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News
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We want to
extend our warmest Thank You to all our clients. You are our
most important asset. In 2004 we will continue to put our energy
into helping you be more successful. We've added a new Desk
Top Publishing division complete with full color printing
capabilities. With our strategic alliances with local vendors,
we can create, print, and mail targeted marketing campaigns.
Give us a call to see how we can help you, or to request a
sample of some of our work.
Business Watch
A Small Business' Most
Important Asset
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Watch] [Product
Review]
This last buying season gave Sue
and I an interesting vantage point to watch how businesses
operate. If you were to ask a small business owner to identify
their business' most important asset, what do you think the
answer would be: their location, their suppliers, or maybe their
employees? The truth is, the most important asset to the success
of any small business is their customers. It was very clear to
us that the understanding of this truth is sorely lacking in the
majority of businesses we came in contact with.
In the last
couple of months we have been observing businesses from a
personal buying perspective. We have had mixed experiences
throughout the entire process. What always perplexed us was the
attitude of the staff at some of the places we visited. We will
be writing detailed articles on each of these experiences in the
following months. We want to say that we are relaying OUR
experiences. It is unfair to make a judgment against an entire
operation based on an isolated incident. We are sharing our
experiences to spotlight good customer service or the lack
thereof.
I’ll start with
the good experiences. They all had a common thread. They
listened to our needs and concerns, were never pushy, and took
as much time as necessary to help us with our purchases. A few
vendors stood out here: Saturn of North Charleston, Sports
Authority located on Rivers Ave in North Charleston and Alltel,
our cell phone provider. At the other end of the spectrum were:
Hoover Dodge on Old Trolley Road in Summerville, Kia of North
Charleston on Rivers Ave, and Home Depot’s Home Services
Division in Summerville. Their major downfalls: they did not
listen, they did not value us as customers, and in the case of
Home Depot, they were totally unresponsive.
Having now run
a service based business for 3 years, Sue and I continue to
remind ourselves that our most important assets are our clients.
It is very easy to lose focus on this fact when you are trying
to run a small business. At the most basic level, our job as
business owners is to service a need. Whether it be the need of
a product or a service, the root word to remember is SERVICE.
The concept of truly serving the customer, without thought of
personal gain, needs to be rediscovered in the US marketplace.
Now more than
ever, building customer loyalty is critical. There are so many
options for consumers, not only brick and mortar options, but
the web offers hundreds of places for them to spend their
dollars. The only advantage you have is the added value of
customer service.
Maybe Sue and I
are unique in the fact that we maintain loyalty to a particular
store, but we do. When we are treated well, we remember it and
not only do we return but we spread the word of how well we were
treated to everyone we know. When we are treated poorly, we
remember that too and are less likely to ever go back. Over the
next few months we will be relaying our various experiences. Our
goal is not to sling mud but rather to provide positive feedback
of how a vendor can improve their most critical function,
servicing the customer.
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Product Review
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Watch] [Product
Review]
Palm Zire 71
 Ok..
I know that I’ve been down this road before, looking for a
replacement for my old Palm Pilot. Approximately 18 months ago I
purchased and reviewed the Sony Clie with the built in camera.
It topped out at around $600, and for the price it was not worth
keeping. There were so many shortcomings with that model. I hope
that Sony worked some of them out. The best feature was the
screen, a beautiful high resolution, TFT color screen. At the
time Sony was the only vendor with a Palm OS based unit with
such a nice screen. That has all changed.
I first saw
Palm’s new line of high resolution products a few months ago. I
immediately loved the Zire 71, a Palm Pilot with a gorgeous high
resolution display and a built in camera, all for around $300.
This had all the features I loved about the Sony at half the
price. I had set a budget for my next palm and it was around
$200, so I was still going to wait.
Well the wait
paid off in spades. When I saw the price drop to $250 at Staples
I decided to take another look. Timing was perfect as not only
was the price now $250 but they were offering a $25 rebate and
Palm was throwing in a $99 MP3 upgrade kit as well. Now I really
was getting everything that I wanted at a price I was pleased
with.
I’ve been using
my Zire 71 for about a week now. It works really well. It has
all the features and compatibility of my old Palm but is much,
much faster. The camera is ok, but don’t expect too much from
it. I’m pretty disappointed with the quality of the photos, but
I guess you should not expect photo quality from something like
this. The largest photo's are 640x480. It has been useful for a
reference tool and has bailed me out of a jam when I forgot my
digital camera. The Palm Desktop software works well, as always,
and now includes the Palm Photo section that automatically
downloads your photos to your computer without the need of a
memory card. This was a major drawback with the Sony as you
could not get any pictures from the Clie without a memory stick.
The other nice
feature of the Zire is it’s built in MP3 player. Palm provides a
desktop and portable version of Real.com’s RealOne player. When
you have the Zire in the cradle, you can download songs from
your desktop to an MMC or SC memory card using the RealOne
player from your desktop. The memory card is required for MP3
Playback. I really like the MP3 player feature and they've made
it easy with the RealOne integration.
The memory card
slot is very useful to store data as well as applications. The
Zire 71 only has 16 megs built in with 3 megs or so used up by
system information so the memory card is necessary for running
larger applications or games. Lastly the built in battery
charges when the unit is in the cradle. So far I've been
impressed with the battery life.
 All
in all, if you are looking to upgrade to a new Palm device, take
a close look at the Palm Zire 71. If you need more built-in
memory and Word, Excel, and Power Point compatibility out of the
box, take a look at the Tungsten line of Palms. The Tungsten E
has twice the built-in memory and basic MS Office compatibility
for only $199.
Please visit
this link for a complete list of features and products:
http://www.palmOne.com/us/products/handhelds
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