Goodbye US Post Office

STOP relying on the US Post Office for your payments

Now more than ever, you should STOP relying on the US Post Office to send out your invoices and to receive prompt payments from clients! Here's one MORE reason why-http://bit.ly/10OCF56-our mail is about to get even slower, even if Saturday delivery is preserved. Go electronic using custom methods that suit you, and your payments will speed up. Many clients prefer to use electronic methods as well. I can show you how you can accommodate them.

Now a few words from guest blogger Doug Campbell

As a CEO Coach and Business Owner, I am constantly looking for ways to make businesses more efficient and easier to operate. About 9 years we began accepting credit cards for our tutoring business (Sylvan Learning Center in Darien CT). It seemed like a big step at the time, and it was also potentially costly because our average charge is $100+. Nevertheless, it has been widely successful. Within 6 months 70% of our clients were using credit cards, and it is now close to 85%. The time spent preparing bills and mailing each month has been cut by 6 hours. The money is in the account almost immediately each month. Cash flow is less of a worry, and the rent check can go out on the 3rd of the month.

If you are a small business and still not using credit, reconsider the benefits in time, administration, and cash flow when you think through your strategies. If you are using credit, you should also periodically review your vendor – we lowered our fees substantially after 3 years with the first vendor and now receive better service. There are also incredible new tools to help you with cash flow and profitability in your business that are constantly being developed. Don’t let your competitors get a leg up on you. Make the time to talk to a credit expert – you will be surprised on the upside.

All the best.

Douglas Campbell III "The Success Coach"
203-975-0320 cell 203-952-1161
www.thesuccesscoach.com

Speaker * Author * Entrepreneur * Executive & Career Coach

Coaching Top-Performing Executives & Business Owners to Achieve Even Higher Levels of Success

The Success Coach on Networking (7) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boKH8yfYFNk

Business Conference Speech http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b61rV19JAk

The Success Coach, Business Expert, for Wells Fargo Bank on Onboarding New Employees

https://wellsfargo.imaginationdigitalmedia.com/business-insights/?episode=C7 (5)

Author Where To Go From Here: Reinventing Your Career, Your Business, Your Working Life (2009). It is available through Amazon, at Barrett Bookstore (Darien), Elm Street Books (New Canaan), and through the author as a book or ebook.

Would you like to save $4000 a year?

It pains me to meet a nonprofit to find out that their credit card rates and other online donor services are so out of the market that they could realize savings of $4000 a year, that's a 50% savings! It happened again last week in Stamford.

Not that they are foolish or asleep at the wheel; on the contrary. It's just that my trained and objective eye can find new ways to give them the same functionality (actually better!) for less.

Once a controller came up to me after a presentation meeting at which I won their business and said, "You don't realize what you've just done-you saved us enough money to take one of our staffers and make her a full time employee."

Now that's good for the employee and for the organization. And it makes me feel good too, that I am able to help out in a new way.

What can we do for you?

Upsetting

It's upsetting that some people out there purport to be helpful in givng you the ability to accept credit card payment, when in fact they are charging outrageous prices. Namely, (well, I won't really name names...)
1) There is a .com doing so at 5.5% on each transaction. That's DOUBLE what it should be!
2) There is another.com doing this for nonprofits alone, at 4.75% (a bargain, huh?)and they mail you a paper check once a month. That's not fair! They are earning money on the nonprofit's donations!
I am sure there are more.

Questions? Ask us.
Caveat emptor!

In re the death of customer service-now hear this!

I just received this in an email and thought it was brilliant:

Customers want you to listen to them. They want you to show them respect and listen to their needs. Don’t assume you know what they’re going to say. Let them tell you. And don’t interrupt them!

Customers want you to take responsibility. They want you to own them and their problem. Don’t pass the buck. Take care of them the way you would take care of your grandmother. See their issue through to completion. And then follow up with them and make sure they are happy with the outcome.

Customers want you to pay attention to the details. They want you to use their name when speaking to them, and call them back when you say you are going to. They want to feel important because they are!

Customers want you to remember it is their time and money. They don’t have to do business with you; there are other companies they can buy from. Remember, you are not doing them a favor. They are the reason you are in business. To serve them!

Give customers what THEY want, and they’ll be sure to come back! And they’ll tell others to come as well. And isn’t that what WE want?

I printed this and placed it on my bulletin board next to my office phone. I hope you will too.

This guy walks into a lawyer's office one day...

...and walks out with a new client. The lawyer received the customary service quality. And the attorney sent him an email:

Many thanks. Appreciate your taking the time to clarify this information (and so promptly). Others might have said "just go read the papers you signed". Which I should have done, of course. Thanks for making this so easy and user-friendly.

I would definitely like to be available as a reference for you if you are in discussions with other lawyers considering your services. Or any other business, for that matter. And I will spread the good word to my professional colleagues about your excellent service any time I can.

This is a real testimonial. I am pleased he is pleased.

And you thought from the start of this blog posting was going to be another lawyer joke, huh?

A sense of place

It's amazing how you come across new concepts, and this is one concept that I have always thought about, but never heard articulated: "a sense of place."

While at a lecture by a local historian/author, she mentioned that she shared a "sense of place" with the town she wrote of. These new ideas are useful inspirations for postings for my blog, so here goes another one:

I share the "sense of place" in electronic payments with a lot of people and institutions, some honorable, some not, often many have not fully explained something to a client. Thus, the overall need for this blog: education.

I sense the "bad guys" ruin it for the "good guys." But not only in my industry.

It happened to a potential client whose business type, while legal and honorable, was rejected by my processor and many others I referred them to as well, suffering guilt by association with the less-than-honorable competitors who make certain miraculous health claims.

What their competitors don't tell you is the number of people who buy and then return the items as useless. That makes credit card processors nervous, so the entire industry was placed on the "unacceptable merchant list."

Not that these guys are unacceptable as merchants, in fact they have a great concept and can truly help a lot of people-it's just the place they share with others is murky. They know they have these challenges, as do I in the industry I am in.

That's another reason to have this blog: to provide a level of service and explanation the other guys aren't, even though they can live with their consciences.

I welcome your comments on this topic. Help share my sense of space with your notes and opinions.