I need an OS upgrade to an office iMac so I go online to the apple store and select the OS upgrade.  I’m given the choice of shipping it to my office in 2-3 days or pick up at a local Apple store.  Since this is urgent, I opt to pick it up at the Apple store.  So, I put in my zip code and it instructs me to go to the Reston Town Center Apple store, which sucks.  I drive around, finally find a place to park, walk in and it’s chaos and confusion.  Nobody greets me.  There is no information desk.  No signs instructing people what to do.  No visible cash registers.  No visible person in charge.  No customer service.

Finally, a teenager walks up to me with an iPad and asks for my name to put me in the queue.  I give him my name and he asks what I’m looking for.  I pull out my iPhone to look up the exact specs of the OS upgrade and he tells me that I needed to call in advance to make an appointment to talk about phones.  I told him I don’t need a phone, I need to pick up the OS upgrade.

He goes to the back for a few minutes, returns, and then says they don’t carry upgrades that I have to go online and order it.  I told him I did go online to order it but it instructed me to go to the local Apple store.  He told me that they don’t carry DVDs there that I had to order it online and have it shipped to the Apple store for pick up.  I asked him how long it takes.  He said 2-3 days.

I asked him why the fuck would I order a DVD to go to the Apple store in 2-3 days so I could waste my time driving, finding a place to park, and deal with disorganization and chaos when I could have just as easily avoided all these annoyances and had the DVD shipped directly to my home or office in 2-3 days.  He said that some people preferred to come into the store.

Geezuz.  Now I know why I’m not an “Apple person”.  Apple stores suck and I sincerely hope they go out of business and crash and burn now that Steve Jobs is dead.  Companies with such arrogance and poor customer service that lose total sight of usability and customer convenience should not deserve to stay profitable or in business.  I’m totally happy buying my hardware directly from Dell.com.

Logistical Problems

The first thing that you need to do with a fleet wide GPS is to figure out exactly how you’re going to utilize the service. You need GPS equipment first and foremost, which includes the GPS devices themselves along with computer equipment to monitor the information and display it in such a way that it makes sense. You may need to hire employees who specialize in GPS tracking to keep all of your logistics information accurate and analyzed. After all, if you don’t know what the data is supposed to mean, it’s not going to save you any time.

It does take a great deal of time to get a GPS fleet tracking system working. It may take some trial and error before all of your system’s components mesh together into a well-oiled machine. Once your employees become adjusted to the system, you’ll find that you will get useful information from the tracking system.

Using the Data

The next question is exactly how you’re going to use all of this data that’s being measured. The GPS trackers give you the speed and location of the employees or shipment, so you get an idea of what everything looks like when it’s out in the field. You identify weak transportation spots and problem areas through the GPS, especially if you have several employees or shipments out in the same location.

You don’t want to use a GPS tracking system as a way to effectively cut costs, as the upfront payments are enough to negate that benefit. However, you’ll find that having all of your employees and shipments tracked gives you a great idea of the process and the functionality of work in your supply line. If you find that you’re having issues with a particular segment, you may need to move them to another area while you figure out who is at fault from the GPS.

GPS fleet tracking may not be the most cost effective option for your business, but it does provide a great deal of information no matter whether you choose to add it in a large scale or not. If nothing else, you get a bird’s eye view of exactly what your business and employees are doing on a day-by-day basis. If you can’t optimize your shipment patterns using this piece of technology, you need to go back to the drawing board.

INQBATION is a:

• Woman owned small business (WOSB)
• Women owned Business Enterprise (WBE)
• Minority Business Enterprise (MBE)
• Hispanic owned business
• Veteran-friendly employer
• Equal opportunity employer
• Bi-lingual English / Spanish web designer developer
• Bi-lingual English / Spanish web designer designer
• Bi-lingual English / Spanish search engine optimization (SEO) expert
• WordPress developer
• Drupal developer

As more and more small business owners are finding out, their Web sites open the door to potential business each and every day. Whether it is old customers returning for information or to make purchases, or the potential customer that is browsing the site to see what you have, the design is crucial to maintaining those relationships.

In the event your small business has either been looking to hire a web designer to start up a site or feels it is time to change designers to get more bang for your buck, here are some things to keep in mind:

• You get ROI with your site – If you think that your company Web site doesn’t deliver for you think again. Unlike you or any employees you have, your site is undoubtedly working 24/7/365. Having the right design that is viewer-friendly and gives consumers a call to action when visiting is extremely valuable. Over time, you can measure the return on investment that your site brings to your entire business;
• Their time, not yours when it comes to programming – As if you do not already have enough to do as a small business owner, designing a Web site takes both time and skill if you want it done right. In the event you are not up to speed on web design for your company’s site, the expense involved in hiring someone to do it should prove well worth it over time. Take the time to research different designers so that you get the right one the first time around;
• Get a number of quotes – Just as you would with any vendor you are considering doing business with, make sure you look into a number of designers before settling on one. If you have family, friends and/or business associates that have used designers, check to see their thoughts on the different vendors. Are they happy with the service? Were or are there any red flags with the particular designers? Has the designer had any financial issues lately that could possibly take them out of the business? Be sure you do your homework so you do not end up with a bad design and designer for that matter;
• Ask questions and provide information – Once you have a meeting set up with a designer, things will go a lot better if you come prepared with questions and have answers ready for the designer regarding your company. Make sure you ask the designer about their background, level of experience, size and scope of previous projects they have worked on. Be prepared to tell the designer about what your company’s needs are, if you want to grow the company in the near future or not as it pertains to increase the size of the Web site, and how you will best utilize the site. Is it for selling products, providing information to customers, or a combination of the two? Having all these items covered will make for a smoother meeting;
• Can you afford the designer? – One of the first questions that you should be able to answer is can you afford the web design company in the first place? We talked earlier about long-term return on investment, but what about the costs up front now and to come from the designer? Make sure you receive a written quote that highlights the cost and delivery date of the services. Remember that the scope and size of your site will determine the costs, as those template-based sites generally cost just a few hundred dollars, while those that are fully-functional e-commerce geared tend to costs thousands and thousands of dollars.

When all is said and done your company Web site plays a major role in determining just how successful your business will be.

Make designs on finding the right designer so that your site is something you can be proud to show off to when both present and potential customers visit.

Companies like Rackspace have made a point of continuing progress toward excellent customer service in the tech industry, branding theirs as “Fanatical Support” and using it as a marketing tool. The result has given them the most successful years in the history of the company. Landing on Gartner’s Magic Quadrant in the Managed Hosting category didn’t hurt them either. That said, everyone has something to learn from the enterprise cloud computing company.

Three Customer Service Lessons from Rackspace

1. Customers Are People, Too! – This seems like somewhat of a no-brainer, but many tech industries take one look at numbers, stats, analytics and similar reports and ignore the humanity of a customer segment. Simply remembering that the customer is a flesh and blood being with human feelings goes a long way to eschewing the elitism that often comes saddled with tech-types. Yes, some issues are painfully easy to solve, but handling even those with grace and poise will go a long way to guaranteeing continued patronage.

2. The Extra Mile is Non-Negotiable – Customer service is not simply a facet of Rackspace’s business model. It is their business model. In fact, every potential employee must agree that the going the extra mile isn’t up for discussion. It’s part of their job description. One famous example of this is the tale of the marathon support session that had reached long into the night. During the customer’s call with a Rackspace rep, a rapping at the door is heard. Setting the phone down, the customer addresses the issue to find a pizza man with a pie ready to go. A prank? A joke? Or fanatical support? The Rackspace rep and ordered the pizza, paid for it and continued to assist the customer with the problem at hand.

3. It’s Ok to be a Little Crazy – Rackspace didn’t earn the “Fanatical” moniker because of a few out-of-the-ordinary customer service situations. They are known globally for adopting fanatic customer service as their business model. This stems from a deep affection for customers, which translates to profitable and long-term working relationships. Not every company can imbue itself with the same kind of culture you’ll find at Rackspace, but when it comes to retaining customers, it’s important to have a little leeway to pull out some stops and do what needs to be done to keep the people paying you happy.

Conclusion

To be clear, they really are a little crazy. But from their point of view, what they’re doing should be the normal standard, not the exception. More tech companies could benefit from crossing the customer service line more regularly.

1. Aviary provides Photoshop-like photo editing features in this SaaS program. This hosted program provides a pretty wide range of photo editing options, from simple red eye removal to complex photo retouching. This application works via the Web and supports several mobile platforms, giving a great deal of flexibility in its usage.

2. Salesforce is one of the most well-known SaaS providers available, with one of the most widely used CRMs around. The cloud benefits Salesforce by providing a uniform server environment, whether the client’s business is large or small, along with making implementation as easy as creating accounts and learning the software. Salesforce has many related applications that work hand in hand with this service.

3. Microsoft Office 365 is similar to the same old Microsoft Office that has been installed on workstations and home computers for years. Instead of buying all of the licenses and going through the pain of installing it, however, the entire suite is accessed in the cloud. This makes it easier for IT departments to handle user access and upgrades as well as making users’ data available no matter what platform they’re using.

4. CoTweet is a third-party cloud hosted application that simplifies Twitter for marketing, support and more. This software is designed around making it simple for large and small businesses to keep up with multiple social media accounts. Social network marketing doesn’t need to be complicated, especially when there is a hosted application that does a lot of the work itself.

5. Box is a fairly simple SaaS product that provides easy file hosting. For any business that needs to share files among users and a quick and easy way to make this work, this is a solid option for a cloud hosted service. Cloud hosted files can be easily shared, negating the need to email multiple versions throughout the creation process. Plus, the provider takes care of backups and disaster recovery, keeping data secure.

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of SaaS providers around, many of whom have created novel, interesting concepts for cloud usage and are trying to leverage the full benefit of cloud computing to make it easier for businesses to focus on their core objectives. It’s easy to find a cloud service that will suit nearly any need.

Unfortunately, when developing digital strategies, businesses and associated agencies tend to focus on current technological trends rather than what’s sustainable over a long period of time. One of the greatest marriages in the history of business development is that of the cloud and enterprise-level business planning.

Three Cloud Services Options

The tech world is loaded with buzzwords, and cloud computing is one of them. But the cloud isn’t merely arbitrary tech slang; it has now become an essential ingredient of any modern business plan. The cloud has created an environment where any business can become a cloud service provider. In fact, any business’s digital strategy must include cloud services. In the past, delivering a web-based service meant relying on local servers that required lots of electrical and processing power. These servers were often expensive to maintain, and required employing an inflated internal IT staff. Integrating cloud services into a business strategy drastically reduces overhead and allows for quick and easy deployment. This is all made possible through three primary cloud service models.

· Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) – The IaaS model is perhaps the most complex of the three models. Think of IaaS providers as a friendly neighbor that lends out a top-of-the-line set of garden tools for next to nothing. IaaS providers allow a business to rent and access all equipment related to infrastructural management. This includes hardware, servers and operating systems.

· Platform as a Service (PaaS) – The PaaS model enables a business to become a service provider in record time. PaaS providers allow a business access to a dedicated server, software and operating systems so a company can develop, test and deploy cloud applications quickly.

· Software as a Service (SaaS) – The SaaS model, also the most widely used and known of the three cloud models, allows cloud service providers to deploy apps over the web to users for free or for a nominal subscription fee.

Making the Cloud Work for Your Digital Strategy

So what does this all mean for a company’s digital strategy? For starters, we live in a digital age increasingly driven by powerful cloud services. In fact, more and more businesses are realizing that cloud applications are not only streamlining digital marketing tasks, but this technology has become deeply integrated into everyday business practices like accounting and enterprise resource management. Secondly, marketing practices have only become more powerful through cloud computing applications. These efforts are aided through the use of applications within an SaaS cloud platform. This includes everything from customer resource management to web analytics. The cloud currently drives nearly every digital strategy campaign.

The deep integration of cloud technology and digital strategy development is just one more sign that the cloud is here to stay. It has completely transformed how businesses reach out to current and potential customers while continuing to remain a competitive force in their chosen markets.