Flattery will get you everywhere

Funny how things happen in pairs.


First, at the Thanksgiving table, several of us got into a discussion how bad customer service has become. We all agreed that our businesses would die if we gave the same lousy customer service to our clients that we receive as consumers.


Then, I received this accolade from Fred Klein, guru of Gotham City Networking, a nationwide social-business networking organization that he founded 10+ years ago and runs as a labor of love. His Thanksgiving posting on the Gotham blog was arranged as an acrostic, and I was mentioned in the "H" line (quoting Fred below):
...
As I have said many times, we are a social-business networking group which is more akin to a tribe than anything else. It is fun for me and I hope it is the same for you. We pledge to keep innovating,invigorating, pushing the envelope, waving the wand and one last note--feel free to make a suggestion (and you will own it).

Happy Thanksgiving to all of the Tribe from A to Z:
...

H-Marc Halpert for being our service obsessed credit card maven.


Thanks, Fred, for recognizing what we do differently than the rest, in front of over 500 other Gothamites, for the unique service quality we give to you as our client. AND thanks and for the opportunities Gotham has given me as a member of such a great organization.


Folks, just ask me about Gotham! Got an hour or so? As we say in Gotham, what goes around, comes around. Today, the thank-yous are flying.

We have been featured in FastCompany's blog today

We were very pleased to receive a phone call from Ruth Sherman, a nationally-known training coach for speakers, whose expertise is in personal and business communications.

She heard we mail hand-written Thanksgiving thank-you's to clients.

Here's what resulted. http://blog.fastcompany.com/experts/ on Nov 15th. Thanks, Ruth!

It's just another way we are different than the competition....

Have a great holiday. Thanks for reading this blog.

November cash flow kickoff to the end of the year

This is it-Thanskgiving is around the corner then Christmas and year end.

IF you have been procrastinating about making a change in operating procedures which would improve your cash flow, consider this a kick to get started now.

You want to improve your business or nonprofit and we have the techniques and tools to do so.

Ask us for help.

White Paper on the new law in CT

Here is a link to the white paper we have just completed analyzing the effect of the new law in Connecticut on businesses and organizations doing business here:

http://marchalpert.googlepages.com/WhitePaperoct07.pdf

In a nutshell, the law states that if your organization or company is the source of a breach of personal data of any customer, you can be held financial liable to correct the banking loss of that person and his/her banks. Connecticut is the second state in the nation to enact such a law.

Please pass this to anyone who can benefit from it. They need to know the ways to remedy their exposure. Let us know if you have any questions.

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.

Blog Action Day-Environmental Theme

Tomorrow, October 15th, is Blog Action Day, where blogs can comment on the environmental aspects of what they do.

Simply put, don't mail payments to people or have them mail payments to you! Save the gas, paper, and reduce carbon emissions associated with business as usual for the past 100 years:

1. don't create or mail paper invoices-email them with a link on the email to your website to accept online payment


2. don't create paper checks: pay electronically by creating an ACH (e-check) and crediting the payee-saves postage, time, effort, gas and waste


3. don't make your clients or customers expect that they have to mail you a check-accept payments electronically via e-check or credit card-and you can do that over the phone, e-fax (saves paper over regular fax), by email, or online


4. ask your bank and credit card processor to convert you to electronic statements-you get them faster and without wasting the paper for an envelope or a stamp

That's only 4 ways. There are so many more which we can explore creatively and effectively. Ask us. Challenge us. We will find a way to make payments more environmentally-friendly.

Response to our posting yesterday on the change of the law in Connecticut

Here's a response we just received to our posting on the new law in Connecticut (see posting dated 08Oct07):

Hi Marc,
thanks for the update on the new bill. I printed it off and will review to make sure we are covered. I believe we are doing most of the suggestions already. Your blog is great.
SC

That's EXACTLY the type of response that makes us feel this blog is worthwhile-helping one client at a time...

Please tell others about this law. It affects all of us in one way or another and other states are adding the law to their books.

If anyone has a question about best practices, please contact us for a no-obligation phone consultation.