Newsletter

What Happens When Lightning Strikes?

Is your business ready for a devastating storm or other disaster?

At COMMWORLD, we know first–hand that storms can damage or destroy telecom equipment. Each Spring our technical staff responds to emergencies caused by storms.

If your telephone system is damaged or destroyed, will that put you out of business? What will your customers and prospects do if they call and you don't answer? If they're calling from down–the–street, maybe they'll understand because they're experiencing damage, too. But if they're calling from across town or beyond, will they call back? Will they call your competition instead?

There are specific steps you can take now to be prepared for a disaster. The most important step is to have an established partnership with a trusted communications company well before disaster strikes.

Your trusted communications partner should...

• Be an Authorized Dealer for your telecommunication equipment and systems.
• Have Technicians with years of experience and expertise to troubleshoot and solve problems quickly and accurately.
• Be familiar with the programming and set–up of your communications system.
• Have a current backup of your system information to reduce time to re–program.
• Track your telecom equipment inventory and service record in their database.

If your company is not a member of our Current Technology Assurance Plan or Partner Protection Plan, please, call us today at 816–763–1100. We'll explain the benefits Plan members receive like priority service – even in a disaster, training, discounts and much more.

Springtime in the Midwest brings lightning, thunder, torrential rain, flooding, microbursts and tornadoes. And every year businesses suffer damage caused by those whims of Mother Nature. The spring storms are coming. Can you afford to be unprotected?

This "Super–Hero" Communications & Productivity Tool is an Effective Weapon in the War Against Recession!

The telephone is a powerful business tool and so is the PC. But what if you could combine the power and capabilities of the telephone with the PC to create a super–charged communications and productivity tool?

This Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) application may be just the weapon you need to win in this recession–plagued economy. Here are some of the amazing benefits of this powerful technology:

• Improve Customer Service – Automatically "pop–up" the inbound caller's information from your database based on incoming Caller ID to answer calls faster and with the customer's information at your fingertips. It also becomes a reminder to enter notes or other information in your database.
• Increase Sales – Dial any phone number you can highlight from any program including your contact database, CRM, word processing, spreadsheets, websites and presentation applications. Salespeople can make more calls faster and easier and that means more sales.
• Enhance Internal Communication – Look up and dial extensions with a click of your mouse. This powerful directory feature is automatically generated by the system so it is always up–to–date with every extension. It can easily be searched by name, and printed or exported. Good communication is a key to a successful company.
• Customers Will Love You – Type notes during the call and the information will follow the call if it is transferred to another department or extension. This eliminates the need to ask a caller for the same information multiple times. You know your customers will love this!
• Manage Effectively – Automatically create a log of calls dialed and received on the telephone extension. This call history can be searched for specific calls by date, telephone number, name, or account code.
• Better Teamwork for Better Customer Service – A glance at your screen lets you see the availability of co–workers and quickly relay important information to best serve your customer through an easy, intuitive interface. Internal instant messaging enables instant communications with any user and broadcasts messages to multiple users
• Create a Competitive Advantage – Not all customers are created equal. Treat your best customers special and make sure the ones who are delinquent in payment get routed to Accounts Receivable. Events, conditions and actions are programmed to process incoming calls the way you want including routing the call, screening of calls, selective call forwarding, screen pops of the caller's information with their incoming call, voice mail notification and more.

To learn more about this incredible technology and how it can help your company, please, call COMMWORLD of Kansas City at 816–763–000. We're excited to show you how it will work to benefit you!

Every Business Tells a Story – OneCoach Can Help You Tell Yours

It might begin as a sketch on a napkin. It could be passed down over generations, or purchased as a franchise. Regardless of how it starts, a small business embodies deeply held hopes and aspirations – it is the great purpose and extraordinary project of its' owner(s).

Recessions, highs and lows, setbacks and disappointments, reversals and triumphs are part of the growth of the business. And when that business finally succeeds, it disproves the critics and the doubters and delights the involved entrepreneurs.

What about a business that falls short of the owner's ideal? It's hard to give up on a dream. But something has to change if that business is to reach its potential. And owners cannot change their business without changing what they believe to be possible.

Success is absolutely possible for any business.

And when it happens, it's like a ripple in a pond. A small business that fulfills its potential is a dream come true, and that sense of victory becomes contagious. The cycle of value generated by the business positively affects the owner and his or her family, and that positive charge spreads to their neighbors, and then out into the community, into the surrounding city, the state, and the country beyond.

Anyone who has succeeded in business knows that there are a series of predictable steps that lead to more clients, more revenues and more profit. OneCoach has identified those steps and created a business–growth system that makes it easy for any small business owner to gain the skills, strategies and support they need to be successful in business.

Step one is to develop the right beliefs or mindset for success.

Ninety (90%) percent of all scientific knowledge about the brain has been discovered in just the past 9–10 years. In a program called Mindset for Success, OneCoach takes these findings and shows entrepreneurs how to retrain and refocus their brains for success. The program instructs business owners how to use the latest scientifically proven processes to envision the future they want, then focus on the things that are going to help them grow their profits and business daily.

Step two is to attract more clients.

The Attract More Clients program is the culmination of dozens of people working with thousands of businesses, generating billions of dollars in sales in every industry over the past 30 years. Every business needs a steady flow of new customers, and OneCoach has broken it down to a simple, (but not easy) system that shows the small business owner how to:

• Identify their ideal client and learn where to find them.
• Refine and present their Unique Selling Proposition.
• Follow the strategies and tactics to get their marketing message in front of receptive prospects who want the goods or services they deliver.
• And finally, get them to buy.

Step three is to build a better business.

Once the OneCoach member has achieved the foundational skills to envision their ideal business, and attract the clients they need to sustain that vision, OneCoach helps them take the rights steps, in the right order to grow that business to its full potential. Specifically, members of the OneCoach Business Growth Network learn how to:

• Define the gap between where they are and where they want to be
• Identify their individual S.W.O.T (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats)
• Begin to think like a business millionaire
• Design an experience that encourages retention of ideal clients
• Develop comprehensive financial plans

Regardless of whether a business is in the critical first year, if it's struggling, stuck, in trouble, or if the business owner just wants to speed up the pace, OneCoach delivers an on–demand suite of resources that will give the answers to the questions a business needs to grow and flourish.

During these horrendous economic times you can learn how to realize an absolutely fantastic investment return in your future business success by contacting OneCoach at 816–761–5100. When you contact OneCoach you may receive your choice of one of ten extraordinary interviews with nationally recognized business experts. You may even qualify for a complimentary extensive Business Assessment. Call 816–761–5100.

We're Having a Spring Cleaning Sale!

We're cleaning up the warehouse and look what we found!

Quantities are limited, so call us today to take advantage of these first–quality items at bargain prices.

Desktop Digital Recording

Talk isn't cheap...What people say and how they say it is critical to the success of your business. Capture it all with Desktop Digital Recording.

Call recording can deliver real business benefits including:

• Monitoring the quality of Customer Service ("This call may be recorded to ensure quality Customer Service.")
• Recording critical information to ensure accuracy of orders and transactions
• Compliance monitoring to make sure industry and company regulations are met
• Dictation service

Record all calls or manually select which ones to record. Save calls on your PC or on a network server for centralized monitoring and playback. Includes record features like the ability to type comments during a conversation, highlight important calls and time/date/duration of every call. Complete playback control includes a list of calls by caller ID/date/call duration, highlight important calls and the ability to view the call graphically.

Wireless Headset

Get wireless freedom which allows you to walk, talk and work throughout your office. That's important today when we're doing more work with fewer people. This wireless headset is made of ultra–light materials for enhanced comfort with three wearing styles for a customizable fit. DSP technology removes impurities from the incoming signal for rich, clear sound. The noise–cancelling microphone ensures that your voice is transmitted with outstanding clarity, and digital encryption keeps your calls safe and secure. The simple–to–operate LCD display on the base unit allows you to control volume, audio output, range, and treble/bass to suit your individual preferences. Telephone talk time is up to 9 hours – plus up to 43 hours of stand–by!

Wired Headset with Quick Disconnect

Everyone in your office who talks on the phone and types on the computer at the same time needs a headset. This high quality headset provides crystal clear communication leaving your hands free to type or accomplish other tasks. The quick disconnect feature lets you leave your desk with no trouble. Your back and neck will thank you.

Got a pain in the Neck? Get a headset!

Taking Credit Cards

For your convenience, COMMWORLD of Kansas City is now accepting credit card payments. To pay your invoice with a credit card, just call give us a call.

Thank you for partnering with COMMWORLD. We appreciate your business.

Toshiba's Strata CIX Continues its Winning Streak

Toshiba's Strata CIX1200 IP system has won a 2008 Internet Telephony Magazine Product of the Year award. The award will be highlighted in the magazine's February issue. As written on tmc.com, "Recipients of the 11th Annual Product of the Year Awards represent the innovative new products ... INTERNET TELEPHONY is the premier publication covering the IP communications industry."

Source: Toshiba FYI

Questionable Quotes

"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?"
–David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.

"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy."
–Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.

"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau."
–Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929

Fun Phone Facts

Presidents and the Telephone

We've all heard that Barrack Obama is the first President to be an avid user of a Blackberry. But can you guess which President was the first to have a telephone installed in the White House?

On May 10, 1877, President Rutherford B. Hayes became the first American President to have a telephone installed in the White House in a special room called the "telegraph room". The first White House phone number was simply the number "one". In the early days of the telephone, lines were run directly from one point to another and the Treasury Department had the only direct phone line to the White House. Although President Hayes believed in the value and future of the telephone, he rarely received a call. It was over 50 years later when the first telephone was installed in the oval office during the administration of President Herbert Hoover.

Presidential telephone usage in more modern years has been captured in recordings. Tapes of Presidents Lyndon Johnson, Harry Truman and Richard Nixon were peppered with profanity and blunt criticism of political opponents. They spoke freely without presidential decorum, apparently assuming their words would never be heard by the general public. These uncensored conversations have provided insight into their personalities and their political maneuvers. It is also interesting to note that, in most cases, the person at the other end of the conversation had no knowledge that they were being recorded.

The National Archives and Records Administration has made public such Presidential recordings as John Kennedy during the Cuban missile crisis and Lyndon Johnson during the build–up of U.S. troops in Vietnam. But Richard Nixon holds the record for more taped phone recordings than any other President. Those recordings led, in part, to his downfall. In 1973, investigators of the Watergate Break–in subpoenaed nearly 3700 hours of President Nixon's phone call recordings. Questions still remain about the famous 18 minutes of those Presidential recordings which mysteriously vanished.

Source: History.com