According to the CDC, “…the 2009 H1N1 influenza viruses and regular seasonal influenza may spread at the same time. It’s possible that a lot more people will get sick this season than normally occurs during a regular flu season. There also may be more people hospitalized and more deaths this season than during a normal flu season.”

Now, I’m started to get a lot more worried.  School kids and college kids cram into classrooms and they can’t wash their hands often enough to keep the virus at bay.  As a business owner, I know these kids come home and spread the virus to their moms and dads who then go to work with a few aches and pains and spread the virus in the office.  We just had a mom who had strep throat who got it from her daughter.  I’m holding my breath that the rest of the office doesn’t catch it.  It takes 24 hours to become non-contagious from strep……it takes about a week or more with swine flue.

We have the potential for a lot of people to have to stay home from work.  Parents need to take care of their kids and they better figure out that they need to take care of themselves. I don’t think the economy can take another blow, especially from a flu bug.

We’re thinking through how to help our customers that use us for audio conferencing and webinars to make sure they can still do business, even though employees are sidelined. Seems simple enough, right?  You need to do a meeting, do it virtually so people don’t sneeze on each other and pass the H1N1 virus around.  I’m going to give some more thought to how to help people think this out before it becomes a bigger problem than it needs to be.

Maintain Customer Relationships
One of the most vital things to remember in collections is to maintain positive relationships with customers. It is better to get a partial payment, or put the customer on a payment plan than it is to get angry and walk away with nothing.  It is also important to not just collect, but to understand WHY the customer cannot pay the bill – it can help gauge further business transactions, or how to adjust payment terms to meet their business needs.  At Copper Conferencing, good customer relationsihps are a priority.

Use Technology
Another critical step to improve collections is to implement technology that helps in this process.  Technology tools have a direct relation to reducing the time that the collector spends focusing on actually contacting the customers. Having a “one stop shop” for collectors to look up any and all information needed helps them spend less time figuring out who to contact and more time actually talking to the customers. For example, the billing system at Copper Conferencing, Phoenix, keeps track of all customers accounts receivable sorting it by past due date and amount – therefore very little research is needed; the list of customers to contact is readily available.

Put It in Writing
Some companies try doing collection phone calls, which they think is more effective then letters. While this may be effective for them, we have found that e-mail has been by far the most effective because we can reach more decision makers than just the accounts payable contact.  Copper has effectively increased collections by invoicing customers more quickly than in the past. We also send out past due statements on a monthly basis to remind the customer to pay in a timelier manner.

Get Noticed
One thing that Copper Conferencing does is up the ante with customer contact. It is important to get noticed, and have Copper bills go to the top of the pile of invoices on the accounting manager’s desk.  Here at Copper we send brightly colored e-mails, and we copy the people who it will affect the most – the people who actually use the services.  The color catches the reader’s eye and most of the time the people who use the service will push their payables department to pay the bill to ensure that the service will be available to them.

Be Objective
Finally, one of the most important things to remember when collecting is to use your aging report – not your feelings. Several accounts could go uncollected if a collector “feels” that they are going to get paid. You must make critical decisions which can turn a difficult situation into a win-win for both the business and the customer. Be firm, yet courteous. The goal is not only to bring the customer current, but maintain a good business relationship with your customers.

The collection process is often considered to be a negative activity in a business, yet it is an opportunity to continue to cement your relationship with your customer.  Keep in mind that being flexible, but firm, and objective can not only improve cash flow, but keep the customer coming back to your company.

About Conference Coach Renee
Renee Gregory is the Accounting Manager for Copper Conferencing. She has been in accounting for 14 years. She graduated from The University of Colorado at Denver with a Bachelors degree in Business Management. She loves to spend time with her husband, 5 year old son and 10 month old daughter. She loves to camp, and enjoys the outdoors.

Have questions about Copper Conferencing or need to do an audio conference or web meeting?  Contact a Conference Coach today.

It’s Always Your Job
Employees at a small company do not have the luxury of claiming “it’s not my job.”  Versatility is the key to success in a small business and job duties may need to be adjusted at a moment’s notice in order to complete the task at hand.  For example, the manager of a department responsible for a half a million dollar account may need to keep an eye out to sign for a delivery if the receptionist is away from her desk.  The marketing manager may need to stuff invoices.  In these examples, it’s important to be flexible and willing to take on a task to ensure important things get done.  Inflexibility, while unfortunately sometimes accepted in larger organizations, can bring a small business to a standstill.

Respond Quickly to the Customer 
We operate in an electronic society that has developed a dependency on instant gratification.  Frustrating delays for a customer can easily lead to a customer looking for another vendor that is more able to satisfy their needs in a timely manner.  Imagine that every minute your customer is on hold while being transferred around trying to get to the ‘right’ person to help them, that customer may be multi-tasking and using that time to shop online on your competitor’s website. 

Every person that answers the phone should be able to help the customer or get the customer to the appropriate person with a single transfer.  Large corporations and the employees who work for them have a lot to learn from small businesses who adopt this philosophy.

Become Cross-Trained 
Understanding the roles and responsibilities of other departments, especially of the departments that directly support you and in turn the departments that you directly support, helps ensure that you have the required knowledge when extra assistance is needed.  Become diversified in your skill sets.  By definition, no one role is isolated within any organization.  A sales person cannot make a sale without someone having to provide or support the product.  Technical support representatives cannot assist a customer without sales having sold the product in the first place.  Absolutely no one gets paid unless accounting sends out invoices and receives payment. 

In a small business, everyone’s job depends on everyone else doing his or her job well.  It is mutually beneficial to be able to jump in and help anywhere that help is needed in order to get the task completed.  If another department is getting overwhelmed, determine where the most help is needed and then provide that assistance or offer to pitch in during a crunch time. 

Learn to Prioritize and Multi-task
The luxury of sitting down at a desk for an eight hour day and working on a single project is not as common as it was only a few years ago.  Every day brings constant interruptions from the technologies that are now a part of our daily lives: e-mail, instant messaging, Blackberries, and so on.  The challenge is to be able to filter and respond to all of the incoming information as it comes in, while still completing other lengthier projects. 

If interruptions make it impossible to return your focus to the larger task, there are some tips that may help. 

• Before stopping a project to address an incoming request, note where you stopped so you can get back on task quickly once the smaller item has been addressed. 
• Consider ignoring non-urgent incoming requests until a set time every hour that is set aside to address or prioritize them. 

Tools for the Jack of All Trades
Every company has a host of tools to help its employees accomplish their daily tasks.  Depending on the company or employee, the mix of tools may include specialized software (accounting, inventory, CAD, graphics) as well as standard applications such as email, spreadsheets and word processing.  A tool that is fast becoming a standard in businesses around the world is the combination of web and audio conferencing. 

With both audio conferencing and web conferencing, employees are able to better plan their time thus increasing efficiency and save money by cutting down unnecessary travel.  For example, a sales person can give a product demo via an internet meeting which takes only a fraction of the time when compared to traveling to a customer site to give the same demo.  Using an internet meeting also takes the frustration out of trying to fumble through a phone meeting without visuals. 

Consider how the advent of technology has made doing business easier (or harder) and how the small business must adapt to changing market conditions to survive.  By selecting the right mix of tools, a small business gives its employees a leg up on competition of any size.

The Advantage to the Small Guy
As our society gets more accustomed to getting anything we need at the flip of a switch, we are going to continue to expect faster, better service.  Small businesses have a huge advantage in being able to adjust to the ever changing needs of customers.  Large corporations are struggling with layers of red tape and departmental segregation that make change difficult, if not impossible.  Until large organizations start thinking like small companies and encouraging their employees to think like they are working for small companies, change may be slow or non-existent.  Corporations and their employees must adjust as needs change, assist where help is needed and jump between tasks if required.

About Conference Coach Amy
Amy Hiatt is a Senior Account Manager and Conference Coach with Copper Conferencing.  She has been in customer service for 10 years and in conferencing for 4 years.  She is an avid traveler and loves to spend as much time as possible outdoors enjoying the Colorado mountains.

Performance Appraisals That Actually Improve Performance: The Complete People Improvement Process
Presented by Wally Hauck
Date: Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Time: 2:00 pm ET
Sign up now

Wally will challenge the way we think about the typical performance appraisal. Wally challenges the belief that an entire organization must improve by improving each of its parts. Wally gets participants to examine their underlying beliefs and practices concerning performance appraisals.

Using the Complete People Improvement Process (CPIP) as the foundation, Wally will help you learn:

• The reasons why typical performance appraisals will never work well with the current design.
• How to think differently about performance in order to make significant productivity improvements.
• How performance appraisals prevent long term performance improvement.
• How performance appraisals create a barrier to optimal trust, cooperation and creativity.
• How the CPIP can significantly increase accountability.
• How CPIP can help poor performances “de-select” quickly and top performers excel.
• How CPIP can save valuable management time and increase profitability

Today organizations must fully engage the hearts and minds of all employees to achieve strategic results and high profitability.

Who Should Attend: HR managers, Managers, Directors and Company leaders

Register now!

BROOMFIELD, CO – May 22, 2009 – Copper Conferencing, a leading provider of audio and web conferencing, announced the launch of Copper Link (www.copperconferencing.com/partners/copperlink), a web-enabled portal that provides a gateway for agents to access reports, submit online orders, customize marketing materials and launch e-marketing campaigns.

“Copper Conferencing’s channel partners are an integral and important part of our business,” said Carolyn Bradfield, Chief Executive Officer of Copper Conferencing.  “Copper Link is a powerful tool designed to connect agents to Copper and to their prospects and customers.  Copper’s goal is to streamline communications with our partners and offer powerful marketing tools to help partners generate significant revenue from their existing customers and new prospects.”

Master Agents and their Sub-agents access Copper Link through Connect To Copper, a secure web portal.  The reporting tool displays up-to-date information on existing customer revenue.  Using the reporting tool, Master Agents can analyze customer performance, project commissions, and assess risks and opportunities.  New orders for web and audio conferencing are submitted electronically via Copper Link in just minutes offering efficiencies in how agents deliver information to Copper and in how Copper processes new orders and customer upgrades.

Copper Link’s marketing engine has powerful tools to help agents take advantage of electronic marketing for lead generation and revenue opportunities.  In minutes, an e-marketing campaign can be created offering a customized email and landing page combination where prospects sign up and are set up to begin using Copper’s web and audio conferencing services.  Agents are notified immediately via email when prospects have responded to the offer.

“Conferencing represents a powerful way for agents to earn incremental income from their base of existing customers who are buying a range of telecommunications services,” Bradfield added.  “Copper Link’s e-marketing engine takes the work out of generating conferencing revenue by automating the communication of special offers and audio conferencing rates to a partner’s existing customers or new prospects.”

Copper Conferencing offers channel partners competitive buy rates, accurate and timely commissions, product training, and sales support.  Copper Link enriches the channel partner program by offering automated tools to analyze customer activity, process orders and market to customers and prospects.  To learn more about Copper Link, visit www.copperconferencing.com/partners/copperlink.

About Copper Conferencing
Headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, Copper Conferencing provides eco-friendly audio conferencing and web conferencing services to small and medium-sized businesses. Copper’s Conference Coaches™ provide expert guidance of enhanced conferencing services. From On Demand reservationless audio conference calls to highly interactive webinars, internet meetings and special event calls, Copper Conferencing helps businesses save time and money while improving productivity. Copper’s audio and web conferencing services are backed by fully-managed, carrier-class platforms to power communication for thousands of customers. For more information about Copper Conferencing, visit www.copperconferencing.com or call a Conference Coach at 866-903-7521.

Press contact:
Alycia Maier-Turner
Copper Conferencing
303-952-4308
pr@copperconferencing.com

###

Register Now!
In these difficult economic times, people are looking for new ways to make career change.

• Are you wanting to make change in your life?
• Are you at a stage where it is time to transition into another career?

Maybe the economic environment is causing you to seek new employment or get back into the workforce. In this webinar you will learn:

• Defining your motivations for change
• Opportunities for consulting, part time work, starting a business or simply ways to supplement your income.
• Assessing your talents and interests
• Developing your network
• Preparing your skills
• Winning at the interview

Whether you want to create a new career, transition to part time in a current job, create a new full time position or go into business for yourself, these 6 critical steps will help you get there. Join Linda for an enlightening and informative 60-minute webinar and take away what you need to make your next move.

Who Should Attend: Recruiters, HR Consultants, People in career transition (or thinking about it)

Register Now! 

Virtual Meetings
Professors and students find audio and web conferencing very beneficial to their daily schedules, allowing them to collaborate in real-time in internet meetings. Online meetings using web conferencing enables a department, a study group or a research team to work on group projects any time, day or night. If traveling or unavailable for an on campus session, faculty can do a live or recorded webcast of an assignment or lecture to students and monitor who attends or views the webcast using registration reporting. Reducing the need for in-person meetings frees up time so students can focus on other school related assignments, faculty can focus on teaching or research and staff can conduct daily business more efficiently and effectively.

Fund Raising
Higher education institutions use web and audio conferencing to bring alumni and other donors together for fund raising events. Through the highly interactive format of a webinar, colleges and universities are able to show real-time documents, browser share and display applications, which help alumni and donors to better envision future plans and how their donations will play a part in those efforts.

Connecting Alumni to Students
Many colleges and universities find that connecting alumni with prospective students results in higher matriculation and that connecting alumni with current students results in more active alumni post graduation. Through teleconferences and webinars institutions are making these connections. Entrance interviews, intern interviews, industry and job information sessions are just some of the ways web and phone conferencing are used to connect alumni and students.

Collaborating on Teaching Methodologies
Professors, departments and other personnel find teleconferencing and interactive webinars beneficial resources for internal and external meetings. Being able to collaborate with a colleague on campus or across the world helps them share ideas which can better faculty teaching abilities, benefitting the students and schools. New ways to approach hard to reach students, make curriculum relevant and uses of new technology are all ideas that can be proffered in a collaborative conference call.

Research Teams
Colleges and universities receive numerous grants to research and publish on various topics. Collecting data, collaborating with the researchers and conducting focus groups are all better enabled using conferencing technology. Web conferencing services allow a research team to conduct a poll, get an instant data report and compile data for research studies.

Understanding the many ways colleges can benefit from using audio and web conferencing ensures donors, alumni, students, professors and other college personnel are able to meet in the most cost-effective and informative fashion. Working in real-time via a web conference negates the need for travel, saves money and enables participants to have more productive and thorough meetings. While there is still a need for face-to-face meetings, web and audio conferencing are becoming more common on campuses in the United States and worldwide.

About Conference Coach Kelli
Kelli Lunenschloss is a Senior Account Manager at Copper Conferencing. Kelli has been with Copper since 2006 as the first employee hired. Prior to helping found Copper, she was with Raindance Communications for 4 years working in sales and account management. Kelli is extremely “green.” Kelli is a recycling fanatic and is known around the office as the paper police. Kelli’s number one goal is to ensure her customers are happy with their services at Copper Conferencing.