Please, don't get me wrong, Mr Sheen is a great product, and I use it for almost anything - cleaning glass surfaces, great, tables, great, motorbike fairings, great, car interior, great, timber floors - shit house.
If it's an obvious thing to you, then well done - I however made the mistake of cleaning a part of my timber floors with it, and now every time I walk past I'm in danger of doing a hip!
Picture a bigger, fatter version of Bambi on ice (the frozen water stuff, not the amphetamine - although that would be interesting, seeing Bambi on ice at the disco?), and that's a bit like me around the kitchen area now.
Or was it a ploy to keep me out of the kitchen?
Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Friday, 28 August 2009
There's no place like mums
I think the title says it all really, there absolutely is no place like mums place.
This week Lisa had to go to Darwin for work, leaving the dog and I at home by ourselves. Now normally the dog spends one day a week at mum and dads place, because mum insists on looking after her - mainly I think because we don't have any children yet, it's the closest thing to a grandchild from me she has.
Anyway, as soon as mum found out Lisa was away, she insisted that the dog and I come and stay there - and why wouldn't I?
Each morning I wake up to a cooked breakfast - not in bed, but I'm not complaining, and return to a cooked dinner.
It's not that I can't look after myself and the dog, I can, but truth be told I've never been very good cooking for one, mainly because it feels like too much effort to make anything decent if it's just me - although the dog gets feed well.
Ah, yes this is the life, thanks mum, it's been a great week!
C
This week Lisa had to go to Darwin for work, leaving the dog and I at home by ourselves. Now normally the dog spends one day a week at mum and dads place, because mum insists on looking after her - mainly I think because we don't have any children yet, it's the closest thing to a grandchild from me she has.
Anyway, as soon as mum found out Lisa was away, she insisted that the dog and I come and stay there - and why wouldn't I?
Each morning I wake up to a cooked breakfast - not in bed, but I'm not complaining, and return to a cooked dinner.
It's not that I can't look after myself and the dog, I can, but truth be told I've never been very good cooking for one, mainly because it feels like too much effort to make anything decent if it's just me - although the dog gets feed well.
Ah, yes this is the life, thanks mum, it's been a great week!
C
Wednesday, 22 July 2009
Can you believe it? I can't...
Two junior football clubs, Diggers Rest and Rockbank, have been banned playing footy this weekend due to a brawl which occurred at an UNDER 12's footy match last weekend??
I believe it was the president of the Diggers Rest club who said that they and their coach's felt as though they had been punished before the investigation had concluded????
Further, it has been alleged that both players (10 and 11 year olds) AND PARENTS were involved!!!
Who are these people???
Banned? Without having all the facts, on face value the clubs should be removed for the rest of the season, and possibly from the league indefinitely. If my kid played for a club and this happened, it'd be the last time he played for them - UNDER 12's.
I'm not being funny, or a bleeding heart, or soft - but these are kids! They're still playing restricted rules for gods sake!
Unbelievable!
Two junior football clubs, Diggers Rest and Rockbank, have been banned playing footy this weekend due to a brawl which occurred at an UNDER 12's footy match last weekend??
I believe it was the president of the Diggers Rest club who said that they and their coach's felt as though they had been punished before the investigation had concluded????
Further, it has been alleged that both players (10 and 11 year olds) AND PARENTS were involved!!!
Who are these people???
Banned? Without having all the facts, on face value the clubs should be removed for the rest of the season, and possibly from the league indefinitely. If my kid played for a club and this happened, it'd be the last time he played for them - UNDER 12's.
I'm not being funny, or a bleeding heart, or soft - but these are kids! They're still playing restricted rules for gods sake!
Unbelievable!
Thursday, 9 July 2009
So the 2008/09 financial year and finished, and a new one has begun, and what a time to be alive as we watch the world changing at a faster pace than ever before.
A couple of days ago we heard an uproar from the unions, government oppositions, and surprisingly (or not) the government themselves as the Fair Pay Commission decided against imposing a mandatory pay increase for workers on the minimum wage.
Fair enough the unions and the opposition political parties - the government one I thought was a bit cheap considering if they felt workers should get an increase then they have the power to do so. They don't because it would be economically irresponsible to do so - during times of uncertainty why would a government purposely put pressure of businesses fighting to stay afloat or keep in touch with the break even line? After all the pressure on the economy is worsened by people out of work.
So in an attempt to keep the wolves at bay, I think ultimately it's the right thin to do.
As that kicks off the new FY, what else will be in store?
GM in the US has gone broke, Pacific Brands moved offshore after not so long ago upgrading their plant equipment, Haymes Manuals sell their manufacturing plant and rights. then on the other hand we see the likes of Woolworths renovating old stores, and building new ones. and the head of Macquarrie taking the largest pay cut in Australian corporate history that went into the $20 millions!
Speaking to small business, there's a mixed attitude to the state of play, some are busier than ever and others frightfully quiet.
This business with the recession is some what like the argument of global warming, some say it's real and others don't.
My view is that although technically a recession is two concurrent quarters of negative growth, after years of positing 5% increases, if we posted a negative growth of .5% - aren't we just back where we were 6 months or less ago?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's no big deal - just not as big a deal as the media would have us believe. I base my belief on the fact that it's us that makes the difference. if we decide that we should squirrel our cash away, and don't buy our Friday night pizza, and our beers to watch the tellie, or don't go to the movies, hold off getting the car serviced until next month, don't get the blocked pipes dealt with - basically stop spending - then it's us that have caused it.
On the other hand (and can be seen in the retail postings) we can see that whilst we're spending at the shops, then the recession doesn't happen.
I'm not saying no company will go broke because they will - even in an economic boom companies fall over and the micro reasons are vast, but at the end of the day they ultimately fall over due to poor management decisions.
The CEO of Woolworths Australia came out and said (in response to Pacific Brands shutting up manufacturing locally and going to Asia) that good management was about managing the business in good times, and placing their business in a position so as to be able to weather the bad times - obviously something PB didn't do.
So what's going to happen? who knows, I'm not a economic guru, and I don't read the papers that much - but I couldn't let that stop me... :)
I foresee over the next 12-18 months, one or two major car manufacturers file for bankruptcy to be picked up by the real big guys like Ta Ta. Rio Tinto to close down operations in China.
In general terms, I think we'll see companies that we never expected to go bust, go bust and the rise of the super company to spring up.
I think there will be a growth in high-tech manufacturing, and a fall in manufacturing activity of day to day consumables.
Where the recession will hit home globally will be in Asia, as they traditionally have higher growth rates than western, more conservative, countries and the fall will hurt the most - no doubt causing a few civil wars throughout the region.
I believe, Victoria at least, will somewhat be buffered by the building activity which is about to be undertaken in bushfire effected areas from Black Saturday which will not only equal but surpass the impact that the K Rudd stimulus package had on the country.
Taking note from the past, when Ash Wednesday occurred, the construction that took place to rebuild there helped during those hard times, and although harder times now, we've got a significantly increased volume of rebuilding to be undertaken which will help everyone, manufacturers, unemployed, retail, you name it.
The biggest thing that I think will be effected is communication, and the way businesses communicate with one another, and internal and external staff - it's a time for reality checks, and opportunities for companies to take an inward look at cost and revenue leakage and for us I think we'll see companies for whom SMS is new to them taking up and feeling the positive benefits of it within their business as costing issues from telco's are relieved some, staff improve on efficiency and customers feel the benefits of quick sharp and to the point communications.
It really is an interesting time to be alive, and yes there will be casualties and hardship, and even I'm not immune personally to that, but as my dad says, a problem is an opportunity for change, and change is exactly what's about to happen for all and sundry.
Have a great day.
Cheers,
C
A couple of days ago we heard an uproar from the unions, government oppositions, and surprisingly (or not) the government themselves as the Fair Pay Commission decided against imposing a mandatory pay increase for workers on the minimum wage.
Fair enough the unions and the opposition political parties - the government one I thought was a bit cheap considering if they felt workers should get an increase then they have the power to do so. They don't because it would be economically irresponsible to do so - during times of uncertainty why would a government purposely put pressure of businesses fighting to stay afloat or keep in touch with the break even line? After all the pressure on the economy is worsened by people out of work.
So in an attempt to keep the wolves at bay, I think ultimately it's the right thin to do.
As that kicks off the new FY, what else will be in store?
GM in the US has gone broke, Pacific Brands moved offshore after not so long ago upgrading their plant equipment, Haymes Manuals sell their manufacturing plant and rights. then on the other hand we see the likes of Woolworths renovating old stores, and building new ones. and the head of Macquarrie taking the largest pay cut in Australian corporate history that went into the $20 millions!
Speaking to small business, there's a mixed attitude to the state of play, some are busier than ever and others frightfully quiet.
This business with the recession is some what like the argument of global warming, some say it's real and others don't.
My view is that although technically a recession is two concurrent quarters of negative growth, after years of positing 5% increases, if we posted a negative growth of .5% - aren't we just back where we were 6 months or less ago?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's no big deal - just not as big a deal as the media would have us believe. I base my belief on the fact that it's us that makes the difference. if we decide that we should squirrel our cash away, and don't buy our Friday night pizza, and our beers to watch the tellie, or don't go to the movies, hold off getting the car serviced until next month, don't get the blocked pipes dealt with - basically stop spending - then it's us that have caused it.
On the other hand (and can be seen in the retail postings) we can see that whilst we're spending at the shops, then the recession doesn't happen.
I'm not saying no company will go broke because they will - even in an economic boom companies fall over and the micro reasons are vast, but at the end of the day they ultimately fall over due to poor management decisions.
The CEO of Woolworths Australia came out and said (in response to Pacific Brands shutting up manufacturing locally and going to Asia) that good management was about managing the business in good times, and placing their business in a position so as to be able to weather the bad times - obviously something PB didn't do.
So what's going to happen? who knows, I'm not a economic guru, and I don't read the papers that much - but I couldn't let that stop me... :)
I foresee over the next 12-18 months, one or two major car manufacturers file for bankruptcy to be picked up by the real big guys like Ta Ta. Rio Tinto to close down operations in China.
In general terms, I think we'll see companies that we never expected to go bust, go bust and the rise of the super company to spring up.
I think there will be a growth in high-tech manufacturing, and a fall in manufacturing activity of day to day consumables.
Where the recession will hit home globally will be in Asia, as they traditionally have higher growth rates than western, more conservative, countries and the fall will hurt the most - no doubt causing a few civil wars throughout the region.
I believe, Victoria at least, will somewhat be buffered by the building activity which is about to be undertaken in bushfire effected areas from Black Saturday which will not only equal but surpass the impact that the K Rudd stimulus package had on the country.
Taking note from the past, when Ash Wednesday occurred, the construction that took place to rebuild there helped during those hard times, and although harder times now, we've got a significantly increased volume of rebuilding to be undertaken which will help everyone, manufacturers, unemployed, retail, you name it.
The biggest thing that I think will be effected is communication, and the way businesses communicate with one another, and internal and external staff - it's a time for reality checks, and opportunities for companies to take an inward look at cost and revenue leakage and for us I think we'll see companies for whom SMS is new to them taking up and feeling the positive benefits of it within their business as costing issues from telco's are relieved some, staff improve on efficiency and customers feel the benefits of quick sharp and to the point communications.
It really is an interesting time to be alive, and yes there will be casualties and hardship, and even I'm not immune personally to that, but as my dad says, a problem is an opportunity for change, and change is exactly what's about to happen for all and sundry.
Have a great day.
Cheers,
C
Tuesday, 16 June 2009
Over the last few weeks, something interesting has begun happening - we've started getting calls from night clubs, and night club promoters who traditionally have take the cheap and cheerful route looking at using the services of our business.
Why?
Good question, when I asked Dean from one of the promoters who called in, it was because the services that they had been using, less than 90% were actually getting to their contact list.
Well if you're paying peanuts, then that's OK isn't - well, it's easy to say yes, but no not really.
I'll give you a hypothetical for a moment.
I'm a promoter for Night Club A - I have a contact list of 2300 members (OK, so we're a boutique bar) that I want to contact once a week.
In order to get a really good price I need to buy up, so I'll buy 60,000 messages which will cover me for six months which I can get from a provider for 8 cents per message.
The problem is I'm having to pay upfront, which means in rough figures, it's costing me another 5% in lost interest that I could have accrued over that period - so on average the messages are actually costing me 8.2 cents.
I'm sending 2300 messages, give or take, each week, but because only 90% at best are getting through, I'm only hitting 2070 contacts.
Because SMS is such a great way to market, I get a great response of 25% - at $20 per head from the door, my business earns $10,340 per week.
However, I'm missing out getting to 130 contacts - which based on the same ratio means I'm missing out on a possible $460 per week in revenue. Well, it's not huge... that's $11,960 in lost revenue within 6 months - nearly $22k over a year!!
If you add the lost opportunity cost to the cost of the messages purchased in the first place, then actually your message costs work out to be closer to 28 cents per message - which is nearly 2.5 times more than what you would have paid if you had of used a local service and bought that many messages in the first place.
Obviously the figures can be pushed around depending on the size of the club, the upshot though is that even at 90% hit rate, which I think is generous, will still always equate the cheap and cheerfuls of this world to end up being more expensive than the local guys!
Have a great day,
Enjoy,
C
Why?
Good question, when I asked Dean from one of the promoters who called in, it was because the services that they had been using, less than 90% were actually getting to their contact list.
Well if you're paying peanuts, then that's OK isn't - well, it's easy to say yes, but no not really.
I'll give you a hypothetical for a moment.
I'm a promoter for Night Club A - I have a contact list of 2300 members (OK, so we're a boutique bar) that I want to contact once a week.
In order to get a really good price I need to buy up, so I'll buy 60,000 messages which will cover me for six months which I can get from a provider for 8 cents per message.
The problem is I'm having to pay upfront, which means in rough figures, it's costing me another 5% in lost interest that I could have accrued over that period - so on average the messages are actually costing me 8.2 cents.
I'm sending 2300 messages, give or take, each week, but because only 90% at best are getting through, I'm only hitting 2070 contacts.
Because SMS is such a great way to market, I get a great response of 25% - at $20 per head from the door, my business earns $10,340 per week.
However, I'm missing out getting to 130 contacts - which based on the same ratio means I'm missing out on a possible $460 per week in revenue. Well, it's not huge... that's $11,960 in lost revenue within 6 months - nearly $22k over a year!!
If you add the lost opportunity cost to the cost of the messages purchased in the first place, then actually your message costs work out to be closer to 28 cents per message - which is nearly 2.5 times more than what you would have paid if you had of used a local service and bought that many messages in the first place.
Obviously the figures can be pushed around depending on the size of the club, the upshot though is that even at 90% hit rate, which I think is generous, will still always equate the cheap and cheerfuls of this world to end up being more expensive than the local guys!
Have a great day,
Enjoy,
C
Wednesday, 10 June 2009
Jaw pump!
This is going to sound ridiculous, and it is, but today I felt something that I hadn't encountered before in my known lifetime.
Since Skye and I have started going to the gym, I've bought up a bunch of (legit) supplements from a health store in order to get MASSIVE, and improve on my already amazing human strength.
Anyway, Skye went off to gym at lunch today, so I thought I'd carb up on some lunch before he got back and i went over.
I made up my banana roll (which is mash banana in a roll, for those internationals - p.s. it's the most aussie roll about). The roll itself was a touch chewy, nice and moist on the inside, but the crust took some effort to get through... So, as I'm trying to much my banana roll good bye, I notice that I was starting to get sore muscles in the side of my head.
But the end I was struggling to knock it back - I think for big eaters, it's called hitting the wall, or eating it, not sure, anyway only through shear determination did I manage to finish it.
I have another one, but wasn't prepped as yet, but I just couldn't do it.
If you put your hands on your head, each one just in front of your ear and clench your teeth, you'll feel a muscle on each side tense up - this is what I had!
I checked the mirror, and you wouldn't believe it - I had jaw pump and you could visibly see the muscles on each side blown up, like i was some kind of eating builder? Like a bodybuilder, but instead I specialise in eating things.
If this keeps up, if I'm ever trapped in a cave that's incurred rocks fallen in, I won't be bothered, because these choppers are definitely able to eat their way out!
Since Skye and I have started going to the gym, I've bought up a bunch of (legit) supplements from a health store in order to get MASSIVE, and improve on my already amazing human strength.
Anyway, Skye went off to gym at lunch today, so I thought I'd carb up on some lunch before he got back and i went over.
I made up my banana roll (which is mash banana in a roll, for those internationals - p.s. it's the most aussie roll about). The roll itself was a touch chewy, nice and moist on the inside, but the crust took some effort to get through... So, as I'm trying to much my banana roll good bye, I notice that I was starting to get sore muscles in the side of my head.
But the end I was struggling to knock it back - I think for big eaters, it's called hitting the wall, or eating it, not sure, anyway only through shear determination did I manage to finish it.
I have another one, but wasn't prepped as yet, but I just couldn't do it.
If you put your hands on your head, each one just in front of your ear and clench your teeth, you'll feel a muscle on each side tense up - this is what I had!
I checked the mirror, and you wouldn't believe it - I had jaw pump and you could visibly see the muscles on each side blown up, like i was some kind of eating builder? Like a bodybuilder, but instead I specialise in eating things.
If this keeps up, if I'm ever trapped in a cave that's incurred rocks fallen in, I won't be bothered, because these choppers are definitely able to eat their way out!
Thursday, 4 June 2009
SMS that just makes sense
Recently I asked Ann, our Marketing Manager in Nottingham, UK, if we could send out an email to customers giving them idea's on ways people can integrate Business SMS into their business operations that would one, save them money at the end of the day, and two improve on what they are currently doing.
She told me to blog it, so I'm blogging it.
Please note that these figures are approximate averaged numbers, and not exact, but gives a good guide to how simply you could be improving you middle line, and therefore the bottom line.
I've taken A Business as our example, and A Business makes at least 10 calls per day feeding small bits of information to stakeholders whether it be about appointments for sales staff, sending phone messages through, delivery notes and pick up acknowledgements, sending business data to the board, etc...
Using Telstra as my example network with whom A Business have their phone lines with, they are charged a flag rate to mobiles of 39 cents + GST, then depending on whether it's on net (with Telstra) or off net (not with Telstra) will then depend on how much they are charged there after.
Now for a bit of generalisation, if Sandra who is the fictional admin/receptionist for A Business needed to make on average 10 calls a day passing on the above mentioned information, then the average cost to the business for the phone bill would be $1.44 per call (includes flag rate, and then xxx timed charges) times the 10 calls made, the business is being charged $14.40 + GST per day.
Over a 5 day week, that's $72.00 + GST per week, that's $312.00 + GST per month and $3744 + GST per annum.
Again, I've taken these figures straight off the Telstra site, and if there are better plans, then I didn't see them.
Now, according to various websites I found out that an average admin person earns between $39,000 and $58,000 per annum plus super - so to average it out (and to be fair Sandra's pretty good at what she does and is appreciated by her boss) Sandra earns $48,000 per annum (forget about the super for the moment).
So Sandra makes 10 times 5 mintue calls per day - that's 50 minutes spent on the phone, which is fine.
Based on a 37.5 hour week, Sandra earns $24.62 per hour, so 50 minutes of her time equals $20.51.
Each day A Business spends $20.51 for Sandra making calls, extrapolated out, that's $102.55 per week, $444.38 per month, and $5332.60 per annum.
let's combine the two major costs for the moment.
It costs A Business $34.91 per day for Sandra to make these 10 calls, $174.55 per week, $756.38 per month and $9076.60 per annum.
More than you thought I bet!
So, down to business, what would it cost if those messages were sent out via SMS?
The average cost of an SMS from Esendex is 15 cents + GST (because I've been talking averages everywhere else), so 10 SMS's at 15 cents per day is $1.50, over a 5 day week that's $7.50, a month it's $32.50 and over a year that equates to $390.00 + GST.
For argument sake, and the fact I'm feeling generous, I'm going to say it takes Sandra 1 minute to send a single SMS (because she has unusually large fingers for a person of her size and is a slightly slower typist than you would otherwise expect) via Email SMS - it wouldn't take you that long, and I'd argue really if it would take 30 seconds to sent a simple message out, but we'll say 1 minute.
Based on the same figures as above, if Sandra sends 10 SMS messages, which takes her 1 minute to send each, so 10 minutes in total, in terms of what A Business pays her only $4.10 per day to send the messages, $20.51 per week, $88.89 per month which works out to be $1066.67 per year.
Combining the two figure together again, that's $5.60 per day, $28.00 per week, $121.33 per month and $1456.00 per annum.
In this typical example of how A Business would use SMS within their business, the cost savings are like this.
Per day - $29.31
Per week - $146.55
Per month - $635.05
Per annum - $7620.60
** The cost savings don't take into account the GST portion, and ancillary costs associated with staff, power, rent, etc...
It's amazing how something so simple, can be so effective, but I've only shown you the cost saving side, and I did mention about how it would improve on what they are already doing.
So....
Sandra call A Customer about their goods, letting them know that they're ready to be collected, but the person she wants to speak to is on the phone, she holds for a bit, then decides to leave a message with the person on the other end - but they got busy, and forgot to pass the message on straight away.
She then called Another Customer, and let them know that their goods were actually delivered by their driver 5 minutes ago, however John from Another Customer was in the factory working on a break down and not at his desk when the call came in and Sandra left a message - he was furious because he needed the goods for the breakdown and because he wasn't alerted he was really frustrated and took it out on the sales rep from A Business.
The great thing about SMS is the ability to get delivery receipts when the handset receives the message, it's logged by time, date, user and so on, and is kept for prosperity.
Speaking with Roy from R J Sanderson and Associates one time, he said to me that to ask his staff to not use SMS anymore would be like asking them to not use email either, because it was a part of their business systems - his staff preferred it because it meant allowing them to be more efficient and get information across to customers quicker, easier and with the exact details required, and the customers like it because it's direct to them, personal, they themselves can keep it for reference later and all in all feel like they are dealing with a professional outfit.
I think over the next few weeks, I'm going to try and give different examples of using Business SMS with an array of different businesses to show both the cost and customer service benefits of using it within your business.
have a great day, and hope you enjoyed the blog.
C
She told me to blog it, so I'm blogging it.
Please note that these figures are approximate averaged numbers, and not exact, but gives a good guide to how simply you could be improving you middle line, and therefore the bottom line.
I've taken A Business as our example, and A Business makes at least 10 calls per day feeding small bits of information to stakeholders whether it be about appointments for sales staff, sending phone messages through, delivery notes and pick up acknowledgements, sending business data to the board, etc...
Using Telstra as my example network with whom A Business have their phone lines with, they are charged a flag rate to mobiles of 39 cents + GST, then depending on whether it's on net (with Telstra) or off net (not with Telstra) will then depend on how much they are charged there after.
Now for a bit of generalisation, if Sandra who is the fictional admin/receptionist for A Business needed to make on average 10 calls a day passing on the above mentioned information, then the average cost to the business for the phone bill would be $1.44 per call (includes flag rate, and then xxx timed charges) times the 10 calls made, the business is being charged $14.40 + GST per day.
Over a 5 day week, that's $72.00 + GST per week, that's $312.00 + GST per month and $3744 + GST per annum.
Again, I've taken these figures straight off the Telstra site, and if there are better plans, then I didn't see them.
Now, according to various websites I found out that an average admin person earns between $39,000 and $58,000 per annum plus super - so to average it out (and to be fair Sandra's pretty good at what she does and is appreciated by her boss) Sandra earns $48,000 per annum (forget about the super for the moment).
So Sandra makes 10 times 5 mintue calls per day - that's 50 minutes spent on the phone, which is fine.
Based on a 37.5 hour week, Sandra earns $24.62 per hour, so 50 minutes of her time equals $20.51.
Each day A Business spends $20.51 for Sandra making calls, extrapolated out, that's $102.55 per week, $444.38 per month, and $5332.60 per annum.
let's combine the two major costs for the moment.
It costs A Business $34.91 per day for Sandra to make these 10 calls, $174.55 per week, $756.38 per month and $9076.60 per annum.
More than you thought I bet!
So, down to business, what would it cost if those messages were sent out via SMS?
The average cost of an SMS from Esendex is 15 cents + GST (because I've been talking averages everywhere else), so 10 SMS's at 15 cents per day is $1.50, over a 5 day week that's $7.50, a month it's $32.50 and over a year that equates to $390.00 + GST.
For argument sake, and the fact I'm feeling generous, I'm going to say it takes Sandra 1 minute to send a single SMS (because she has unusually large fingers for a person of her size and is a slightly slower typist than you would otherwise expect) via Email SMS - it wouldn't take you that long, and I'd argue really if it would take 30 seconds to sent a simple message out, but we'll say 1 minute.
Based on the same figures as above, if Sandra sends 10 SMS messages, which takes her 1 minute to send each, so 10 minutes in total, in terms of what A Business pays her only $4.10 per day to send the messages, $20.51 per week, $88.89 per month which works out to be $1066.67 per year.
Combining the two figure together again, that's $5.60 per day, $28.00 per week, $121.33 per month and $1456.00 per annum.
In this typical example of how A Business would use SMS within their business, the cost savings are like this.
Per day - $29.31
Per week - $146.55
Per month - $635.05
Per annum - $7620.60
** The cost savings don't take into account the GST portion, and ancillary costs associated with staff, power, rent, etc...
It's amazing how something so simple, can be so effective, but I've only shown you the cost saving side, and I did mention about how it would improve on what they are already doing.
So....
Sandra call A Customer about their goods, letting them know that they're ready to be collected, but the person she wants to speak to is on the phone, she holds for a bit, then decides to leave a message with the person on the other end - but they got busy, and forgot to pass the message on straight away.
She then called Another Customer, and let them know that their goods were actually delivered by their driver 5 minutes ago, however John from Another Customer was in the factory working on a break down and not at his desk when the call came in and Sandra left a message - he was furious because he needed the goods for the breakdown and because he wasn't alerted he was really frustrated and took it out on the sales rep from A Business.
The great thing about SMS is the ability to get delivery receipts when the handset receives the message, it's logged by time, date, user and so on, and is kept for prosperity.
Speaking with Roy from R J Sanderson and Associates one time, he said to me that to ask his staff to not use SMS anymore would be like asking them to not use email either, because it was a part of their business systems - his staff preferred it because it meant allowing them to be more efficient and get information across to customers quicker, easier and with the exact details required, and the customers like it because it's direct to them, personal, they themselves can keep it for reference later and all in all feel like they are dealing with a professional outfit.
I think over the next few weeks, I'm going to try and give different examples of using Business SMS with an array of different businesses to show both the cost and customer service benefits of using it within your business.
have a great day, and hope you enjoyed the blog.
C
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
