July 2, 2007 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Colorado Springs, CO.— For the 3rd consecutive year, Finger Lakes Answering Service of Auburn and its sister company, Communications Group, of Syracuse, were honored with the exclusive 2007 Award of Excellence. Finger Lakes Answering Service and the Communications Group were presented with the award at Association of TeleServices International’s 2007 Annual Convention held in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

During six months of intensive testing, an independent panel of judges scored call-handling skills such as courtesy, response time, accuracy and overall service to clients, the cornerstones of the call management industry. Only companies with high scores in all categories are presented with the industry-coveted Award of Excellence.

“This award is highly sought after within the industry and more importantly by our staff. It is great to be able to have this outside recognition of our staff for what they do well everyday,” says Gard McLean, who is an owner of the business along with Ray Schremp.

Communications Group was founded in 1965 as a local answering service, and was acquired by Finger Lakes Business Services, Inc. in 2003. The sister company, Finger Lakes Answering Service was founded in 1990 as an answering service, and was purchased by Finger Lakes Business Services in 2002. The company reached a milestone in January by receiving its 10,000,000 call since its founding in 2002.

Both firms handle calls and messaging for a variety of businesses throughout the United States, including apartment complexes, funeral homes, health care professionals, crisis lines, small offices including virtual receptionist services, and various contractor trades including plumbers, electricians, and contractors. Recent additions to the service line include: order taking, dispatching, customer surveys, and quality control surveys.

Ray Schremp says: “ Both operations separately scored in the top 15% of all the companies participating in this award, and we are incredibly proud of this. It involves an effort on each and every phone call, because we never now which will be one of the test calls. Our staff takes great pleasure in seeing the results of our performance.”

The awards are presented annually by the Association of TeleServices International (ATSI), the industry’s trade association for providers of telecommunications and call center services including telephone answering and message delivery. ATSI, which was founded in 1942 as a national trade association representing live answering services, now encompasses companies around the world offering specialized and enhanced operator-based services including: call centers, contact centers, inbound telemarketing (order entry), paging, voice messaging, emergency dispatching, faxing, and internet services among others.

Finger Lakes Answering Service and Communications Group are two of only four winners in New York State, and the only 3-time winner in Upstate NY.

McLean, who is a Skaneateles resident, is the president of both companies while Cicero resident Schremp serves as vice president. Finger Lakes Business Services employs 44 people at the Auburn and Syracuse locations.

Finger Lakes Business Services, Inc. acquired Communications Center of Steamboat Springs, an answering service based in Steamboat Springs, CO on November 1, 2006. With more than 1,000 clients across the country, Finger Lakes Business Services is in the top 5% of the approximately 4,000 answering services in the country in terms of size.