Since
1992,
NSPG has been providing the tools that allow contractors to
increase profits and minimize business hassles. With our
simple-to-use-tools, you can make being a business owner
what you always wanted to it be -
successful, profitable and rewarding.
OnLine Applications Follow Up
 Just
a quick follow up to our article
last month
about online applications. In July the Amazon S3
servers went down for several hours. These servers
are used by thousands of companies for reliable data and
application storage. It is considered by many to
be the gold standard of online data reliability.
This outage, the third is
about a year, illustrates one of the risks of online
applications and data storage. If you have a time
sensitive, live online application, even a short
duration outage can cause serious business problems.
If you cannot find or process customer data because your
access to your online data is interrupted, your business
can grind to a halt.
While online applications
and data storage is probably the future, local
redundancy still needs to be developed before you should
stake you business on it.
By the way, we use the
Amazon S3 service for backup of our critical data files
here at NSPG.
Is this any way
to run an Airline?
It was a pleasure to meet
everyone at the industry meetings I attended in Salt
Lake City and Milwaukee last month. I'm always
amazed at the energy and ideas that are created when
motivated groups of business people get together to
learn from each other. Unfortunately, my trip home
from one of the meetings on Continental was an object
lesson in how not to run a business.
 I
checked in online the night before my Sunday flight.
Everything looked OK. The plane was mostly empty,
so I could select a good seat. The next morning, I
checked the flight status and learned that it had been
cancelled. The plane had not even arrived the
night before due to "weather."
They informed me that I
was now scheduled to return home the following day.
Continental made no effort to get me home in a timely
manner. I had to find an alternative flight
myself. And, after a missed connection in
Cleveland, I was home - only 12 hours late. I can
tell you that I will actively avoid Continental Airlines
in the future.
 I
am dissatisfied not because they cancelled their empty
flight, but because they made no effort to meet my need
and expectation to get home. When I bought my
ticket, I assumed that I had a contract that obligated
them to get me there and back in a timely manner.
Even if that is not the fine print wording of their
agreement, and I know it's not, that is the spirit of
what an airline sells.
As business people, we all
know that we are not just selling the parts and labor
involved in the job. We're selling the completed
job with the hassles reduced to a minimum. If
complications arise, we earn our customer's continuing
business by how we respond. Fixing an unexpected
problem, even if it costs more, is how we build our
reputation for quality service.
Continental was content to
do the minimum necessary. Rather than find an
 alternative
for me, they were ready to take the option that was
easiest for them but was a real problem for me.
This is why great companies view problems as
opportunities. Respond correctly to the problem,
and you can earn a customer for life. Do the
minimum, and you'll never hear from them again.
Judging from my
conversations in Salt Lake City and Milwaukee, most of
us understand the long term benefit of providing quality
service. We need to be sure that our front line
employees understand it too since they're often the ones
who need to go the extra mile.
- - - -
Give Mike Conroy a call to
discuss your business, your numbers, or your flat rate
books. Take advantage of his experience working
with hundreds of companies like yours to help you achieve your own business success.
Measure Monthly, Adjust Quarterly
& Achieve Annual Profit Goals
NSPG News/Tips
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National Standard Price Guide
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 In
our Flat Rate software, National Standard Price Guide, there are many tools
to help you easily navigate through the thousands of Parts and Tasks that
are in your database. These range from the standard Ctrl-F searches
available in many applications to the multiple keyword searches available
for the Parts Description field.
 One
not so obvious search tool is the Category map. This is a form that
lets you select the type of Task and then narrow down your search by the
Task Subcategory, and then pick the Task from a list. You can quickly
jump through thousands of Tasks to just the right one with a few mouse
clicks.
You can see a
quick demo video of this search technique here.
Most users can leave the search maps open as
they edit their information so they can quickly jump from one Task to
another with minimal effort.
For more information about NSPG Flat Rate, visit
the NSPG website or call
800-841-8542, and let us show you how our system can work for your business.
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Finally! Your business can be easier to
manage every day. |
On-Line
News
 25 Years in Business
Recipe for Success
Lucky and Generous
Kenny
Green Olympic Village
Power Cell Primer
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In This Issue |
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Phone 800 841-8542
Numbers Cruncher
National Standard
Price Guide
Performance Dispatch Plus
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The freebie of the month is a web site or
product that we feel gives you something worth looking
at or using that costs you little or nothing.
Anyone who
uses the internet for shopping, banking, or business
needs to create secure, easy to remember passwords.
Most of us use one or two generic passwords that could
probably be guessed or cracked pretty easily.
That's
where SuperGenPAss
comes into the picture. This web site allows you
to create very strong passwords that are unique or each
web site.
SuperGenPAss
takes one password that you tell it and combines it the
name of the web site or application to create a password
that would be hard for anyone to duplicate.
If you pay
bills, shop, or any number of other things that need a
secure password, give it a try. Remembering one,
master password may be the way to go.
If you have
a favorite Free site, let us know.
nspginfo@nspgweb.com
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Quotations
It takes
hundreds of nuts to hold a car together, but it takes
only one of them to scatter it all over the highway.
Evan Esar
Ability
will never catch up with the demand for it.
Malcolm
Forbes
Too many
people are thinking of security instead of opportunity.
They seem more afraid of life than death.
James F.
Byrnes
Everyone
is unique, just like everyone else.
Anonymous
Success is
not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to
continue that counts.
Winston Churchill
Never let
the fear of striking out get in your way.
Babe Ruth
Young men
think old men are fools; but
old men know young men are fools.
Truman Capote
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