From the Desk of Janet Barclay

Are you finding yourself with a little extra time on your hands this summer? Don’t let this time slip away!

My colleague, Erin Blaskie, is hosting the first annual Summer Speaker Series featuring an incredible line-up of speakers including James Roche, Christina Merkley, Sheri McConnell, Alexis Neely, Allana Pratt, Lou Bortone, Viki Viertel, Lynn Scheurell, Kathie Thomas, Debbie LaChusa, Wendy Weiss, Terri Z, Donna Gunter, Diana Ennen and many more.

Here’s the deal… She’s featuring TWO speakers per day for the entire month of August - not including weekends, because who wants to work weekends, especially in the summertime! There’s one track for virtual assistants, and another track for all business owners and entrepreneurs. You can purchase a seat in either one or both, with or without audio downloads, so what are you waiting for?  I’ve heard there is a cap of 200 people due to the bridge line and with the speakers involved, that won’t last long!

The first 100 people to register will also receive access to bonus sessions in September, so sign up today – you won’t be disappointed! It’s going to be one of the hottest events of the summer!

"One thing you can’t recycle is wasted time."

Anonymous

No one can argue that technology has opened up a lot of options for home-based businesses. When my dad started his business in the 1960s, my mother answered all his phone calls and took messages for him to return when he returned from his service calls. That worked well because he didn’t have to pay her, and because they wanted her to be at home with the kids when we were young. When we got a little older and his business was bringing in a more regular income, he engaged a professional answering service. It wasn’t a perfect arrangement, but it worked well and he continued operating that way for many years. Although he could have purchased an answering machine at some point, he believed that customers prefer talking to people than to machines.

When voicemail was introduced, it was widely adopted not only by businesses, but for personal use as well. (Wikipedia has a detailed history of voicemail, if you’re interested.) In fact, these days, it’s very unusual to call someone and get a busy signal or no answer at all. Voicemail allows businesses to have their telephone answered around the clock very inexpensively, and many large businesses have even replaced their switchboard operator with an automated attendant.

Some automated attendant systems work well, but I think we’ve all experienced the frustration of listening to lengthy lists of menu options, only to have to repeat them when it’s not clear which option we need. I have actually called a number of businesses where it is virtually impossible to speak to a human unless you already know the name of the person you wish to speak to and/or their extension number. I understand that it’s probably intentional, so their staff aren’t losing productivity due to calls from telemarketers, but what about potential customers? Are they doing so well that they don’t have to worry about people hanging up the phone and calling their competition?

Telephone answering is not one of the services I offer as a virtual assistant, but I have on occasion agreed to look after calls while a client is on vacation. In one case, I had to call in to check the client’s voice mail twice a day, then call back anyone who left a message. In most cases, I would return the call only to reach the client’s voicemail. So back and forth it went – I probably only connected with half of the people who called. So what became of the others? They, most likely, went to my client’s competitor for services. (My client, meanwhile, still had to pay me for my time.)

Another client uses a system where voicemail messages are delivered by email. When she went on vacation, she arranged for the messages to be delivered by me. This was better than the previous system, because I didn’t have to make a point of calling in to check for messages, and because I was able to return the call immediately in most cases, I had more success reaching the clients, although I still got their voicemail a few times. What I really noticed, however, was the number of blank messages that came in. These were probably people who knew they couldn’t be reached by return phone call, so they would either try again later, or move on to the next business on their list. Although it was a better system for me as a VA, I am not convinced that it was ideal in terms of customer service.

A third client regularly uses a team of consultants who all work from their home offices, of which I am one. In the past, we had to dial in regularly to check for messages, similar to the first scenario described above. Since our work involves a lot of telephone contact, and people could never reach us directly, we tended to play a lot of phone tag. This year, she signed up for a service where all incoming calls are routed to a remote receptionist, a live human being who answers the call and then redirects it to the appropriate consultant. This is much better for the team, because we can talk to callers when they are available to talk to us – which is better for them too! If I’m not available to take the call, the receptionist will offer to connect them with another consultant, or they can leave me a voicemail message, which will be delivered to me by email.

I highly recommend this type of service to anyone who wants to provide superior customer service without the expense of hiring a full-time receptionist. My client uses Smiledog but I’ve also heard good things about Encore Tele Solutions and Appointment-Link.

*This post was featured in the LinkedIn Bloggers Carnival: August Edition.

The Independent recently published an article, Public lives: Does the internet know too much about us? which begins by illustrating the volumes of information that can be learned about an individual simply by Googling his or her name. However, unlike other articles on this subject, author Michael Savage does not portray this as something to be alarmed about. Instead, he says:

… some out there are realising that the dawn of the transparent age should be welcomed, rather than feared. It could end up making us all more tolerant, less uptight, and more popular. As all the barriers between our public and private personas come tumbling down online, we may well realise that it’s not such a bad thing. Digital curtain-twitching could be the means for creating a more relaxed, honest and unashamedly open society.

There was a time, not so very long ago, that I felt like I was one person when I was at work, a different person with family, another person with friends, and so on, and at that time the thought of all these people from different corners of my world seeing the same side of me would have made me quite uncomfortable. Since starting my own business, I feel like I’m just me, no matter where I am or who I’m with. The guest list for my 50^th birthday party included family members, former co-workers (from different jobs), and business contacts – something I would never have done in the past. Had I not gone through this transformation in my own life, I might not be as receptive to Savage’s comments, but the explosion of social networking seems to have occurred at just the right time in my life, and I don’t worry at all about the "wrong" person seeing something on my blog or on one of my online profiles.

I think it’s wonderful to be able to see what the people in my business network do when they aren’t working, and if they also enjoy seeing photos of my travels or other activities, that’s great too. Certainly, there are some things in life that should remain private, and common sense should be exercised when posting photographs and personal information on one’s blog, Facebook profile, or elsewhere online. If you wouldn’t want a client or prospective employer to see something, you should probably consider sharing it with your friends via email or some other way.

One of the most interesting parts of the article was the suggestion that in the future, people will look at you suspiciously if you’ve kept a low online profile, and wonder what you’re trying to hide. Tom Ilube, chief executive of the online profile management firm Garlik, said:

If you were an employer in five years’ time recruiting someone and looked for them online only to find nothing, you’d think, "what an odd sort of person. What kind of person would engineer their teenage lives in such a way as to remove their digital footprint?"

I don’t think we’re there yet – I know quite a few people who are reluctant to join social networking websites, and others who join but refuse to post a picture or anything terribly interesting – but it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Savage and Ilube are right! Would you have predicted five years ago that the Internet would have evolved to where it is today?

In June, this blog was mainly devoted to sharing the interesting results of my recent online marketing and networking survey. If you operate an online business or use the Internet to promote your products or services, be sure to check them out!

Last month I also became a monthly contributor to the new Canadian Virtual Assistant Blog where I posted one of my "oldies but goodies" on Working Remotely.

Elsewhere, I’ve blogged about the following topics:

OnlineOrganizing.com - Technology as an Organizing Tool:

• Logging Your Mileage
• "Upcoming" Events
• Another Tool for Finding and Promoting Events Online
• Summertime, and the living is easy…

Introvert Retreat:

• Social Networking: Introversion vs. Extraversion
• Marketing Tips for the Introvert
• Interesting Facts About Introverts

I’ve also posted a new article, Market Your Own Business, and a book review of Time Management for Unmanageable People at OrganizedArticles.com.

Happy Reading!

About a year ago, I purchased a Dell Inspiron 9400 Notebook to use as my primary computer. I love its portability, its clear, wide-screen display, and many other things about it, but if you read my blogs regularly (or if you’ve been around me when I was using it), you’ll know that I have been much less impressed with its speed. There have been more than a few occasions when I have threatened to toss it out the window!

Last December, I uninstalled Business Contact Manager and that seemed to make a big difference – for a while at least. More recently, I re-established the habit of running the Disk Defragmenter on a regular basis. That helped too, but I still felt the computer was much too slow, considering that it has a Core 2 Duo processor and cost me in the neighbourhood of $2000 with all the upgrades I’d chosen.

Last week, when I was surfing for yet another explanation as to why my computer was so slow, I came across something about Media Direct, a Dell product that allows you to instantly access your calendar, contacts, PowerPoint presentations and multimedia files, without starting up your operating system. I knew it was on my system but after nearly a year, it hasn’t even crossed my mind to give it a try. I decided to uninstall it and that seems to have solved my problem! (she says, crossing her fingers…)

When I first ordered the computer, my son, who is a government IT professional, said that the first thing I should do after receiving it was to format it, because of all the "junk" that is typically pre-installed on new computers. I was horrified at the thought, and assured him that the only free trial included on this computer was a Norton product which I intended to use. I guess I should have listened to him!