For example, a pipe in or near a tenant's apartment might burst and they need a serviceperson to come out right away to fix it
. The owner of the property might provide the tenant with a number to call in this situation and the operator will contact the appropriate person, connecting them with the caller. Because the operator will keep calling individuals on this list until someone is reached, you can rest assured that someone will be on it as soon as possible. This is quite different than a voicemail which could delay action for hours or direct calls to your cell phone, which might ring needlessly in the middle of the night for non-urgent matters. An answering service bridges the gap between having to be woken up in the middle of the night needlessly and not having a situation handled soon enough.