Certification Hall of Fame
Certification Programs
SNUG offers training and certification in 4 areas of your call center. ATSI 24/7 Certification Programs consist of 4 areas of credentialing for the telephone answering service industry — Agent, Advanced Agent, Supervisor and Site. Its stated goal is to help a call center achieve "four nines" or 99.99% annual run time by demonstrating proficiency in "the best set of business practices" available in the telemessaging industry.24/7 Site Certification Program sets forth over sixty criteria that must be met to achieve certification. The criteria cover 3 main areas – business practices, operations and personnel. Business practices include such items as appropriate licenses, insurance and life safety.
Operations is the largest portion of the program and covers equipment minimums, system maintenance procedures, back-ups, network security and emergency procedures. The final third of the program covers items relating to personnel in terms of hiring practices, training and continuing education, and processes for ongoing employee evaluations and development.
The other three components of the ATSI 24/7 certification programs include Agent, Advanced Agent (Dispatcher) certification and Supervisor certification. These programs allow staff members to demonstrate their level of proficiency in performing their jobs in the call center environment.
Agent Certification
The Agent Certification Program is designed and written for the Telephone Answering Service industry to certify and accredit their staff of agents / Telephone Service Representatives.
Successful candidates have demonstrated excellence in three areas: completion and testing under the Interactive Training Program, successfully passing a comprehensive written examination of Call Handling skill sets, and an oral interview testing customer service issues and problem calls with a certified examiner.
Dispatcher Certification
The next step in the certification process is Advanced Agent Certification. This validates your agent’s proficiency in what many consider a critical component of call center work — proper delivery of the caller’s message.
Supervisor Certification
Candidates are selected to participate in the Supervisor Certification program because their manager feels they have the potential to lead, coach, and support the CSR staff.
Site Certification
24/7 Site Certification Program sets forth nearly sixty [60] criteria that must be met or exceeded. They represent the best practices that telephone answering service sites should adhere to.
About the Site Certification Process
A Peer Review process will administer the Certification program. Certification will involve the following steps:
- Pre-inspection the criteria listing and check sheet is supplied to candidate site. Once the site feels they meet or exceed the criteria of readiness, they contact Dan L’Heureux to schedule the examination.
- Site must make payment of certification fee $545.00 (and) inspection fee $600.00/day to ATSI before visit.
- Examiner’s travel expenses to be reimbursed before issuance of certification.
- The qualified examiner (QE) will conduct a site visit to verify that all components of the desired certification level have been met.
- The QE will take digital pictures of the site for review by a randomly selected committee member.
Certification is valid for 3 calendar years.
View Call Center Certification Criteria
Certification Process: Qualified Examiner
Up to two people from Gold certified site may be designated as a Qualified Examiner with approval of the SNUG Board of Directors. Each examiner may inspect up to 3 sites.
Qualified Examiners must:
- Have at least five years experience in a management position.
- Authorized Vendor Training [either System or Technical Management]
- Must examine one site under the supervision of Dan L’Heureux (or another Qualified Examiner who has inspected a minimum of two sites) at own expense after own site is certified.
- Must have a digital camera / smartphone and the ability to transfer image files electronically.
Questions? Dan L’Heureux 763-473-0210 or Dan@CallConsult.net
24/7 Certification Hall of Fame
Telephone answering service sites that are currently ATSI or CAM-X Certified. Recertification required every 3rd year.
| Company Name | Original Certification Date | Platform |
| MedCom Professional Services- dba Keystone Answering Service | June 4, 2001 | Startel |
| Answer Quick | October 31, 2001 | Startel |
| An*Ser | February 12, 2002 | Amtelco |
| Business Connections | October 28, 2002 | Amtelco |
| Dexcomm | January 7, 2004 | Amtelco |
| Call Experts | March 11, 2004 | Amtelco |
| Focus Call Centers | November 18, 2004 | Startel |
| Cosmopolitan Medical Communications AnswerNow | May 19, 2006 | Startel |
| Combined Communications | January 8, 2007 | Startel |
| AllGood Communications | June 23, 2007 | Startel |
| Connections Call Center | February 22, 2008 | Startel |
| Rochester Telemessaging | April 11, 2008 | Startel |
| Business Connect | November 13, 2008 | Startel |
| Mid-State Communications- Advanced Answer | November 13, 2008 | Startel |
| A Better Answer | February 13, 2009 | Amtelco |
| Extend Communications | August 30, 2009 | Amtelco |
| Direct Line Tele Response | October 13, 2009 | Pinnacle |
| Northern Communications | October 27, 2011 | Amtelco |
| Intercon Messaging | September 6, 2012 | Amtelco |
| Advantage TeleMessaging | October 15, 2012 | Startel |
| TelePlex, Inc | March 5, 2015 | Amtelco |