Posts Tagged ‘Money’
Monday, December 28th, 2009
Certainly all meetings can’t be virtual. Sometimes you just have to get face to face with your customer, prospect or employee. A conference call does offer, however, a compelling alternative under any circumstances. It is easy to see where you can save money and increase your productivity using a conference call or web conference instead of travelling to the location and having a meeting. But now more than ever the conference call versus travelling argument is getting even stronger.
With the recent attempted terrorist attack on the flight landing in Detroit, the security at the airports has gotten tighter and the experience during the flight more uncomfortable. Now you have to arrive at the airport three or four hours before your flight because the line at security will be that much worse. And once you get on the plane the new regulations require you to remain in your seat in the final hour of the flight and even some of the entertainment options on the flights have been curtailed. You have to REALLY need to get where you are going and be ready to put up with the added inconveniences the new regulations will bring. And again, for some meetings there is no choice. You just have to be there in person no matter what. But I think this latest round of travel inconveniences will make more and more people look into alternatives like the conference call or a web conference because it is not just about the money anymore.
A conference call and a web conference can provide you all the tools you would have in a regular conference room setting without having to travel to the location. You can freely speak together on the conference call and share any documents, presentations and even a video feed with the people at the other end. All for a fraction of the cost of getting there in person and without any of the hassle. So the next time you are requested to attend a meeting in another city or country think of the alternatives and ask yourself if it is REALLY necessary to be there in person or will a conference call do the same thing.
www.zipconferencing.com
Tags: Airports, Alterna, Circumstances, Conference Call, Entertainment Options, Final Hour, Flights, Fraction, Hassle, Inconveniences, Landing In Detroit, Money, People, Productivity, Terrorist Attack, Tools, Travel, Travelling, Video Feed, Web Conference
Posted in Conference Call | No Comments »
Friday, November 20th, 2009
Just to help make the point that conference calls and now more than ever, web conferencing can help any business save money and be more productive I have decided to talk about another industry who you would not think uses conference calls. Certainly when you think of agriculture you think of a farmer who raises a crop or livestock and then sells to a market. What use could agriculture possibly have with conference calls and web conferencing?
Well you would be surprised. Agriculture is just another business, a big business in fact, that is always looking for ways to reduce cost and improve productivity so naturally they use conference calls. The market that buys the crops or livestock is having conference calls with the farmers it buys from to keep them informed of prices and stock levels and other market factors. By having one conference call with all of their suppliers they are saving time from calling each farmer individually. The farmers are able to speak amongst themselves and share tips on how to better manage their farms. If the farmers belong to a cooperative, the cooperative is using conference calls to better communicate between all of the farmers in the cooperative and share information. And up the supply chain the distributors are able to talk to all of the markets and give them information on demand and pricing and so forth. The level of communication in the entire supply chain has improved with the use of conference calls.
And all of the vendors that touch this industry have also found that conference calls and web conferencing are helping them communicate with their audience faster and more effectively. The companies that make farming equipment are holding regular seminars on the latest equipment and its uses. The companies that make the feed for the animals and the seed for the crops are holding conference calls with the farmers to discuss the availability of their goods, pricing and effective uses. And all of this communication via conference call and web conferences is saving everyone a lot of time and money. Farms by their nature are spread out over vast areas and it is very difficult and time consuming to have personal meetings with each farmer. The use of conference calls and web conferences in agriculture is a natural fit!
www.zipconferencing.com
Tags: Agriculture, Animals, Audience, Commu, Conference Call, Crops, Farmers, Farming Equipment, Level Of Communication, Livestock, Market Factors, Money, Productivity, Saving Time, Seminars, Share Information, Share Tips, Stock Levels, Supply Chain, Web Conferencing
Posted in Conference Calls | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
I know I have blogged about conference calls and web conferencing and how it can save you money. But I thought it would be useful to use a real life example to illustrate just how dramatic the savings can be when you choose to conduct a meeting using a web conference instead of an in person meeting.
A customer had an instance where they really needed to go to Hong Kong from New Jersey to have a meeting with a new customer to discuss the implementation of their services. And under normal conditions this type of meeting in person is very typical for this customer and they would not use a web conference for the implementation phase of their service. But in this case the customer had an issue where they wanted to have a pre-m eeting with this vendor and discuss how the implementation would work with one of their contacts before they had the actual meeting. So, the customer requested that the vendor come out and have a meeting and then return to have the actual implementation meeting. This meant that two employees would need to fly from New Jersey to Hong Kong which is a 16 hour flight for a four hour meeting and then return to New Jersey only to go back to Hong Kong the following week. And for those of you who have not had to do this flight it is not only long, it is expensive. It costs $1,800 for a coach seat and almost $9,000 for a business class seat each. The bottom line for the vendor was that the four hour meeting was going to cost about $5,000 and several days of productivity from two employees.
In steps Web Conferencing to save the day. The vendor convinced the customer that they could do a web conference for the pre-meeting at least and spend as much time as is necessary to go through the implementation planning. The customer agreed and the web conference went off without a hitch and made the customer feel comfortable about the upcoming meeting. The customer and the vendor were able to interact on the web conference just like they were in the same conference room and accomplish everything that needed to be done. The meeting ended up lasting about 3 hours and cost the vendor $29 using Zip Conferencing’s web conference service. Using web conferencing saved the vendor $5,000 and allowed them to conduct the meeting without any sacrifice in results and also saved a lot of time for the employees increasing the company’s productivity.
These kind of events happen all the time and is the reason that web conferencing is growing so fast. Customers immediately experience the real life benefits of conducting a web conference instead of an in-person meeting.
www.zipconferencing.com
Tags: Bottom Line, Business Class Seat, Coach Seat, Company Thousands, Conferencing Company, Contacts, Eeting, Fly, Hong Kong, Implementation Phase, Money, Productivity, Thousands Of Dollars, Upcoming Meeting, Web Conference, Web Conferencing
Posted in Web Conferencing | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009
Since I have been in the conference call service industry for over 14 years, I have tried to share some of my knowledge of what is behind the curtain at a conference call service company. And there are a number of differences that you can and cannot see when you look at different conference call service companies. But many times you will never feel the difference unless you have an issue with a conference call service company you may not notice if they have a back up system, etc. What you can feel and should feel right from the start is service.
With the declining rates for conference calls many conference call companies are looking for ways to cut costs just like any other industry. And in the conference call industry the two biggest expenses are the telecommunication costs and the cost of personnel. Since the telecommunications costs are near the bottom, the only place to really save any money is on personnel. The problem is that customers want a low rate but they also want to be able to talk to a person if they have questions or problems. So, when a conference call company takes away a customers ability to talk to a person there is a definite drop in the level of service the customer receives. That is why at Zip Conferencing I have refused to reduce the number of personnel that interface with the customer. In fact, I continue to grow that staff in relationship to the number of customers because I am a customer myself and I know how much I value the availability of a human being when I have a question or problem.
Here at Zip Conferencing, there is a person available to speak to you 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. And every account is assigned an Account Manager to help them with their conference calls. That way each customer will have a positive experience and I believe the best way to build a business is through referrals. How does the saying go? Have a good customer experience and you will tell 3 people, but have a bad customer experience and you will tell 10 people. So, the long term benefits of providing exceptional customer service in a conference call service company easily outweigh the short term economics of slashing personnel to attempt to improve profitability.
www.zipconferencing.com
Tags: 365 Days, Build Referrals, Business Referrals, Conference Call Service, Conference Call Services, Curtain Call, Customer Experience, Interface, Knowledge, Money, Relationship, Right Start, Telecommunication Costs, Telecommunications Costs
Posted in Conference Call Service | 1 Comment »
