Cost Reduction for Non-Profit Associations

There can be many cost reduction opportunities even for small non-profit associations.

When you are using an all volunteer staff you can have some system and strategic challenges to overcome.

One such association that I worked with recently was using half a dozen different systems for managing their members and events. Not only that their all volunteer staff was required to use all of the these multiple systems even though they lacked the technical ability to do it effectively.

The result was frustration, duplicate efforts, lost record keeping, inefficiency and most importantly lost revenues.

I initiated a project on their behalf to resolve these issues from the front end with a new website to the backend with an all in one solution.

For the website I used SBI. For the membership and event management system I used Wild Apricot.

Go see my Wild Apricot Review.

This setup as resulted in an annual savings of four to five thousand dollars, the elimination of duplicate efforts, a simplified system that anyone can use, and user friendly interfaces for members and prospects.

I enjoy working with Non-Profit Associations. If you work with one that could use some help I would love to talk with them.

To your success,

Peter Brissette
The Digital Marketing Dude


For more Cost Reduction information please go to Cost Reduction Consultant WebsiteOr connect with Peter Brissette by clicking a button below.

TCF Bank Hates their customers! Or do they?

TCF Bank hates their customers! **Or do they?*

***See update below***

It is surprising to me that during this time of a difficult economy and many people struggling to get by that a Bank like TCF Bank would not see to it that they would try to do their best to take care of their customers.

The last year has been a very difficult one financially for me and I am doing everything I can to make it by. $175.00 may not seem like much money to most but it is the difference in making the rent or not for me. TCF Bank does not care about that. All they care about is their policy.

I recently had a situation where money was mistakenly taken from my account. It was because of an issue that was not quickly corrected by the courts. When I found out that this was happening I was able to get it corrected within 24 hours and TCF Bank put the money back into my account within that time frame.

That was great and a quick turnaround of getting the money back once they got the corrected information.

During this 24 hour process I was in communication with the branch trying to make sure what needed to be done and how to get the problem resolved and how to avoid any NSF fees. Nothing was ever said to me about there being a potential problem with NSF fees and how it could be corrected.

However because of the money being taken out it caused $175.00 in over draft fees. Over draft fees that really never should have happened and that TCF Bank will not refund. TCF Bank says that technically it wasn’t a mistake by them so they should not refund the money. I agree technically it was not their mistake. However, they could do the right thing for their customer and refund the money.

I have talked to their customer service and to the branch manager to no avail. It was not their fault so they do not have to return the money.

What happened to doing the right thing for the customer especially given these economic times, especially when the customer is begging them to do it. Why can't they look past their policy and consider their customer. It really is an unfortunate that they will not do that.

I hope that TCF Bank will get this letter and recognize that there are times when they need to be more concerned about doing what is right and less concerned about their policy.

Peter Brissette
Extremely Dissatisfied TCF Bank Customer
303-842-8698

***UPDATE***

I received a call from Kent Engler who is a regional manger with TCF Bank. He heard of the issue that I was having above and was able to see it from my perspective and recognize what was going on.

He was very straight forward and wanted me to know that sometimes it is important to look at things from another perspective besides just the "policy" that is supposed to be followed and he is working hard at teaching that to his branch managers.

I did not hold out much hope that this would be resolved but I am very glad that it was. The true test of a company is how they help their customers when there is a problem. It took a little work but TCF Bank proved to me that they are willing to work together with their customers through difficult situations. They have earned a loyal customer.

Peter

***End Update***

Removing the Buts - Removing negative language from your communication by Valerie Kendrick

This is a great guest posting from the Business Communication Expert Valarie Kendrick. Enjoy!

Removing the “Buts”

Have you ever tried to remove the negative language from your vocabulary? Well let me tell you it’s pretty tough! I talk quite a bit about reframing negatives to positives in many of my seminars and workshops, and I usually ask my participants to catch me saying the word “but.” I am trying very hard to eliminate that word from my own vocabulary. Recently at one of my seminars I had asked the participants to let me know every time they heard me say “but.” During the last 20 minutes of an all‐day seminar I did say “but,” and one woman pointed it out to me. After thanking her and then continuing on with the presentation I found myself say that word 2 more times in my next two sentences. By this time the whole group is in on it and yelling out the word and rolling in the aisles laughing, because now I seem to have a “but” on my brain! At this point, all I could do is laugh myself, take a deep breath, think about what I wanted to say next, and reframe all my sentences into positives without the word “but.”

So here’s my issue…whenever we hear the word “but” in a sentence it tells us to ignore everything that was just said and only listen to what follows that word. Here’s a classic example. Your boss comes up to you and says “Susan you’re doing a great job, but I have a couple things I want to talk to you about.” At this point you feel like you are not doing a good job and you are in trouble for something. Right? Now, what if instead your boss had said this, “Susan you’re doing a great job, and I have a couple things I think you can do even better.”

Don’t you feel much better after hearing the second statement?

One more word of caution—be careful of the word “however.” This word is just a gentler “but.” It still tells the listener to ignore what I just said and only pay attention to what follows.

So join me in trying to eliminate those negatives from our vocabulary. Talk to your coworkers, clients, friends, and family in the most positive way, both verbally and in written form.

Valerie Kendrick
President
Kendrick Resources LLC
www.kendrickresources.com
303-552-7349


For more Cost Reduction information please go to Cost Reduction Consultant WebsiteOr connect with Peter Brissette by clicking a button below.

Wood Shake Roofing Contractor Denver by Agape Roofing

Wood Shake Roofing Contractor Denver by Agape Roofing
Originally uploaded by peterbriss

http://www.agaperoofing.com
Learn more about the best Wood Shake Roofing Contractor in Denver CO. Agape Construction and Roofing is the wood shake specialist in Denver for the past 21 years! Call Agape Roofing Today! Parker, Littleton, Centennial, Highlands Ranch, Aurora and more.

Agape Construction & RoofingTM is the wood shake specialist in the Denver Metro/Front Range for two decades.
Their Colorado-based, family-owned, and operated company has become well known in the industry for the quality of their work, and is a preferred roofing contractor for most major insurance companies.

Agape offers a shake maintenance program which can extend the life of the roof for many years.

We specialize in cedar shake repairs/re-roofs for:

* Hail damage
* Wind damage
* Maintenance
* Roof certifications
* Leak repair (performed only as part of maintenance)
* Re-roofing available for all of our customers using any type of roofing materials

We offer:

* Free inspections
* A 3-year transferable warranty on workmanship
* Competitive pricing
* Detailed description of work performed
* Assistance with insurance claims
* Expertise that can only be acquired with time and experience. We have inspected and repaired/replaced several thousands of shake roofs in the metro area.

To ensure the quality and reliability that only a professional can offer call us at (303) 841-8200 before you have any work done on your wood shake roof.

Why Small Businesses Shouldn't Take Social Media for Granted : Technology :: American Express OPEN Forum

Some small business owners look at me like I am crazy when I tell them to start engaging social media. This is a good article in support of my thoughts on this topic! Hope you enjoy it.

Why Small Businesses Shouldn't Take Social Media for Granted : Technology :: American Express OPEN Forum



For more Cost Reduction information please go to Cost Reduction Consultant WebsiteOr connect with Peter Brissette by clicking a button below.

Improve your Bottom Line by Moving your Customers and Prospects from The Wild Wild Web to the Trusted Web

In many ways marketing any business online and engaging in social media marketing is like being a homesteader who is trying to make a home in new frontier. There are many dangers and fears that have to be overcome. You need to have the patience of Job and yet be ready to fire your shotgun at the first sign of danger. This is the "Wild Wild Web."

The challenge for your business is to tame this wild web for your prospects and clients so that it can become the "Trusted Web." Building trust is not a technology based factor. It is a human based factor.

With that in mind I want to share a few ideas of how I think we arrived at this frontier, where I think the frontier is going, and what you need to do to be successful in it.

So let me give you some background on why I call this “The Wild Web. For those that remember in the late 60's there was a TV series called "The Wild Wild West." I didn’t see the original airings or at least I do not remember seeing them as a toddler. I do remember seeing and enjoying watching the reruns for several years as a young boy. It was like James Bond on a horse. If you’re younger you likely remember the 1999 movie with Will Smith playing the part of James West.

The internet has been one of those wide open frontiers. The internet is still very young. It was not that long ago that we started to send our first emails. It was not even that long ago that we started to make purchases online. We have come a long way in a short time. Now we do banking, purchasing, scheduling, communicating, socializing, get entertained, etc.--all online.

Search engines and directories became the initial taming of this frontier. When the first websites started to go up it was very hard to find them. You had to know a specific web address to get to the website that you wanted. With the web’s rapid growth search engines became a necessity. Without a doubt the search engines have been very helpful in the use of the internet. We use these search engines to help us find and filter the exact information we are looking for.

Yet these are just computer algorithms that are really "guessing" at what it is we really want to find. How many times have you searched for something that seemed obvious to you but the search engine really missed the mark of what you were looking for? (Yeah it’s still pretty wild out there!) I would guess (based on my own experience) that you have been in that situation a time or two.

Today you even have large amounts of information and data that is being automatically replicated and distributed. It can be very difficult to identify if the information you are reading was even created by a human. Computers are running programs that steal and manufacture content and information at an enormous rate that can confuse and hide the real information we are trying to find. It makes a skeptic even more skeptical about the marketing messages they receive.

The web in many ways is even wilder today than it was in its early frontier days.
So how do we tame it? Where is it going?

Enter the human factor. In order to move from the wild web to the trusted web the human factor has become essential. Even the search engines are recognizing this and making changes to search results. An example of this is product reviews. I rarely purchase a product online or in a store without reading about the experience of others with that product. What others say about a product has become much more important that what even the manufacturer of that product says about it.

The same is true of your business. What others say about you or the experience that they have with you means far more to prospects and customers than anything you can say yourself.

So what do you need to be successful in this ever expanding frontier?
It is essential to have a social media marketing strategy. Conversations are already taking place about your business. With social media you have the opportunity to engage that conversation and at least direct it and participate in it. Social media introduces the human element that moves us from the "Wild Wild Web" to a "Trusted Web".

How do you get to the "Trusted Web" as a small business? You will have to strategically, systematically and consistently engage in the use of Social Media to develop the "trusted" web for your customers and prospects. It needs to become an integrated piece of your overall marketing strategy. It can make all of your other marketing efforts have more impact and be more effective.

Peter Brissette
The Cost Reduction Consultant

Take action on helping your customers and prospects find the trusted web by attending my free workshop.

Leveraging Facebook Pages for Local Professional Services Businesses

Go to our meetup.com link below for details.

http://www.meetup.com/digital-marketing-mavericks/calendar/13321410/#posted




For more Cost Reduction information please go to Cost Reduction Consultant WebsiteOr connect with Peter Brissette by clicking a button below.

Mobile Marketing...A Cost Reduction Strategy???

SMS Marketing or Mobile Marketing can be a significant Cost Reduction Strategy.

Northampton Borough Council cuts communication costs with SMS

From www.mobilemarketing.com


Northampton Borough Council’s Housing Department has seen an increased response from consumers since it switched to SMS, cutting 33 percent of its communication costs.

The company had partnered with Mobisoft Corp. to use its SMS service because traditional communications such as leaflets, posters and letters were not only costly and time consuming, but were not gaining significant responses or awareness. The partnership was to create a mobile texting strategy to engage and serve local customer base more effectively.

“Northampton Council needed to find a way to reduce the cost of interacting with the public, but at the same time improve the response rates they were seeing,” said Dan Metcalfe, CEO at Mobisoft Corp., Surrey, Britain.

find a job for you

“Mobisoft was convinced that the strategy that would provide the results required was by utilizing SMS,” he said. “After the very first campaign Northampton realized that the results were significantly better, while providing a 33 percent reduction in normal marketing costs via post.”

Northampton’s Housing Department manages more than 12,200 council homes.

SMS service
Mobisoft recommended its text service based on an Ofcom survey that found that 97.5 percent of text messages are opened within five seconds.

Additionally, the study found that mobile devices were used by 86 percent of the population.

Mobisoft’s Campaign Manager and Mobile Site Builder services are enabling significant cost savings, the company claims. With the service, there is nothing to install and everything is access via a Web console.

The Campaign Manager lets Northampton engage with consumers immediately at the touch of a button.

“A recent study by Ofcom cemented that a mobile strategy was the way to go,” Mr. Metcalfe said. “The council can now reach more people, more of the time, at less cost and achieve higher response rates.

“The survey found that 97.5 percent of text messages are opened within five seconds and that mobile devices were used by 86 percent of the population,” he said. “This makes mobile an ideal platform to interact with your target audience on.”

Mobile results
Northampton claims that it saw results and improvements immediately when it began using SMS.

The company previously had a Young Voices Project campaign that was promoted via a publication aimed to get volunteers.

According to the company, the publication was issued to 13,000 people, resulting in just one volunteer.

When Northampton used SMS, a message was sent to 1,640 people. The company received responses from 26 people interested in becoming a volunteer.

“It has been simply overwhelming the responses that the council has seen from the public – the users and members of the public have embraced the technology from the start,” Mr. Metcalfe said. “They prefer using mobile to any other medium and now feel that communication from the council is more personal, interactive and useable.

“It is also a big step-change for Northampton who is now more up-to-date with the technologies people know and use on a daily basis – mobile,” he said.

Editorial Assistant Rimma Kats covers media, television, research and social networks. Reach her at rimma@mobilemarketer.com.



For more Cost Reduction information please go to Cost Reduction Consultant WebsiteOr connect with Peter Brissette by clicking a button below.