Archive for the ‘good business ideas’ Category

How We Treat Our Best Customers

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

spokesguyI rarely go to the grocery store during the week, but I was out of the office this morning and stopped by to pick up something for lunch.

I grabbed a couple of items and jumped in the express line.  To my right, each of the next three lanes had at least two young mothers with one or more children in tow.  My items cost less than six dollars, but their overflowing carts suggested that they would spend a hundred dollars or more by the time they left the store.

What sort of thinking would lead the store management to allow me to jump in a quick serve line, but force these loyal high dollar customers to line up one behind the other and wait to be served while they attempted to keep their kids entertained?

Seems backwards to me.

Why not have a “moms only” line, one where the store would provide a little extra service while assuring that these valued customers were able to get in and out with as little complication as possible?

Parents purchasing for the family will be back to the store over and over again, yet grocery stores continue to serve the lowest dollar customers with the highest level of service while they buy items that they may not purchase again for weeks.

Just something to think about.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tapeBay State wire tiesHosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands. Share your insights on customer service with our readers.

Think Twitter Doesn’t Matter? Dell Knows Better!

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010

spokesguyDell’s recent failure to deliver Christmas computers before the big day has proven the power of Twitter in a big way.  Tweets about products and delivery times have caught the attention of no less than the New York Times.

Every desk in our office holds a Dell computer, but recent Twitter posts will certainly make me reconsider their computers the next time we need a new one.

The Times reports that thousands have posted to Twitter about their Dell experience and the conversation has even migrated to Dell’s own blog.  Complaints of delivery times delayed by as much as two months have forced Dell to go on the defensive, but they seem unable to counter the volume of complaints that continue to flow to Twitter.

Fair or not, the ability of a customer to post to Twitter about a consumer experience and immediately join a community of like minded buyers means its a new day for big players like Dell.

Do you have an insight into using Twitter or other social networks to take on a Goliath?  Share it with us.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tapeBay State wire tiesHosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.  Join our social networking community by subscribing to our newsletter.

2010-Ready or Not, Here We Come

Monday, January 4th, 2010

ted_headI’ve spent most of the morning reading blogs with predictions about what to expect from internet development in 2010.

The most consistent prediction, by far (shows up on every list), is that we should expect a true explosion in internet video.  The combination of an expansion in bandwidth, the ease in which new content can be developed and the ability to search online for videos based on their content all mean that the value of internet video has increased greatly.

Last year we rolled out our video “how to” animation series, designed as simple teaching tools for those who work in audio visual and entertainment production.  They have been well received and we look forward to producing more in the new year.

The use of the web as a teaching medium can quickly expand, due to the ability of cell phones to now stream video.

Need to know how the pros tape down a cable?  Our “how to” animation is as close as your smart phone.

Do you have a good idea for a “how to” animation for the audio visual production community.  Let us know.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tapeBay State wire tiesHosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.

When Is A Holiday Not A Holiday

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

ted_headLately, it seems that the day before a holiday has become a de-facto holiday.  That’s not  exactly the way I would recommend digging out of the worst recession in 75 years.

Our UPS pickup driver just dropped by to let us know that UPS had decided to make no deliveries on Dec. 31 and that he had been ordered to take the day off.  We have been shipping UPS this fall for the first time in several years, and, all  in all, it has been a good experience.

Discovering that they would not be serving their customers (namely, us) on a day when we will be open and serving our customers (you) really caught us off guard.

It is difficult to see how a company whose third quarter 2009 revenues were down almost $2 billion can really afford to take off a holiday that no one else takes off.  When your average daily package volume, your operating profit and your earnings per share are all down significantly from 2008 levels, the logic of this decision escapes me and will probably escape the logic of the stock market as well.

We spend much of our time making sure that we partner with businesses who have our customers’ best interests in mind.  UPS’s unwillingness to deliver to our customers, many of whom will be involved in producing New Year’s Eve events, on what should be a regular work day makes our job a lot more difficult.

I’m glad we kept our FedEx account open.  We’ll be happy to ship your order for  Dec. 31 delivery even if UPS isn’t.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tapeBay State wire tiesHosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.  Meeting customer needs will always be job 1!

A Big Loss For Pro Sound

Monday, December 28th, 2009

good-idea-jeff_small_biggerI was saddened to learn today of the death of Ross Ritto, one of the pioneers in the modern sound reinforcement industry.  Ross had a direct impact on my entry into pro sound and it was always good to come across his name in trade journals and discussions about pro sound touring.

I have written a number of times about the “graying” of the pro sound industry, but losing Ross at the age of 60 really brings this home for me.

While best known as the founder and CEO of Sound Image, a major west coast touring company, I first encountered Ross back in the 1970’s. His company, Silverfish Audio, a sound company from Buffalo, NY  provided a touring audio system for Jimmy Buffett.

Ross brought a football stadium sized sound system to my alma mater, UNC Chapel Hill, and by the end of the day I had a totally new concept of what major league sound reinforcement was about.

Although I was only one of many stagehands on the call, Ross took as much time as need to answer all my questions, no matter how ridiculous, and that Jimmy Buffet show as one of the most memorable of my career.

This was in the days of multi-component horn loaded sound systems, and with the information I learned from Ross, I built a “mini” system much like the one he brought to Kenan Stadium.  In fact, there are probably a couple of pieces of this package still lurking in the back of our warehouse.

My decision to pursue a pro sound career was met at every step by patient professionals like Ross, and I consider knowing him one of the highlights of my 30 hears in a great industry.

He will be missed.

(link to the original Silverfish Audio brochure with pics of the sound system I am talking about)

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteriesMagLite flashlightsNashua duct tapeBay State wire tiesHosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.  We appreciate those pioneers that built the pro sound business.

Your Local High School Needs You

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009

mike2

We enjoy working with our local schools and are particularly proud this holiday season to be involved with the arts curriculum at Northwood High School, the school my daughter attends.  They are finishing up a series of special events this week and we applaud them for their hard work.

Periodically, I have pointed out the phenomenon I call the “graying” of the concert production industry.  Lots of hands-on techs who got their start in sound and lighting began their careers in the 1970’s and ’80’s and are now looking at retirement or career changes.  Unfortunately, there are not a lot of kids ready to take their places.

If you read the trade journals that cover the concert production industry,  you know that a very high percentage of the articles feature technicians in their 50’s or even 60’s.

My work at Northwood High confirms this trend.  Northwood has a newly renovated auditorium with state of the art sound and lighting systems.  Twenty years ago, there would have been students crawling all over each other to get a chance to learn to operate this equipment.

Not today. Northwood has hundreds of kids involved in band, dance and drama but almost no students who want to work backstage or in the production booth.  They simply don’t see it as a college or career track.

We have recently developed a series of “how to” animations related to teaching technical theatre skills, along with a set of printed guides.

How_To_Coil_A_Cable

It is our hope little things like this, along with our involvement in training students and teaching tech skills, will open the eyes of some of these high school students to the possibilities of an exciting career path that will soon have lots of employment opportunities.

If you have technical skills and are making a career change, give some thought to sharing all you’ve learned with your local high school arts program.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteriesMagLite flashlightsNashua duct tapeBay State wire tiesHosa and Entertainment One extension cords andOnStage Stand mic stands. We’re passionate about arts education in the public schools.

Google Eats Its Young

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
  1. Hot on the heels of the roll out of the Motorola Droid, a smart phone that uses the Google mobile operating system, there are now confirmed rumors that Google plans to release its own smart phone-Google designed and Google branded-after the first of the year, possible as early as January.
The New York Times has reported that Google employees have been give the phones to test, in anticipation of a product roll out after the first of the year, perhaps as early as January.
Motorola desperately needs a hit product, having its market share of cell phone sales continue to erode since it introduced the Razr in late 2005.  That’s a long time to go without making a serious impact on a fast changing industry.
Now it appears that Google intends to take on Apple directly, moving into the hardware business and forcing Motorola back to the sidelines.
No one sees this first version of the Droid as an IPhone killer, but those who have one like it, consider it a worth opponent to the Apple device, and love being able to cut their ties to AT&T.
I predicted that the next version of the Droid would be the smartphone that would match Apple toe-to-to, but I’m quickly backing off that prediction now that Google is throwing their hat into the ring.
You can be sure that Google had access to the Droid’s development months before it was released, and you can be equally sure that the Google phone will improve on every aspect of Motorola’s effort.
We hope you sell a lot of Droids for Christmas, Motorola.  Chances are that next Christmas will belong to Google.
GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords andOnStage Stand mic stands.  Share your ideas about cell phone development with our readers.

spokesguyHot on the heels of the roll out of the Motorola Droid, a smart phone that uses the Google mobile operating system, there are now confirmed rumors that Google plans to release its own smart phone-Google designed and Google branded-after the first of the year, possible as early as January.

The New York Times has reported that Google employees have been give the phones to test, in anticipation of a product roll out after the first of the year, perhaps as early as January.

Motorola desperately needs a hit product, having its market share of cell phone sales continue to erode since it introduced the Razr in 2004.  That’s a long time to go without making a serious impact on a fast changing industry.

Now it appears that Google intends to take on Apple directly, moving into the hardware business and forcing Motorola back to the sidelines.

No one sees this first version of the Droid as an IPhone killer, but those who have one like it, consider it a worth opponent to the Apple device, and love being able to cut their ties to AT&T.

I predicted that the next version of the Droid would be the smartphone that would match Apple toe-to-to, but I’m quickly backing off that prediction now that Google is throwing their hat into the ring.

You can be sure that Google had access to the Droid’s development months before it was released, and you can be equally sure that the Google phone will improve on every aspect of Motorola’s effort.

We hope you sell a lot of Droids for Christmas, Motorola.  Chances are that next Christmas will belong to Google.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteriesMagLite flashlightsNashua duct tapeBay State wire tiesHosa and Entertainment One extension cords andOnStage Stand mic stands Click here to sign up for our newsletter.  Here’s a link to our new “How To” animation series.

Hey AT&T. What Part of “Unlimited” Don’t You Understand?

Friday, December 11th, 2009

spokesguy One of the best parts of my day is the time I spend reading the New York Times.  It seems to be one of the few daily papers that is holding its own, at least when it comes to generating lots of useful content.

I’m not sure how they are doing financially, but their bottom line has to be helped by the constant barrage of gaudy (orange!) full page ads that AT&T is running.  Seems like there have two or three in the front section every day since the beginning of the month.

I ignore the ads (not easy to do) but my eyes were drawn to this article in the business section about none other than AT&T.

It seems that they are asking their customers who subscribe to unlimited data plans to limit their bandwidth usage or face the possibility of being forced to a “pay as you use” plan.  Apparently, AT&T is unable to handle the data requirements that are being generated by IPhone users, even though they are the only service provider that works with the Apple smart phone.

Instead of expanding capacity and providing the service that they promised, mighty AT&T intends to “educate” their customers about their data consumption in hopes that they will  “cut back”.

Hey AT&T!  Instead of spending huge sums of money on luring new customers with full page ads, how about building some new towers.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic standsIf you’re frustrated with AT&T, share your story. 

‘Tis The Season To Be ……….. Scammed!

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

spokesguy Even though our national economic woes continue to depress holiday retail sales, online sales are expected to grow 8% this year.  That’s great news if you, like we, count on internet sales to sustain and grow your business.

Still, there is a big bump in the road before online sales can really take off.  That problem is consumer concerns about security.

We get orders every day from customers who find us on the web, but then insist on calling us to place the order because they are uncomfortable with using their credit card at our web sites.

We’re happy to hear from them, of course, but  they never seem to realize that placing an order at a secure web site is much safer than giving your credit card info to a stranger over the phone.

We host and manage our own e-commerce web sites and can always assure you that you want be presented by any pop ups or phishing scams that originate from our server.

Unfortunately, if you don’t know what to look for, it is difficult to know when you are at a web site where you can make a secure purchase.

When you move from the catalog portion of one of the goodbuyguys web sites to begin an actual checkout, you will see that the “http:” part of the web address at the top of the page, changes to “https:”   That “s” means “secure“.  The “s” is an indicator that the details of your purchase will be encrypted before they are submitted over the web.

You’ll also see a tiny image of a padlock at the end of the address line.  Click on that padlock image if you want to know the details regarding who is certifying that the site is secure.

Here are some more tips to insure the security of your online purchase.

-Never provide your credit number in an email or instant message

-Use long, complicated passwords that use numbers, letters, upper case and lower case

-Purchase only from sites that have an “s” in the address line or show the padlock image

-If you have security concerns but still want to consider making a purchase, look for a phone number

-Check your credit card bill carefully every month.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords andOnStage Stand mic stands Your security is our top concern.

Our (and your) security is certified by Usertrust.  You can read more about it here.

Internet Marriage To Intercom-Thousands of Offspring

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

mike2 My email in box stays stuffed with promotional material related to concert and special event production-mostly hardware.  I’m lucky if I have a chance to look at one in ten messages.

I’m really glad I clicked on the one from Clear-Com.  Clear-Com is a leader in intercom systems used in theatres, tv studios and touring production.  Producing a show would be impossible without it.

On a complicated event, concert or television shoot each production company will usually have their own closed system that deals with one aspect of the production.

Unfortunately, one of the problems with a closed intercom system is that there is always somebody on a different system that you really need to talk to.

Clear-Com has released an intercom system (Clear-Com Concert) that uses internet protocol (IP) rather than standard xlr microphone cable for connecting users.  This means that anybody with internet access and the proper clearances can join the conversation related to putting on the show.

The video director can include a follow spot operator in the conversation by adding him or anybody else to the work group.  As long as internet access is available (wired or wireless) there is no limit to the number of participants.

There are multiple ways to administer the user group so that those who need to be included for only a little while can be managed, hopefully preventing what might be really chaotic.  The software package developed for this system allows for a simple “drag-and-drop” method to build your temporary user group and users can also communicate by real time texting in addition to spoken word.

Perhaps most interesting, now participants who are not on-site for the event can be given access to the intercom loop.  Imagine being able to bring in the original set designer or a qualified repair tech in real time to address an issue as the show unfolds.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords andOnStage Stand mic stands If you know about a new innovation in concert production hardware, please share it with us.