This is what you hear in a 45-second message when you call 683-7790:

Hello, this is Friend, Inc. Our voicemail system is here to serve you. In order to receive a response to your call you need to leave a message in the appropriate category. If you are calling from a rotary phone, you must stay on the line and leave a message after the beep. Be aware that some push button phones work like rotary phones. If you are NEW TO FRIEND, INC. and don't know who to talk to, PRESS 8. Otherwise, press the following:

1. EMERGENCY
2. PANTRY
3. SUPPORT GROUPS
4. STEVE, Case Manager/Intern Supervisor
5. MAXINE, Executive Director
6. RITA, Case Manager/Outreach Coordinator
7. CATHY, Administrative Assistant
8. NEW CALLERS

Voicemail System

A few times each year we get complaints that basically concur with the following questions:

QUESTION: “It is not friendly for Friend, Inc. to have a machine answer my call. Why doesn’t Friend, Inc. hire a receptionist or get volunteers to answer the phone?”

ANSWER: Believe me, the staff and Board of Directors of Friend, Inc. have struggled with the same concern. We agree with you that it would be so nice to talk to a person right away. The problem with making that a reality is that we are a small, BUT MIGHTY, agency with a tiny paid staff. We cannot afford to pay for a full-time receptionist. We are operating on a bare-bones budget and need to focus on maintaining the services and staff positions that we currently have. Also, we can neither expect nor manage volunteers to consistently perform this 40 hour/week task.

QUESTION: “Why do I always get the voicemail when I call 683-7790? Most voicemail systems allow me to stay on the line and get a person when I need one.”

ANSWER: The Friend, Inc. main number is 683-7790. We subscribe to Bell Atlantic Answer Call, using its least expensive services. We don’t have that person to answer after you “stay on the line.” We do subscribe to additional services that give each staff member a separate direct line, which is given to specific callers for specific reasons, for example, school and agency personnel, ministers, police, and clients in case management. Each staff member picks up the phone when he/she is at the desk. Voicemail will pick up after 5 rings when he/she is out of the office or cannot interrupt an office visit with clients or other important persons.

QUESTION: Where are the staff if they’re not available to answer my call?

ANSWER: Case managers, Steve Sadusky, 40 hours/week, and Rita Lieb, 20 hours/week, are often out of the office on home and/or school visits. They schedule appointments with clients in their caseload and are rarely able to handle walk-in situations right away. Rita is in other community buildings providing outreach services. Steve attends meetings at Kutztown University regarding intern supervision. They also take part in meetings, workshops, seminars, and task forces with other agency representatives. Examples: ProKids Legislative Coalition for Children, Dialogue on Poverty Employment Task Force, Dialogue on Poverty Childcare Task Force, wrap-around services.

Administrative assistant, Cathy Dill, 25 hours/week, is available Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. for greeting people with scheduled appointments and receiving deliveries of food and other donations. Since the loss of the AmeriCorps-funded position, July 1996, Cathy is also responsible for Pantry operations which takes her into the Pantry space located in the warehouse behind the offices. Cathy is also responsible for maintaining computer databases and for desktop publishing, mailings and other clerical tasks, with many of these tasks demanding uninterrupted attention.

Executive director, Maxine Marple, is often out of the office participating in meetings, workshops, seminars and task forces, giving speeches throughout the community, and working on fund-raising events. Examples: Dialogue on Poverty Employment Task Force, Kutztown Area Chamber of Commerce, East Penn Valley Partnership, FEMA Board, Berks Housing Opportunities, Inc.

THE ANSWER TO THE BIG QUESTION: On our bare-bones budget, we have discovered that voicemail is the next best way to give Friend, Inc. the benefits of having a highly skilled, full-time paid receptionist without the cost.

  • It is EFFECTIVE by helping the caller leave a long, confidential message for a specific staff member. Each staff member has a special code to retrieve his/her own messages.

  • It is RELIABLE by permitting the staff member to hear the caller’s tone of voice and perceive the caller’s frame of mind from the recorded message.

  • It is EFFICIENT by giving the staff the opportunity to leave and change outgoing messages, prioritize incoming calls, and also send copies to other staff members when appropriate.

  • It is SERVICEABLE by giving the staff the capacity to retrieve calls from any location outside the office. It allowed staff to communicate with clients during the Blizzards of ‘94 and ‘96 while snowbound at home.

  • Therefore, we are MORE RESPONSIVE to people’s most serious and/or urgent needs and MORE AT EASE when we are free to respond to other callers.


I hope that this article helps. Thank you for your questions. It shows that you have a stake in the operations of your community agency. This is what friendship is all about!

Maxine L. Marple



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