Jannemieke Keener Evolves Her Business, Keener Communications, to Remain Strong Regardless of Economic Conditions

Jannemieke Keener started her own business with just $60. For several years, she had worked in hotel management, but by July 1985, she was ready to strike out on her own by providing an answering service from her home. Just two months after opening her business, Jannemieke joined NAWBO Richmond—then known as RAWBO. She’s been a member ever since, learning from the organization and evolving her business to remain strong regardless of the economic environment around her.

At Jannemieke’s first meeting with the NAWBO Richmond Chapter, she offered to provide them with a phone number and has been operating as their answering service for the last 25 years. Her organization now has more than $1 million in annual revenues and employs 35 staff members. “We’ve had to keep reinventing ourselves,” says Jannemieke. “Faxes, modems, voicemail; they didn’t exist when we started.” She says voicemail was one of the greatest challenges for her business, but she found a way to make it work for them. Today, her organization runs a 24/7 inbound call center that processes 150,000 calls a month, specializing in order entry and lead capture from radio programs.

Following a strategic management plan has been one of the reasons for Keener Communications’ ongoing success. Each quarter, Jannemike sets a quarterly goal based off of their annual one-page strategic plan. Because of that practice, she chose to develop a new business in 2008. This business, called Mercury Fon is a virtual phone number that supports home-based businesses. “I was concerned for the 2008 elections and how they would impact our business,” she says. “With rising taxes and health care, I decided to start Mercury Fon.” This new company allows businesses to be very fluid, giving them one main number that then forwards to any employees or other phone numbers they like.

Jannemieke has seen this goal-setting process not only work for her, but for her entire organization as well. Each employee in her organization develops key performance indicators with their managers. Recently, the team decided to ensure their answer speed met a goal of 8 seconds. “I’ve seen my team really develop accountability and respond to positive peer pressure,” says Jannemieke. “To reach our goal, they held me accountable as well and I had to let go of a client who was really holding us back.” This group accountability has lead the organization to win the Award of Excellence 10 consecutive times.

Jannemieke believes it’s in large part thanks to NAWBO that her business has remained successful all these years. “NAWBO has always been about support for me,” she says. “When you own a business, you can’t be an expert in everything—to learn from other members and talk openly, that’s what NAWBO has been for me.”

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