answerohio.com

What It Is

Answering Services, Inc. is a telephone answering service provider based in Mayfield Heights, Ohio, USA, with origins dating back to 1948. Its core offering is “24/7 Live Operator Coverage.” It is not positioned as an email marketing or cloud communications API platform, but rather as a live answering, message-taking, and call-forwarding service for businesses during unattended hours, after hours, holidays, meetings, and emergencies, helping reduce lost opportunities caused by missed calls.

Core Capabilities

In terms of channels, the service covers live answering, message taking and forwarding, dispatch messages, custom greetings, voicemail, email messages, SMS to mobile phones, fax, telephone notifications, paging, phone number rental, and more. Incoming calls are forwarded by the customer’s local telephone company to a number provided by Answering Services, Inc. The system identifies the relevant customer account and displays company information to the operator, allowing calls to be answered according to the customer’s predefined script. On performance, the website emphasizes 24/7 availability and mentions on-site backup generators and system redundancy, but does not disclose answer rates, average response times, or a formal SLA. For APIs and integrations, the main content does not mention CRM integrations, webhooks, or developer interfaces; this is more of a human-operated answering service.

Pricing

The website does not publish specific plan prices. The FAQ states that fees are based on the amount of time operators spend working on the customer’s account, with plans available on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual basis. Payment methods include American Express, Visa, MasterCard, checks, and cash. The company claims that a full month of around-the-clock service may cost less than hiring a receptionist for one day, but this is a marketing statement rather than a substitute for a formal quote.

Pros and Cons

Pros include a long operating history, a strong live-operator answering experience, multiple message delivery methods, customizable greetings, and backup generators to improve service continuity. Cons include limited pricing transparency, no disclosed API, CRM integration, or reporting/analytics capabilities commonly seen in modern communications platforms, and no clear information on compliance with standards such as HIPAA, SOC 2, or TCPA. In addition, account changes after the initial setup may incur small fees.

Who It’s For

It is better suited to local service providers, healthcare-related organizations, contractors, small businesses, multi-location offices, and call-heavy operations that need night or weekend coverage. If a business needs programmable SMS, email APIs, large-scale automated marketing, or a global communications platform, this is not the best fit.

China Access

Based on the crawled text, it is not possible to determine whether its website or service is directly accessible from mainland China. The status is therefore assessed as unknown.