The announcement was just made... the long-rumored BlackBerry Torch just went live on the AT&T site TODAY. It is offering customers a chance to sign up for a notification of when you can actually by the gadget.
Major features include: 5 megapixel camera with flash, full QUERTY on a portrait slide, 802.11n support, BlackBerry 6 with an all-new browsing experience and a host of other features that will no doubt make this a booming success.
It also boasts 4GB of storage onboard paired with a 4GB microSD card in the box, 512MB each of ROM and RAM, a quadband 3G radio that'll travel well around the globe, a 480 x 360 touchscreen display (same resolution as the Bold 9700) measuring 3.2 inches, the typical optical trackpad down below, and an interesting new Media Sync feature that'll let you sync your media library right over WiFi -- something various third parties have tried over the years, but has rarely been offered as an out-of-the-box capability.
My question to you is, are you eager to buy now ($169, available August 12th) or will you save your money and wait to make sure we don't have another "Storm" on our hands?
Tara Young, Marketing Coordinator
Unified360
This past week I was fortunate enough to be invited to an executive leadership group meeting with speaker Simon Sinek who wrote the book Start with Why. The experience was enlightening to me as it helped to frame up thoughts that I have been challenged with which I believe apply to many business leaders.
As many readers know, we brought Brent Snyder in as our CEO at the beginning of the year. Our leadership team was struggling and we knew we needed someone to come in and help us get back on track and surge ahead with our business. The fact is, we had just reached a threshold in our company, similar to what many businesses reach on their growth curves, where we had stopped focusing on the “why” and began spending all of our energies determining the “how” and the “what.”
In Sinek’s visit, he shared the success stories of people who understood and stayed focused on “why” they existed personally and why their organizations existed. It may sound confusing but as he was laying the concept out there, I really started to understand the importance of what Sinek was teaching. How many times do we get caught up in what needs to happen and how it needs to happen instead of starting with why it needs to happen? This chaos keeps all of us doing “busy work”, leading many of us (definitely myself included) to 10-14 hours days of spinning our wheels and getting nowhere. We are task-saturated to the point where we have no time for the things important to us.
As I began to think about the “why” for Unified360, I remember the conversations my partner Paul and I had about creating more value-focused, long-term partnerships. We spoke of providing our clients solutions that truly helped their businesses—not just technology for the sake of technology but solutions that brought desired results and eliminated problems. Why? Because we enjoyed and seized the opportunity to help people with their business.
As I am still learning to understand the “why”, both personally and for my professional organization, I’d also like to extend a challenge to all Full Circle Feed readers to join me in reading Sinek’s book “Start with Why”. Let’s get ourselves refocused on what is important to us by knowing why we are all here. In fact, send me an email at jbarker@unified360.com and I will get you a copy of the book.
Jim Barker, CSO
Unified360
This blog came to me after an interesting discussion with a friend of mine from the seemingly blacklisted Class of 2010. We spoke after one of her job interviews, and since Unified360 is
preparing to hire newcomers as well, I thought it was a rather relevant topic.
As one prepares to hit the job market, résumé in hand and an impressive new suit that will inevitably take the first paycheck from whatever job you end up landing, you might run into a few snags here and there. It seems my aforementioned friend has hit such a snag pretty early in the game. Maybe it's the economy or maybe the problem has always been there, but what do you do when an employer asks for a little too much information during the interview process?
I was slightly taken aback when she told me that after a second interview, the employer emailed her asking several specific, targeted questions about the company and their website. While it's okay to offer a few ideas and really show-off what you've got, you shouldn't go into an exhaustive overview. After all, you're not working for the company yet, and you don't want to give away all your ideas without getting paid for them.
It's the age-old saying that your mama always taught you-"Why buy the cow when you get the milk for free?" The same goes with interviewing for a job. It's up to you to protect your IP, or your intellectual property. Patents and copyrights aside, understand that your ideas and your time are yours and they are worth something. Don't turn them over without the assurance that you're getting paid what you're worth.
Mitch Beck, president of Crossroads Consulting was once quoted saying "I would tell people if you want to hire me, hire me and I'll fix it... I am firmly against people giving away something for nothing".
Don't get me wrong, it's great to offer original ideas in job interviews and really showing the employer that you have what it takes to do the job well. But throwing everything you have into the job interview is giving away too much. What happens if they choose to hire someone else? You're left jobless and idealess.
The solution is to give a couple of ideas, but without going into the entire thinking behind them. If the employer presents you with a problem (and you think they might be looking for a quick-fix, unpaid solution), provide them with some examples of how you have handled similar situations in the past. Instead of fixing their problem, show them you are capable of fixing it by relating it back to your previous experience. Whatever you do, NEVER accuse the employer of trying to rip-off your ideas; otherwise you can kiss that job goodbye.
To conclude, remember that you're not going on a job interview to solve a problem, you're going there to show them you can think. Show the employer that you are the best qualified and that your ideas are worth something.
Tara Young, Marketing Coordinator
Unified360
Per the request of our
CEO, Brent Snyder,
Unified360 employees recently finished a book called
Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service. Written by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles,
Raving Fans follows the journey of a newly appointed Area Manager and his "fairy godmother", Charlie, who teaches him about the competitive edge of customer service.
The primary take-away from the book is that satisfied customers just aren't good enough. Unless your clients are raving fans of your business you've missed the point of customer service. When we meet the Area Manager on his first day of work, panicked and sure of failure, Charlie comes in with this advice: "Your customers are only satisfied because their expectations are so low and because no one else is doing better. Just having satisfied customers isn't good enough anymore. If you really want a booming business, you have to create Raving Fans."
The matter of fact is Charlie brings up a good point; customer's expectations are so low these days that as long as the abuse isn't any worse than they expected, they consider themselves satisfied. He points out that most company's customer service slogan should read: No Worse Than the Competition. That's why satisfied customers are NOT good enough.
As the book dives further into the reality of what customer service has become, Charlie takes the Area Manager to meet five business owners who got it right. Leo, Sally, Bill, Dennis and Andrew give the Area Manager the three secrets to creating Raving Fans and show us how strategic customer service practices gave them the edge over their competition.
Reading through the pages, I found myself slightly mind-blown at some of the different ways these business owners went about creating raving fans out of their customers... I couldn't think of a single business that would go to such lengths just to please someone else. It all seemed a bit far stretched and exaggerated until I visited the Vera Bradley store yesterday afternoon. Having never been to Vera Bradley and, quite frankly, having written the brand off as something "little old ladies" buy, I was blown away at how well I was treated while in the store.
Upon arriving, I was greeted by a friendly salesperson (wearing her own Vera Bradley pocket purse over her shoulder) who asked if I had ever been there before. When I said I hadn't, she welcomed me and let me know about some great sales they were having on the colors and styles that were soon to be retired. She helped me find some cute bags within my price range that fit my taste and style. While I wasn't planning on purchasing a bag, I was so pleased with the experience that I marched my top pick right up to the checkout counter. There, I was put on a mailing list for other great sales and coupon offers. The saleswoman walked around the counter to hand me my purchase, now neatly packaged in a gift bag with tissue paper to send me on my way.
It was nothing too over-the-top, but I am so used to bad customer service and having to chase someone down if I need help that I felt like a queen at Vera Bradley. And now I am a raving fan... this blog is just one way to prove it.
I highly recommend the book Raving Fans to anyone in the business world. It's an easy read and definitely opens your eyes up to what customer service should look like. We could all stand to improve the way we treat our customers and the book gives some great, competitive guidelines on how to go about doing that.
Are there any Raving Fans out there? Tell me your story! Already read the book? Let me know what you learned from it! I'd love to hear what you have to say.
Tara Young, Marketing Coordinator
Unified360
Our
CEO , Brent Snyder often says this around the office here at Unified360, and he is constantly challenging us to think about what that means. To me the saying is similar to that of "you are what you eat". Meaning that if you feel fat, and all you eat is fatty food, well there you go, and if you're skinny and fit and all you eat is healthy food...I think you see where I am going with this!
Maya Angelou said, "If someone shows you who they are, believe them!". So who are you? Who are you showing people you are? Who do you want to be? Is who you are, who you want to be? And can you REALLY change, if you are someone you do not want to be?
Who you are is defined by the spouse you pick, the people you date, who you surround yourself with, and what you do with your time. When you truly define who you are it shows in every aspect of what you do. As I think about what defines me and what I spend my time doing, my thoughts can't help but drift to how much our careers define us. For those of us who work, we spend the majority of our time in our careers. Does your job reflect who you are? Does your company define you? Do you want it to? I like to think that work does not define me, but I define it, and I think that is true for the most part. What makes me enjoy working at Unified 360 is that fact that it is a young, fun, and innovative company, all adjectives I would use to describe myself. I look for things that challenge me, encourage me, support me, and make me a better person in life; why wouldn't I want the exact same things from the company I work for?
Is what you do reflected in who you are? You bring who you are to what you do. For me, I bring honesty, hard work, fun, loyalty, and other things to the table in my personality and in who I am, and I'm lucky enough to work in an environment where I can be all those things and they can be utilized in what I do and my company wants to do. Who are you? Do you bring who you are to your company? Does your company let you be that person and utilize you are in your role? I think too many people are unhappy with what they do because who they are, mixed with what they do, do not coincide. They don't even come close. Companies today look for credit reports, and believe that how you spend your money and pay your bills reflects exactly how responsible you will be in your employment. Who you are, is who you are. Are you being the best you can be? If you find yourself wanting something more, it may just be that you are not in an environment that lets you be who you are!
Amber Davis, Account Manager
Unified360
Take note: Google's got a new look as seen in Wednesday's unveiling of the redesign. The new format has the search engine "Bing-ed out" with a new color scheme, more images amid search results and a navigable column on the left side of the page to help readers fine tune their searches. The bar has been raised and now the competition between Microsoft and Google has intensified.
With the successful launch of Microsoft's Bing last June, the renovation was bound to happen at some point. And although Google still dominates the search engine field with 65% of the market share, the developing collaboration between Microsoft and Yahoo! will no doubt up the ante. The ultimate competitor will have to be sure to capitalize on the rising activity on social networks like Facebook and Twitter by integrating them into their networks.
President of search consultancy Reliable SEO David Harry says "If Google has one weakness, it's dealing with social networks in real time on the Web."
I'm still primarily a Google Search user, but I have utilized Bing a couple times when I'm frustrated with the results I get from Google. I sort of feel like I'm sticking it to them by giving up and switching over to the competition (even if the results are practically the same... silly thought process? Yes.) Has anyone here made a permanent switch from Google to Bing for better search results? Would you consider switching back now that Google has had a makeover?
Google is still the industry leader but it would be wise to take note that, after the billions Microsoft has poured into search years before this, now Bing is finally the one that is making a dent. What was the tipping point? And what can other businesses learn from it?
Tara Young, Marketing Coordinator
Unified360
In this day and age, we are all encouraged to implement cost saving measures wherever and whenever we can. In some instances, the savings generated could mean the difference between profitability and non-profitability for the company. We all seem to do more with less these days.
There are numerous ways to trim costs and save on the bottom line. Here are just a few:
- Go paperless as much as possible. Provided you have adequate digital storage space, there is no reason to print and store data that can be accessed through a digital management system. Savings can be found with fewer copier/printer supplies needed and with smaller physical storage requirements.
- Compare prices for office supplies and purchase online. Buy in bulk whenever it makes sense. Join membership reward programs that provide members with additional savings. Don't be afraid to use coupons.
- Provide online or computer based training instead of traditional offsite training.
- Reduce travel expenses by using technology to hold conferences and meetings. Given today's technology everyone can participate without requiring a physical presence.
- Reduce energy costs by turning off electrical appliances, computers, lights, etc. when not in use.
- Analyze utility costs and compare rates on a regular basis. Competition among vendors usually results in reduced costs. Most utility providers will conduct energy audits. Set the thermostat at a reasonable temp and then lock it down to prevent anyone from changing it.
- Recycle as much as possible. Re-use file folders, binders, etc. when possible. Use those stray pieces of paper that should go in the recycle bin as your own personal scratch pad and then put it in the recycle bin; this will also reduce the need to purchase notepads.
- Never buy checks at a bank. Numerous print vendors are available at greatly reduced rates.
- Offer flex-time or telecommuting when practical.
Nobody knows the business better that the employees working through it all. Develop a program that will monetarily reward employee suggestions/recommendations with 25% of the savings realized. Most employees will have an idea or two about how to improve their work process. Listen to them - they're your best asset!
Dianne Brandt, Accountant
Unified360
If you were at a grocery store and saw a pile of green oranges what would you think? Would you even pick one up? Would your curiosity get the best of you forcing you to inspect one, perhaps even buying one to try? Or would you simply move on looking for the biggest, roundest, orangest orange that you are so used to buying?
I recently read a book called "Selling the Invisible" which pointed out that the richest, ripest, and juiciest oranges are in fact, green. Did you know that you have to pay a little extra every time you buy an orange so that the growers can subject the fruit to a battery of chemicals, dyes and gases to change it from green to orange? Crazy isn't it?
So then I propose this question...the next time you are out shopping for produce, would you buy a green orange that cost less or a "standard" orange which is in fact more expensive?
My point is this: don't get fooled by the package. This of course doesn't merely apply to produce but is also a valuable lesson to learn for business. Too often people make decisions based solely on what they see without ever truly knowing what's on the inside... simply because they don't know any better. Be informed, learn something new, and don't rely on what you've always known to be "true" to necessarily be the best option.
Just some food for thought...
Chris Newton, Business Development Representative
Unified360
Last quarter, I wrote a short blurb for the Unified360 newsletter,
The Inner Circle, about Google's new Nexus One android phone. Since it was only recently released at the time, I ended the article with a "we'll see how this goes" mindset. Turns out, it hasn't gone too far.
Rumors have been circulating for months now that wireless carrier, Verizon, would take on the Nexus One Smartphone as a competitor with AT&T's iPhone. Well, the rumors have finally stopped as Verizon recently announced that it is no longer interested in carrying Nexus One, but rather will be focusing its efforts on other Android phones like the Droid Incredible (set to launch this Thursday).
What's happening here? Google is not a brand that you would associate with "disappointing sales". Two of Google's most recent launches, Buzz and Nexus One, have struggled against their competitors in the market. Buzz is still going but never was able to stand up to the powerhouse that is Facebook and all of its developing features. And as for Nexus One? It's basically another beta Google project without the beta label. While overall sales have been disappointing, it was only sold online and without any major marketing push. Was Google expecting?
Verizon no doubt is choosing to avoid association with the latest Google flop and focus its efforts on another phone with technical similarities that it can promote under its own brand. At this point, while I and many others love Google and its many uses, I think there are plenty who would jump at the opportunity to have a non-Google branded phone. The company is so big it's almost scary. Some have jokingly compared it to a pet pit bull-you love it, but you keep your eye on it at all times and don't let it out of your sight.
Tara Young, Marketing Coordinator
Unified360
Am I the only one who was in the dark about this? I never considered myself to be one who's out of touch but I had never heard of the National Do Not Call Registry until a few days ago. After weeks of frustrating calls from telemarketers in "MA, USA", "Orange County Area" and "Omaha, NE" (because I'm sure Omaha has nothing better to do than call my cell phone at 2:00 a.m.), I was at my wits end. Now I know why Lady Gaga was forced to write her song ‘
Telephone'... she was talking about all the telemarketers out there who kept bugging her when all the poor woman wanted to do was leave her head and her heart on the dance floor. Turns out all it took was a simple Google search to find the solution to mine and Lady Gaga's problem.
The National Do Not Call Registry puts consumers in charge of the telemarketing calls they receive at home and (illegally) on their cell phones. By placing your number in the registry, you are guaranteed that most telemarketing calls will be put to a stop. To register online you must enter each home or cell phone number along with a valid email address into the database. It's FREE and your number with the registry never expires.
How great is this? I just registered my cell phone and, even though they say it may take up to 31 days for the calls to stop, I haven't received one call since. If the calls come after those 31 days or if you're being continually harassed, there is an option to file a complaint.
Now, I know that there are many instances in which telemarketers are just "doing their jobs", and I'm sure I'll get the few readers who will urge me to have a little more sympathy and respect for them. However, calling me at 2:00 in the morning and blocking your number from being called back is unacceptable. Do companies really get business from this? I even tried to calmly get through to someone (I swear!) to explain that I just wanted to be removed from the call list and was promptly hung up on.
So what's acceptable and what's not? Calls from political organizations and calls soliciting for charities are not covered by the national registry. If you are receiving these calls, all it usually takes is a simple request that the telemarketer remove you from the list. If they fail to do this, the company may be subject to a fine of up to $16,000! Other calls that may warrant a complaint or even a fine are any telemarketer calls to your cell phone and any calls without a real person on the other end (we've all been subjected to the talking machines).
The FTC National Do Not Call Registry is the solution to preventing fraudulent, deceptive and unfair business practices in the marketplace. You now have the choice and the ability to stop them. For more information or to register one of your phone numbers, see the information below.
Tara Young, Marketing Coordinator
Unified360
http://www.donotcall.gov/ or call toll-free, 1-888-382-1222 (TTY 1-866-290-4236), from the number you wish to register. Registration is free.