An Engaged Workforce: Building a Team for Results with Trust, Freedom and Accountability

Presented by: Wally Hauck
Date: Thursday, March 18, 2010
Time: 2pm ET / 12pm MT

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Do We Really Need Engaged Employees?

Yes!  Expansion to a global economy has created a real-time need to understand and adapt more quickly.  Engaged employees are more likely to learn, understand and adapt to trends and techniques which may take place half a world away.

In this webinar participants will learn:
•  Key factors for creating a culture of high performance and engagement
•  How to implement key factors for high performance and engagement
•  How to identify and remove barriers that prevent engagement
•  3 Key strategies to create a lasting culture of trust and accountability – without threats or bribes

Join Wally and discover the need for engaged employees. Consider this:
•  The key asset of any successful firm is the brainpower of its people
•  Workers are less and less interchangeable
•  Complexity of the new competitive world requires continuous information exchange

This is an hour well spent for anyone who works within a workforce that is strenuous and disengaged. Register today!

Who Should Attend: Everyone

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

Carolyn Bradfield

A while ago, I shared my “mystery shopping” experience in the conferencing industry.  For those of you who are unfamiliar, a mystery shopper is someone who uses a service, shops in a store or eats at a restaurant and gives feedback for improvement to the owners.

InterCall was the focus of my mystery shopping adventure when my husband (who has a different last name than mine) attempted to set up a new InterCall account which took weeks and a lot of steps to get simple reservationless conferencing service.  After the blog, I think InterCall figured out who my husband was and never delivered the account information or an invoice in the mail.

Had they done that, he would have incurred a $25 invoice fee to get a mailed invoice and a conference minimum fee that would have kicked off when he dialed in to see if his number worked.  That would have cost $15.  There would have also been a number of other fees and charges and in reality he could have been hit with around $40 in fees and taxes without even conducting one conference call.

We didn’t confine our mystery shopping to InterCall.   We also tested Premiere Global (PGi) and had a similarly negative experience.  My husband signed up for an account online and purchased a “Ready Conference Plus 100 Pack” for 1 year.  What is a Ready Conference Plus 100 Pack, you ask?  This bundled price includes 100 minutes a month for $10.95 and you get charged whether you use them or not.  Do the math and you’ll realize this service is selling for $.11 a minute for a no-reservation, automated conference call.

We got an invoice this time,  opened it, only to be socked with a $20.90 bill without ever dialing in to try the service.  Like InterCall, there was an invoice fee to mail the bill, but unlike them there was this fixed monthly charge.  There was no customer service number on the invoice and after a lot of searching the web site, we found a “sales number” and were eventually transferred to customer service.

After a 10 minute hold time, we spoke with a customer service person who informed us that this was the service that was signed up for on the website and we were obligated to keep it even though it didn’t suit our purpose.  After 5 minutes of attempting to make our point and getting nowhere, we asked to close the account.  The agent refused unless we faxed in a request along with a good enough reason to shut it down.  (How about – you’re overcharging me and I didn’t use it!)  After reasoning with the agent, he agreed to accept an email request to close the account.  He never offered an optional service, a better rate, or seemed to care if we used Premiere or not.

Months ago, Copper Conferencing introduced the “Conferencing Bill of Right.s”  If you use Premiere or InterCall – the two big guys, you should take this seriously.  Unlike the “Goliaths” of the industry, Copper Conferencing will never do the following:
•    Charge you to receive an invoice in the mail so you can pay your bill.
•    Hide our customer service or billing inquiries number so you can’t find us.
•    Not help you find the service that matches your needs.
•    Charge minimums or miscellaneous fees not required by the federal government
•    Implement crazy pricing packages to disguise high rates

There are a lot of things, however, that we will do:
•    Constantly look for ways for you to manage cost
•    Make ourselves available if you want to talk to us
•    Give you on-line access to your invoices and accounts so you can control your access to information
•    Find new ways to connect to us or use our services that make it easier and more efficient for you to conference.

Some conferencing companies have joined the likes of industries like the airline industry that are holding the line on revenue by charging fees instead of finding customers that want to use those services.  Remember baggage fees, exit row fees, food fees and other surcharges?  Look at your Premiere and InterCall bill and maybe you’ll see some similarities.

Copper Conferencing is not one of the big guys, but we’re definitely one of the good guys!

Carolyn Bradfield is the CEO of Copper Conferencing, a leading provider or audio and web conferencing and wrap-around services to enhance customer experience. You can try Copper’s great web and audio conferencing services — FREE.  Just sign up now.

Plugging into Passions: A tool for identifying what motivates us at work

Presented by: Wendy Mack
Date: Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Time: 2pm ET / 12pm MT

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Join Wendy Mack for a free webinar that introduces you to a framework for accessing workplace passions. Discover tools that identify what motivates us at work from the design of pay systems to creating a great place to work to giving people time off.

In this webinar participants will learn:
•  To identify your own core priorities and motivations
•  How to realize energized alignment through opportunity choices
•  How to attract and retain the talent you need for your firm to succeed
•  How to energized and align employees around vision and key priorities

Wendy guides you through the different types of motivation that exist in the workplace. Consider this:
•  What if you had a way to identify what motivates you at your core or what motivates each person on your team?
•  What if your conversations with each employee could be tailored to emphasize what matters most to him or her?

This is an hour well spent for anyone who would like to have a workplace filled with motivation and energy. Register today!

Who Should Attend: Human Resources, Managers, and Employees

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

Working at a small company gives employees the opportunity to dream, think, and contribute to product development, enhancements, and how we market and sell to our customers.  At Copper Conferencing, talking with our customers is as close as picking up the phone, whether you are in Marketing, Customer Service, Accounting or Sales.  We count it a privilege to hear what our customers tell us that they care about, what it is that they need, or what they would like to have from conferencing in future days/years.

Although predicting the future is not likely, peeking around the next corner isn’t out of reach.  The combination of customer desires and employee dreams of future possibilities launch ideas, and ideas become ways of doing things better.

2010 is the year of doing conferencing better, easier, less expensively.  At Copper, this means partnerships with leading web conferencing providers to provide an expanded menu of service and choices for our diverse customers.  It means introducing Local Dial In as a connection option to drive your costs down.  It means having a  Conference Coach available to you every time you call us, and Connect To Copper, a state of the art Customer Portal for you to  self-access and manage your  conferencing account whenever you need to.

Wherever you are, we are here. We have expanded our menu, giving you new choices, and making conferencing easier.

Try Copper for free!

Carolyn Bradfield

If anyone has seen the classic and Oscar-worthy movie, The Hangover, you can get a perspective of the night’s activity AFTER the show.  Keep reading, I’ll get to that in a minute.   First, the Channel Partners Show.

One of the side benefits of coming to the Channel Partner’s show is having people with interesting services and technology stop by your booth and let you know what they offer.  I’m constantly thinking about what Copper Conferencing’s customers might be interested in.  For example, there is a mobile assistant company that has a system for you to call in, dictate notes into their technology and have an email transcript sent to you.  I may try that out some time.  Another company offers a way to connect to a conference call from any international location through your computer’s speakers.  Worthy of looking into.

There were a number of conferencing companies here with us at the show and it comforts me to know that Copper is still very much ahead of the curve in offering our customers more services, more automation and a better customer experience.  Our Connect To Copper online customer portal is head and shoulders above any automated account management system.  We’re the only company offering nationwide local dial in.   Our strategy of offering market leading web conferencing services, integrated with audio, is exactly what customers are looking for.   I like who Copper is and how we stack up against the competition.

Also worth noting is that our show was right across the hall from the medical marijuana convention.  You should have seen the dreadlocks and the pot leaf imprints on everyone’s clothes.  They looked like rejects from a Woodstock concert.  Medical marijuana was legalized in Colorado with little to no regulation.  Now there are more medical marijuana locations in Colorado than Starbucks.   I’m sure the folks at the Lowes Home Improvement convention had a heart attack looking at these guys.  Home improvement guys are a conservative group after all.

Now for the Oscar-worthy “The Hangover” moments.  We got invited to some cool parties.  One of the fun ones ended up at a Smokey Robinson Motown review which was super-cheesy, but a blast to hear the classic old songs.  Of course, a few of the guests (who shall remain nameless) left early when they discovered that the singers weren’t going to take their clothes off. Look at the picture – why did they care?   I can’t really talk about the rest of the night because my life has been threatened.  I’ll leave it up to your imagination.

Just so all of you will know.  None of us woke up with a tiger or unidentified baby in our room.  We weren’t threatened by Mike Tyson.  Nobody pulled out their tooth on a bet.  Nobody got married without realizing it.  All in all, a successful show and fun experience.  Viva Las Vegas and see you next year.

Carolyn Bradfield is the CEO of Copper Conferencing, a leading provider or audio and web conferencing and wrap-around services to enhance customer experience. To learn more about Copper Conferencing, visit www.copperconferencing.com.

Internet Marketing for Rapid-Fire Success

Presented by: Debbie Allen
Date: Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Time: 2pm ET / 12pm MT

Register Now!

Join Debbie Allen to discover online marketing strategies that will help you instantly connect with viewers and dramatically increases your online sales.

You will learn how to:
•  Implement powerful online marketing strategies that create proven results
•  Add benefit-rich headlines and attention-grabbing text that increases sales
•  Instantly improve the image and effectiveness of your website
•  Get listed higher on search engines and create more online exposure
•  Use email and social media sites to gain exposure to your website

Join Debbie to discover 7 ways to entice more online buyers, plus 6 ways to build online traffic fast! Register today.

This is an hour well spent for anyone who is trying to find more ways to improve their website.

Who Should Attend: Marketing, Business Owners, Anyone interested in boosting sales

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

Denver, CO, February 25, 2010 — Copper Conferencing today announced the launch of a new suite of audio and web conferencing services to enhance the company’s collaboration offering and provide better value for Copper customers. These new offerings come as a result of an agreement with Premiere Global Services, Inc., now known as PGi, a leading provider of meeting and collaboration solutions.

“By teaming with PGi we are adding new web and audio conferencing capabilities to our suite of collaboration services,” said Carolyn Bradfield, CEO of Copper Conferencing.  “As a worldwide leader in conferencing, PGi delivers technologies that will enhance our audio conferencing capabilities and expand Copper’s web conferencing services to create an extremely rich experience, at a competitive price for our customers.”

Copper’s new web conferencing offerings include Adobe® Acrobat Connect Pro, Microsoft® Live Meeting and Cisco WebEx®.   Integrated with Copper Conferencing’s On Demand audio conferencing platform, these web technologies provide increased capabilities for webinars and web conferences from simple meetings, to nationwide training or complex corporate events.  Copper Conferencing offers a free trial of each of these services prior to a purchase decision and both per minute and subscription pricing.  To sign up for a free trial, visit www.copperconferencing.com/go/0bf53.

“By offering market-leading web conferencing services from PGi, we can expand Copper’s ability to deliver cost effective virtual sales calls, lead generation webinars, trainings, event management and remote customer service,” Bradfield added. “When businesses actively seek tools to better manage their operations, sales and staff, we can keep them connected and competitive, while at the same time saving them money.

In addition to enhanced audio conferencing capabilities, Copper is also introducing a new ‘Local Dial-In’ service that is available nationwide at a reduced rate.  Customers can now connect to On Demand conference calls using a local or toll-free number, as well a variety of international access from locations across the globe.

Copper Conferencing’s automated audio conferencing service, On Demand now offers expanded capabilities including additional call controls, added security features, plus the ability to subconference. The Connect To Copper™ customer portal features powerful, easy-to-use online account management tools with the ability to manage moderators, pay invoices and view usage reports.  New features include the ability to manage billing codes and listen to and download MP3 files of conferencing recordings.

About Copper Conferencing
Headquartered in Denver, Colorado with a major communications center in Atlanta, Georgia, Copper Conferencing provides 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 and special teleconference event calls, Copper Conferencing helps businesses save time and money while improving productivity. Copper’s conferencing services are backed by fully managed, carrier-class platforms to power communication for thousands of customers. For more information about Copper Conferencing, www.copperconferencing.com or call a Conference Coach at 866-903-7521.

Adobe Connect Pro, Microsoft Live Meeting and Cisco WebEx are registered trademarks of the respective owners.

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

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I thought it would be a good idea to have a little competition within the Atlanta office and to use Fantasy Football to create that competition. So, we began I believe like any other Fantasy Football League except that since we are an audio and web conferencing company, we would do the draft over web conferencing using integrated audio convfrencing  to keep track and make it official. Having the ability to use web and audio conferencing for a Fantasy Football draft would be a distinct advantage for a League that is comprised of people spread farther apart from each other.  And in our case, we made it interesting and it costs less than having everyone traveling to one place to sit at one computer and do draft picks.

We had such a great time having a Fantasy Football League that we did a regular season league and a post season (playoff) league! If you have never tried out Fantasy Football, it is great, and I recommend it for you and your friends to have a great time while watching football.  Also, I recommend trying to do the draft using audio and web conferencing, because it was easy for us and if you have friends that have to travel to do the draft this might be the solution.

One thing I noticed while being in a Fantasy Football League that I am sure most League players can agree with, is that I paid more attention to each game. If you already enjoy football, but haven’t tried Fantasy Football, I can tell you that you will love the game even more. After playing in a League I find myself willing to try to do a baseball or basketball league, but I am sure they would not be as fun as doing a Fantasy Football League. If you know of any other great Fantasy Leagues then I would be grateful if you commented on this blog with the type of league, or just comment to say how your league went. If you would like to compare Leagues or see how we did, click here to see our Regular Season League and click here to see our Post Season League.

For many people, I think the very act of saying ‘No’ is difficult in many circumstances.  People avoid saying ‘No’ for lots of reasons.  They don’t want to disappoint.  They don’t want to appear difficult. They don’t have the facts to say yes.  They don’t want to be confrontational.  They would rather say yes than debate the issue.  They lack the courage.

Often saying ‘No’ takes courage — even when you know without a doubt that saying ‘No’ is not only the right answer but the best answer.  Sometimes saying ‘No’ makes you feel rather ill, guilty, or heartless.  But sometimes saying ‘No’ makes you feel relief, elation or accomplished.

I applaud those who have the courage to say ‘No’ when it’s the right answer even though it may make you feel a little queasy.  I applaud those who have the courage to say ‘No’ when they know it’s the right thing to do and when saying it makes you feel good.

Use caution with ‘No’ for once you’ve found you have the courage to use it, the right answer may be ‘Yes.’

Alycia Maier-Turner is the Director of Marketing for Copper Conferencing, a provider of top-quality audio conferencing and industry-leading web conferencing services.

Carolyn Bradfield

I like to stay on top of what’s going on in the world.  I’m a total “newsie” checking in with every local and national channel available to me.  Sometimes I following a world event like the tragedy in Haiti and other times it may be something that seems small that has a big impact on how I feel about the world around me.

A story on World News Tonight struck me the other day.  It seems that research has shown that the average middle school student spends over 75 hours a week engaging with media – music, texting, gaming, TV, Facebook occupying most of their time.  In addition, 2 hours daily are devoted to the cell phone with an hour and a half of those spent texting.   Only 38 minutes A WEEK is devoted to reading.  Even less time is spent just talking to someone.

The same research also shows that students who engage with their electronics don’t do that well in school.  47% get bad grades compared to 23% who moderate their consumption.  Media consumption drops by an average of 3 hours a day if parents make the effort to set guidelines with their child’s grades going up.  If my 15-year old stepdaughter is any indication, then this research is absolutely dead on.  The iPhone is never far from her fingers and she must check it 20 times an hour for the latest from her friends.  Hours are spent alone in her room on Facebook or on the Internet.

I worry about what type of workforce we’re creating when these texters and Facebook fanatics get old enough for jobs.  With the large number of young people at Copper Conferencing, I’ve started to pay much more attention to the impact of their electronic habits.   For simplicity sake, let’s give this generation a name that describes them – The “Text-X Generation” will suit me for now.

My Text-X group has some positive attributes.  They are unafraid of anything relating to the Internet.  They know how to determine which organizations are best suited for Copper Conferencing and who to talk to.  They are unafraid of all types of web conferencing, easily logging in and holding Internet meetings and remote sales calls.   They think of creative ways to use social media to get Copper’s business message across.

However, I am concerned.  I hear the instant messaging chimes go off dozens of times in an hour where someone has the “tyranny of the urgent” and sends an I/M about everything that’s on the top of their mind.  I worry about the distraction this creates for them and the message’s recipient.  I worry about how many times a day someone checks or posts to Facebook and what’s on their “news feed.”

More than that, I worry about Text-X’s ability to know when a conversation is warranted vs. an email or instant message.  Maybe we should consider the research study that indicates the most successful students are those that spend less time with their electronics.  I think that is also true in business.

The conferencing industry has helped companies and managers shift from the memo and the “directive” to conversation and collaboration.   It’s the art of the conversation, the relationship, the discussion, the collaboration that I believe continues and will continue to breed success in business.    Although I think we should embrace the increase in our knowledge and use of instant media, I think that we also need to instill a balanced diet in our respective organizations.

At Copper, this is made a little easier because we use our services to hold meetings, strategy sessions and trainings over our conferencing technology.  We focus on getting people’s feedback, drawing them into the conversation and asking for their opinion.  My commitment is to go above and beyond that to help Text-X become more balanced.

First, I am going to coach the management team to stop responding to all instant messages and to request that their people set a meeting to talk about issues and requests that are important but not urgent.  I’m going to randomly monitor Facebook and ask people to stop checking and posting during work hours.   I’m going to help people resolve issues or conflicts in person vs. email messages.

And parents, if you have a Text-X kid at home, take a lesson from the research.  They are way less likely to succeed in school if you don’t take the time to set boundaries.  And, I’m going to project that they are going to be way less likely to succeed on the job if they don’t develop the skill set needed to express themselves with others without needing a keyboard to do the talking.  It’s up to all of us to help our Text-X group live a much more balanced existence.

To learn more about what’s new at Copper and how audio conferencing and web conferencing services can help you improve your business and cut costs, contact a Conference Coach today.