It's New Year's Eve-such a nice sentiment is attached below

We have very good friends in Ohio who sent a New Year's e-card. The sentiment was so nice I had to repeat it for you:

The people you love
The places you're a part of
The memories you hold onto
And those unforgettable moments when you close your eyes and breathe in life with a smile
A new year is a reminder to celebrate all the things that are good in your world.

To all our readers: a happy, healthy, prosperous new year.

Back with more good news from a nonprofit

I have been remiss in posting to the blog for the past couple of weeks.

Too busy installing new services at new customers, a nice problem I guess.

Here's an email I received yesterday from one of those new clients, a nonprofit:

Marc, you exceeded my expectations. We are very happy so far…….Thank you for everything, and I’ll be sure to pass along your name…. All the very best for a happy holiday season, L

That makes me feel good.

You can feel that way too, just ask us!

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.