for his business’s growth. Pierson Truck Center is located just off the exit of a busy four-lane highway, across the street from a popular truck stop. Because truck drivers work all hours, Pierson offers 24-hour service for tractor-trailer operators, including brake repair, transmission service, drive shaft and PTO service, and tire replacement. Until two years ago, Pierson relied on CB radios to allow truckers to contact his business for roadside emergencies. Though most veteran truck drivers still have a CB in their rig, the range of the units is short. For Pierson the consequences were costly. “I was paying guys to work the graveyard shift, but they relied almost entirely on drop-ins from the truck stop across the street,” he said. The solution was surprisingly simple. Though Pierson continues to monitor the CB in his shop, he switched to an answering service as the primary means to handle emergency calls. He says the results have been dramatic. “Our overall business has increased by about 30 percent in the past two years while our third shift work has more than doubled,” said Pierson. “When a guy breaks down he’s losing money every minute his truck is off the road. Our answering service is a key reason owner/operators call us. They know we’ll get them back on the road fast.” For a while Pierson tried answering those late night calls in his shop, but the guys were simply missing too many of them. “They might be working on another truck and not get the phone in time or their music was too loud or they simply weren’t paying attention.” Using the telephone as their primary means of communication was the right idea, but it took an answering service to make the idea actually work. When a trucker breaks down, they want to know help is on the way. With one quick call, Pierson’s answering service sets things in motion. “For guys stranded on the road, that’s huge.” Pierson credits his answering service to his business’s growth. “Being available to drivers when they need us has been the key to our success,” said Pierson. “The word about our 24/7 dispatching has spread fast among the trucking community. With the CB coverage in our area, we were limited to about ten miles in either direction. But with cell phones there’s no limit, and we routinely get calls from an hour or more away. At 3 a.m. we’re the only ones available.” The drivers routinely tell Pierson how much they appreciate his dispatcher. “Some want to meet her personally and thank her for being so helpful,” said Pierson. “You should see the looks on their faces when we tell them they weren’t talking with someone in our building but with our answering service.” Pierson grins. “The results speak for themselves.” Janet Livingston is the president of Call Center Sales Pro, a premier sales and marketing service provider for the call center and telephone answering service industry. Contact Janet at contactus@callcenter-salespro.comor 800-901-7706. Peter Lyle DeHaan is a freelance writer from Southwest Michigan.