Webmail Service Tips

From time to time, I come across some helpful tips on a variety of topics, this one happens to be related to webmail services. The other day I ended up at a link from www.makeuseof.com explaining some very interesting features for Gmail accounts. Today, most people need to access there emails on the go from any location. Gmail is a great free web based email service that seems to have continuous upgrades and many new extensions to help make Gmail even easier to use. In this post, there are links to two websites. Both sites give links and explanations of over 80 tips and extensions. They include shortcut lists, scripts, additional web applications, and a series of how to’s. However, besides the over 80 tips, I found the article on how to use just one email address for multiple purposes, one for family, one for friends, one for those websites that require and email address to sign and how to separate them in your inbox the most interesting.

Over 80 Gmail Tips

One Surprising Gmail Tip

Is the Customer Always Right?

The old adage “the customer is always right” has been implemented into many business environments since the early 1900’s. The phrase implies that no matter what your customers say, demand, or even behave is tolerable by your company’s standards. The underlying question this ideology presents is by putting the customer first does that lead to better customer service or is it even good for business? The following are five examples of why the customer is not always right and in some cases the customer is even wrong.

Everyone does not know what is best for your company. People innately look out for their own best interests. This mentality leads them to believe that you should do whatever it is they want you to do. Companies that cave into each and every customer’s demand eventually find themselves stressed at keeping the customer happy. The more you give a customer; the more they feel they can get from you. Altering customary business practices for certain clients provides an unfair advantage to those customers that are the most demanding and abusive. Some customers you will never be able to satisfy. The best way to succeed at providing the best customer service is to keep your nice clients happy and invite the difficult and abusive clients to succeed elsewhere.

Walking away from bad deals is much harder for some companies to accomplish. More customers are not always better for business. Meeting each customer’s request can place a significant burden on your financial budget. Taking on a very large client may lead you to have to expand infrastructure, inventory, and even hire additional employees. If that customer was ever to not require your services and leave, you are stuck with the anticipated costs of servicing the client. Although turning down future revenue may be difficult, companies often don’t realize the hidden costs of acquiring that revenue. Walking away from bad deals is not always a financial decision. Some clients just cause too much disruption to your current service levels. Taking on one client can easily cause a decrease to the service levels provided to your current customer base. What you may think is a positive expansion, could lead to loyal long term customers to leave due to decreased overall customer service to the smaller clients.

A company that always sides with the customer tends to deal with unhappy employees. Employees are working for you everyday forming a bond with the company, while customers may come and go as they please. Creating a business environment where employees always feel subordinate to the customer leads to poor attitude where employees don’t care about the job. Employees that don’t feel valued by their company or respected by the customers have no reason to provide quality customer service. Without employees that care and have a positive attitude about their job, your company will eventually lose your customer base. Not that all employees can provide excellent customer service, but explaining poor service by saying the customer is always right is counter-productive and hides the true problem at hand. Hiding bad service by telling customers they are right doesn’t solve future complaints. Respect and support your employees and in turn they will respect and satisfy your customers. If you can fire bad employees, you can “fire” bad customers as well. Some customers just don’t fit your business model. For instance, companies that specialize in a certain industry may not wish to venture outside of that market. Whereas a company that services a general client base may not be able to successfully handle all the demands of a specialized client. Maybe refer the clients you can not handle or wish not to take to a friendly competitor. You never know they may respond by referring a client they don’t want that could be beneficial to your business. Each company needs to find its preferred level of diversification. You don’t want to service just one client in case they no longer require service; on the other hand, servicing too many different types of clients create the possibly of mistakes and not fully understanding those clients’ needs.

The ideology “the customer is always right” generally leads to bad customer service. Having employees know that the customer is always right develops the attitude of providing a fake quality of service to satisfy customers. Putting your employees first lets them know you will support them when they encounter difficult clients. Finally, it is important to note that you can’t satisfy all customers. Sometimes it is best to just walk away from a client and keep the bad clients from affecting other loyal customers.

FCC Wireless Spectrum Auction - UPDATE

This post is an update to the on going story of the 700 MHz wireless spectrum. The FCC has ended the auction after nearly 2 months, with the name of the winning bidder still not released. The total bidding amount surpassed $19 billion. The spectrum will not be released until sometime near February of 2009. Once this time comes, be on the look out for some major changes to how mobile devices are able to access wireless connections. Below is an excerpt from the article describing how the auction was completed.

“After nearly two months, the Federal Communication Commissions 700MHz spectrum auction has come to an end. Bidding far exceeded the FCC's pre-auction hopes of $10 billion to $15 billion, with the final tally coming in at $19,592,420,000. The auction ended this afternoon with a terse announcement by the Commission that there were no "bids, withdrawals, or proactive activity rule waivers" during round 261. "Therefore, Auction 73 has closed under the simultaneous stopping rule.

The auction topped the $19 billion mark back in early February, so bidding since then has been slow, to say the least. Of the two most closely watched chunks of spectrum in the auction, Blocks C and De, only C hit the FCC's reserve price. Block D fell over $800 million short of the FCC's minimum.”

To read more of this article, click here.

21st Annual SNUG Conference

Earlier this week members of MedCom’s management staff attended the 21^st annual SNUG (Startel National Users Group) Conference. The conference was held in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina at the Sheraton Convention Center Hotel. Some of the main focuses at the conference were networking amongst other answering services, brainstorming ideas to create new products or services and reviewing industry standards to reach the next level of service.

Although attendees of the conference represent their own company, each brings as much information and suggestions to offer guidance to competitive businesses. The concept of management staff from competitive offices sharing ideas and business practices is one that many, specifically those not members of user groups or trade associations, may not realize the benefit. However, the value of collaborating with other members in the industry allows your company to be open to change, continually learning and to expand your business knowledge and resources.

Openly discussing operations and practices allows you analyze your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, commonly referred to as SWOT analysis. This SWOT analysis becomes part of your future strategic planning. It focuses on both internal and external factors. The internal factors are Strengths and Weaknesses. Your company’s Strengths are the aspects of your organization that are helpful in reaching your goal; whereas, Weaknesses are the aspects of your organization that are harmful to reaching your goal. The external factors are Opportunities and Threats. Your company’s Opportunities are the external aspects of your organization that are helpful in reaching your goal; whereas, Threats are the external aspects of your organization that are harmful to reaching your goal. An important note to take is that the SWOT analysis is not the actual planning strategy. SWOT analysis is used as a description of factors that must be considered within a planned strategy.

Listed on Wikipedia are several examples of possible factors included in a SWOT analysis:

Strengths and Weaknesses

• Resources: financial, intellectual, location.
• Cost advantages from proprietary know-how and/or location.
• Creativity (ability to develop new products).
• Valuable intangible assets: intellectual capital.
• Competitive capabilities.
• Effective recruitment of talented individuals.
• Competitive Advantage.
• Brand reputation.
• New product.

Opportunities and Threats

• Expansion or down-sizing of competitors.
• Market trends.
• Economic conditions.
• Expectations of stakeholders.
• Technology.
• Public expectations.
• All other activities or inactivities by competitors.
• Criticisms by outsiders.
• Changes in markets.
• All other environmental conditions.
• Global Influences.

After attending the SNUG Conference, I found that the sharing of business practices and philosophies amongst successful industry leaders is necessary for any company to constantly reevaluate its current holdings and to find new ways to succeed.

Identity Theft Happens: Protect Yourself

Skilled identity thieves use a variety of methods to steal your personal information, including:

• Dumpster Diving – They rummage through trash looking for bills or other paper with your personal information on it.
• Skimming – They steal credit card and debit card numbers by using a special storage device when processing your card.
• Phishing – They pretend to be financial institutions or companies and send spam or pop-up messages to get you to reveal your personal information.
• Changing Your Address – They divert your billing statements to another location by compelling a “change of address” form.
• “Old-fashioned” Stealing – They steal wallets and purses; mail, including bank and credit card statements; pre-approved credit offers; and new checks or tax information. They steal personnel records from their employers, or bribe employees who have access.

Identity theft is a serious crime. It occurs when your personal information is stolen and used without your knowledge to commit fraud or other crimes. Identity theft can cost you time and money. It can destroy your credit and ruin your good name.

Deter identity thieves by safeguarding your information:

• Shred financial documents and paperwork with personal information before you discard them.
• Protect your Social Security number. Don’t’ carry your Social Security card in your wallet or write your Social Security number on a check. Give it out only if absolutely necessary or ask to use another identifier.
• Don’t give out personal information on the phone, through the mail, or over the Internet unless you know who you are dealing with.
• Never click on links sent in unsolicited emails; instead, type in a web address you know. Use firewalls, anti-spyware, and anti-virus software to protect your home computer. Keep them up-to-date on the latest software versions.
• Don’t use obvious passwords like your date of birth, your mother’s maiden name, or any part of your Social Security number.
• Keep your personal information in a secure place at home, especially if you have roommates, employ outside help, or if you are having work done in your house.

Detect suspicious activity by routinely monitoring your financial statements and account activity:

• Be alert to signs that require immediate attention:
• Bills that do not arrive as expected.
• Unexpected credit cards or account statements.
• You were denied credit for no apparent reason.
• Calls or letters about purchases you did not make.

Inspect your credit report and financial statements. Your credit report contains information about you, including what accounts you have and your bill paying history. Review your financial accounts and billing statements regularly, looking for charges you did know make.

Defend against identity theft as soon as you suspect it:

• Place a “Fraud Alert” on your credit reports. The alert tells creditors to follow certain procedures before they open new accounts in your name or make changes to your existing accounts. Placing a fraud alert entitles you to free copies of your credit reports. Look for inquiries from companies you haven’t contacted, accounts you didn’t open, and debts that you can’t explain.
• Close any accounts that have been tampered with or established fraudulently. Call the security or fraud department of each company where an account was opened or changed without your knowledge.
• File a police report with law enforcement officials to help you with creditors who may want proof of the crime.
• Report the theft to the Federal Trade Commission. Your report helps law enforcement officials across the country in their investigations.

Every Business Needs an Answering Service

Here Are Ten Good Reasons Why:

1. Time: We save customers time by answering their telephone calls on their behalf every hour of the day, by taking clear messages and relaying them in a timely manner.
2. Money: We save clients time and money. We are skilled at taking messages and specific information and routing telephone calls efficiently. For most businesses we answer their phones over 500 hours each month. On a cost per hour basis, we offer excellent value.
3. Differentiation: Simply put, using our service enables you to distinguish your business from your competitors. Every time we represent you and assist you in fulfilling your customers’ needs, we make our clients look good.
4. Cost Effectiveness: After hours, we provide quality customer service for far less than the cost of covering your telephone lines yourself.
5. Ubiquity: The telephone is the most widely used means of communication in our society. We provide telephone and communications solutions to our customers 24/7.
6. Human Element: We provide callers with greater satisfaction simply because they reach a real person. MedCom provides our clients with a dedicated staff of professionally trained and certified agents, dispatchers, and supervisors.
7. Reliability: Our equipment is reliable and has redundant features so that calls get completed. Our goal is 99.99% run time. Our staff is tested every month in our call monitoring program for quality assurance. These help increase confidence in your company and service too.
8. Expertise: We handle so many different kinds of calls that in many cases we can help streamline the information you may need and help deliver it to you effectively.
9. Technology: MedCom is equipped with some of the most advanced and user-friendly messaging technology available. We can custom tailor messaging solutions for specialized needs and we can create and or access data bases to help your customers.
10. Customer Service: Every business sooner or later needs help serving customer needs, especially during lunch periods, holidays, weekends, during staff meetings, and after hours.