Monroe Telephone

Since our founding in 1932, as Physicians and Surgeons Exchange, our mission has been to connect those needing help with professional people who can help them. We changed our name to Monroe Telephone in 1937, when we expanded our services beyond medical to include large and small business clients. Changes in technology in the 1980s allowed us to expand beyond our local area to provide service all around the country. For home businesses, we are their entire office staff.

An Evolution of Improvements

Larry and I continue a family tradition of always striving to improve beyond yesterday's accomplishments. Our Staff. Our Technology. Our Practices. For seventy-seven years my family has stayed ahead of the curve and set the standards for our competition to follow.

My Aunt Eloise, an RN and mid-wife, started out with a single phone for patients to leave a message for their doctors.  When she was delivering babies, my grandmother, Ruby Monroe, a professional organist, would answer the phone for her.  Eloise wrote messages in the margins of whatever magazine she was reading, which drove my grandmother nuts.  When Ruby took the business over full-time in 1940, she established the basics of the professional procedures we still follow today.

 Ruby also began accepting business clients, who wanted an extension of their own office number located at her home. Ingenious methods, involving gum and “jacks”, were invented to distinguish the sound of one phone’s ring from another. In those days, it was all memorization work. The staff had to know and remember everything about each client; including where they spent their off times and evenings, and the phone number of those locations (including their favorite bar).

The Beginning in the early nineteen thirties.

As time went on we achieved better organization. Please note the light below each phone, as there were no ringers. Hold was simply hanging the phone down. Imagine several ringing at one time. Client privacy is a major issue today especially with HIPPA concerns.

Next came "High-tech" Switch Boards, followed not too far in the future by cord boards (Cord Boards below). Each Cord Board could handle one hundred customers.



Even with Cord Boards it was still memorization. We moved three blocks, from our location on main street, across the street from the Bell Central (CO) Office to our current location, and expanded capacity.



Next came the computer age.  We were one of the first Answering Services in the nation to go to computer based messaging.

Our first  Analog Call Logger,  He said, She said died for us 15 years ago. EVERY call is recorded. Now we are 100% digital.

In 1990 we moved to our "second" electronic system. This system improved speed, accuracy, and the features we were able to offer.

Five years ago we took the next leap moving from our vendor CadCom to Amtelco's Infinity Platform. Amtelco is the largest international provider of Answering Service oriented equipment and software. They provide the most feature rich package within our industry.

As with every upgrade moving  to Amtelco allowed Monroe to expanded its abilities to serve our customers. The Infinity System gave us Custom Scripting for each customer. This provides our agent precise control over every call while we gather complete and accurate information for our clients.

 

 

A Winning Combination

 

Deborah Wohlt, Third Generation Owner/Operator, with husband Larry Cooper, Sales & Technical Manager