PLEASE READ. XYLITOL FOUND IN MANY SUGAR FREE PRODUCTS CAN KILL YOUR ANIMALS

I personally have had an experience recently with my wonderful 1 year old standard poodle puppy, Wrigley that I wanted to share.  Especially, if you are a dog owner.

Wrigley, our puppy, tends to get into mischief, as most puppies do.  On Saturday evening this past weekend, his mischief almost cost him his life.  My wife and I returned from a Memorial Day get together with leftovers.  The leftovers consisted of 3 banana bars and one low carb piece of cheesecake.  We had it on a plate and made sure we placed the plate on top of the coffee maker on the counter to hopefully not allow Wrigley to get to the food.  We were wrong, terribly wrong.

My wife found Wrigley licking the empty plate on the floor in the kitchen.  She asked me what was on the plate and I informed her I brought home one piece of cheesecake and three banana bars.  She mentioned to me that she hoped the cheesecake wasn’t made with that one sugar substitute that is dangerous for dogs.  My wife decided to text my sister-in-law who made the cheesecake and found out that a half a cup of Xylitol was used in the entire cheesecake.  Unfortunately after checking the internet, Xylitol is the sugar substitute my wife heard is harmful to dogs.  We never knew any real detail of the dangers of Xylitol.  After searching on the internet, Xylitol, found in many sugar free gums and sugar free foods can drop your dog’s blood sugar to dangerous levels which can cause extreme lethargy, breathing issues, seizures and even death.  In addition to the initial low blood sugar that Xylitol can cause, it is extremely harmful to your dog’s liver.  

We then immediately called an emergency veterinarian in our city and they advised that we attempt to make Wrigley throw up by using a peroxide mixture.  We tried, but unfortunately Wrigley only vomited the peroxide mixture, not any of the banana bars or the cheesecake.  The emergency veterinarian told us to call a poison control animal hotline which we immediately did.  After answering many questions on the amount of Xylitol Wrigley ate, they advised that we take him immediately in to the emergency veterinarian since they believe that Wrigley had a lethal amount of Xylitol. 

We loaded ourselves and our puppy Wrigley in the car and went to the Veterinarian.  My wife and I were extremely saddened by what just happened.  We couldn’t believe that a small piece of cheesecake made with Xylitol could harm our dog.  Why is something so harmful out there without any large warning labels?  My dogs are part of my family and if some dog food were found harmful to babies, who put everything in their mouth, would that still be allowed to be on the market?  My assumption is no.  

We arrived at the emergency Veterinarian’s office and after anxiously waiting to see the Vet we finally went back to the examining room.  Wrigley’s temperature was good and his breathing was good.  He was showing no signs of low blood sugar, which was positive.  The Veterinarian then informed us that he wasn’t out of the woods yet.  She contacted the poison control office that we called earlier and confirmed that Wrigley had a lethal amount of Xylitol.  It doesn’t take a large amount of Xylitol either.  Some dogs have died from eating two pieces of sugar free gum.  Wrigley is 65 lbs and he had ingested what was equivalent to two teaspoons.  The Veterinarian believed he had enough to cause liver damage but possibly not enough to cause liver failure.  She then took blood work to get a base line reading on his liver.  Xylitol damage on the liver doesn’t typically show up until 24 to 48 hours after ingestion so we needed to know a starting point on his liver function.  His initial liver test result came back with no damage but we will need to get Wrigley’s blood work done two more times during the next two days to measure the amount of damage to his liver.  The Veterinarian prescribed liver pills that will help Wrigley’s liver function more efficiently during the next 30 days to help reduce any liver damage.  The full amount of what damage was done to Wrigley’s liver will not be known for a couple of days.  Now we must wait.

Xylitol can kill.  A little amount can kill.  If you have animals or know somebody that has animals, please pass this story along.  I didn’t know about Xylitol poisoning and I don’t want anybody to be surprised as my wife and I were with Wrigley.  I can only hope the damage isn’t too serious going forward.  Maybe Wrigley was lucky.  We need a little luck these days.    

Do You Know The Difference Between Price, Total Cost And Value?

Once focused strictly on price, today's leading purchasing departments also focus on total cost and value.  An answering service, such as All City Communications provides an immense value to your business.  All City provides 24 hour phone coverage to your potential and current customers resulting in increased sales due to your ability to be available to your potential customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.   We will ensure you will never miss a call from a prospective customer or current customer needing emergency services, to your competitor. 

Price – Price is simply the amount of money an organization pays to a supplier for a product or service. When price is the focus, purchasing departments work intensely to pay less than they had in the past for goods and services. If particular goods or services were not purchased in the past, purchasing departments will work intensely to pay lower prices than initially proposed by suppliers. When price-oriented purchasing departments report their performance, they only take into account the effect they had on prices paid.

Total Cost – While seeking lower prices is noble, it shouldn't be done without considering factors that could make costs go up. For example, let's say that you've begun buying a lower-priced component for a manufactured item. The price reduction has caused your company to spend $10,000 less per year for that component. However, the lower-priced component is of a lower quality than the previously purchased component. As a result of a higher defect rate, your company has incurred $20,000 per year in new costs for repairs, tech support, etc. That's obviously a bad outcome. A total cost focus assesses expenses that a price-only focus ignores. Total cost includes all expenses associated with the acquisition, receipt, storage, use, maintenance, and disposal of purchased products and services. When total cost-oriented procurement departments report their performance, they take into account all components of cost.

Value – Simplified, improving business performance means increasing revenues and/or reducing costs. Historically, the purchasing function has been associated exclusively with cost reduction. But modern purchasing departments can also help to increase revenues. For example, imagine that you implemented a program with a supplier that gave your company a unique advantage over competitors and, as a result, increased your company's market share and revenue. You may not have reduced the price or cost of the product purchased. But your work delivered a financial benefit to the company in the form of higher sales. "Value" is the word used to describe any type of financial benefit, whether it is a reduction in price, reduction in total cost, or an increase in revenue.

All City Communications Will Improve Your Customer Service

Customer service handles company issues in stores, over the phone and even by email. Customer service is important to an organization for a number of reasons. Foremost, it would be difficult for a company to survive without customer service, as there would be no one available to handle payments or answer questions from prospective customers.

Significance

Customer service is important to an organization because it is often the only contact a customer has with a company. Customers are vital to an organization. Some customers spend hundreds and even thousands of dollars per year with a company. Consequently, when they have a question or product issue, they expect a company's customer service department to resolve their issues.

Identification

Customer service is also important to an organization because it can help differentiate a company from it competitors, according to the article titled "The Importance of Customer Service" at Drew Stevens Consulting website. For example, it may be difficult to tell the difference between two small-town drug stores, especially if their prices are similar. Therefore, putting extra efforts into customer service may be thing that gives one drug store a competitive advantage.

Function

A company with excellent customer service is more likely to get repeat business from customers. Consequently, the company will benefit with greater sales and profits. Contrarily, companies with poor customer service may lose customers, which will have a negative impact on business. It costs a lot more money for a company to acquire a customer than to retain them, due to advertising costs and the expense of sales calls. Therefore, the efforts that go into maintaining quality customer service can really pay dividends over time.

Publicity

People that have a positive experience with a company's customer service department will likely tell two or three others about their experience, according to Consumer Affairs website. Therefore, quality customer service can be a source of promotion for organizations. Contrarily, a person who has a bad customer service experience will likely tell between nine and 20 people.

Prevention/Solution

Customer service is important to an organization because of potential complaints. Consumers can file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, Consumer Affairs or even a class action attorney if they are dissatisfied with a company's customer service. As long as a customer owns a product, they expect to be able to service it. Otherwise, they have certain rights to sue the company, as consumers are protected by the Federal Trade Commission.  All City Communications as an answering service will be able to listen to the needs of the caller immediately.  Don't settle for customers being stuck in your voice mail system or being told to leave a message on your machine.  We will sound like we are in your and we will answer every call live.  

Letting Potential Customers Leave A Voice Mail is Killing Your Business

With Web- and mobile-based communications taking over as the dominant means of contact for many customers, voicemail is on its way out. Quite simply, consumers have found better ways to stay in touch.

Recent statistics from Forbes magazine show that 80 percent of callers sent to voicemail do not leave messages because they don' think they'll even be heard.  Other surveys show different numbers. Speech technology vendor Nuance Communications recently conducted a survey with Research Now and discovered that 95 percent of those polled find text messaging more convenient than voicemail.

John Jacobs, a leading Communications expert, puts the voicemail abandonment rate at between 50 percent and 75 percent, depending on the type of business.  "Everyone is looking for instant gratification, and if you can't provide that...a lot of times they'll simply hang up," he says. "Companies are losing a lot of business opportunities because people are not leaving them messages. "

How much business are you losing?  If you have voice mail I am sure you have hang ups.  If you believe these numbers and I do, because I will personally hang up if I have an immediate need and I get a voice mail.  All City Communications will answer your calls live without a recorded greeting and also will give your business a friendly voice to be attentive to the needs of the caller before your competitor is.  What do you prefer?  Live answering when you have a need or a voice mail?  

Customer Retention is as Easy as...

Personal contact with customers is a crucial element in the success of any new business – and it’s one of the most common casualties of growth. As a company grows, the President tends to fade away into his or her office. That can lead to loss of leverage right at the point when a company is starting to take off and needs it most.

The danger is that the company can become just another faceless entity that the customer deals with every day. This danger increases in this era of reliance on computers to handle communications with customers. Think about instituting a policy of sending a personal thank-you note to each customer. It’s not that difficult to do if you stick with it. Just sit down one evening per week and work through your list of customer contacts from the previous week.

Savvy companies will track customer contacts in their contact-management databases, but you can get away with keeping a simple Excel spreadsheet of all thank you cards sent. Trust me, your customers will not forget it!

To really kick the personal touch into gear, spend one day per month doing nothing but making “courtesy” calls to your existing customers. Don’t have any plans to do real business – just call to say hello. Your clients will be pleased and astounded that you took the time just to check in. To ready your mind to play the role of friend rather than business associate, make the calls from home that day.

Really any little thing that you can do to make your customers feel that you remember them and care about them is priceless. I have a particular customer that mentioned to me one day that she was a tremendous Ray Charles fan. Months later when Ray passed away, I sent her a little note of condolence. I don’t think she will ever forget that gesture. She later told me that I was the only one who mentioned anything to her that day. She had been feeling like nobody knew or cared until she received my note.

What opportunities to make personal contact with clients are you missing each day Sure, it’s easy to use convenient excuses like “I just don’t have the time,” or “I’ll get to it next week.” Just remember how much more difficult and time-consuming it is to find a new client rather than to keep a current one.

In the end, taking time to keep in contact with your customers will pay a lifetime of dividends both personally and professionally.

Five Ways to Improve Your Interpersonal Communication Skills

1. Seek out opportunities to lead

Great leaders are great communicators, and what better way there is to enhance your interpersonal communication skills than to seek out opportunities to take up leadership roles?

Taking up a leadership opportunity does not mean going after titles; It rather means being proactive and taking the initiative. In a business setting, it may mean voluntarily bringing coworkers together to solve a problem or develop a concept. By forming teams, directing projects, solving problems or leading a product development focus group, you learn how to communicate with people, thereby enhancing your interpersonal communication skills.

2. Take a speech course

If you really want to improve your interpersonal communication skills, then taking a speech course may be an idea worth considering. A good speech course helps you build confidence and teaches you how to communicate coherently. This is by far one of the smartest ways to improve your interpersonal communication skills.

3. Write, write and write some more

Writing helps you to learn how to express yourself clearly. It makes you think before you speak. Because it requires that kind of control, it helps you to personally communicate to yourself. Internal communication precedes interpersonal communication. Therefore, consistently practicing the art of writing can help you improve your interpersonal communication skills.

4. Rehearse with a recording tool

To be able to communicate effectively, you need to understand the way you communicate. By recording yourself, you will have the opportunity to listen or even watch yourself talk so you can observe your body language, tone of voice, language command, confidence level and even what causes you to communicate effectively or poorly.  Once you make these observations of yourself, it will be easier to improve in some areas so you become an effective communicator.

5. Take an acting class

Acting offers you an opportunity to relate with different kinds of people. It can boost your confidence and language command. Because acting lets you communicate on stage in a manner that will be understood and appreciated by an audience, it can be an avenue to develop your interpersonal communication skills. Watch and learn from effective communicators

There are leaders in every sphere of human life and this includes interpersonal communication. One best way to improve your interpersonal communication skills is to watch and observe how effective communicators communicate. If you want to know whom to learn from, think of the people who leave a positive lasting impression on you anytime you interact with them; those who can motivate you toward a course; and leaders who inspire you – but not manipulate you – to take an action.

Why a Property Manager should have a Live Answering Service

My good friend recently relocated from one apartment to another.  It wasn’t to save money and it wasn’t motivated by needing to be closer to work.  He moved for one reason.  He never could contact a person, without leaving a voice mail, to have his issues addressed at his apartment.  The only way he has been able to have his issues fixed was for him to show up in person at the office, during normal business hours.  If he didn’t have time to show up in person, he would call and leave a voice mail and like usual, nothing would ever get fixed or corrected.  His frustration led to him finding a different apartment complex that gives him better service by having better response time and availability to his needs.   

He was explaining this to me this weekend when he told me why he moved.  This made me think to share this story with other Property Management companies.  A Property Management company should have a live voice answering their calls for emergencies.  Some emergency type calls include no heat calls, no air conditioning calls or water flooding.  Some of our current Property Management companies utilize our services for situations I just mentioned but our service also helps their on call people avoid answering every call by having our operators tell their callers, for example, their lock out is not considered an emergency and will have to wait for morning or that if there is a parking emergency, they should call the police themselves or if is regarding an invoice they should call back during business hours. 

We will answer all your calls live, as your company.  The callers will not know that we are not in your office.  We can take detailed messages and dispatch any emergency calls to your on call staff while filtering non-emergency calls to be sent via email in the morning.  We will provide 35 operators to answer any calls live from your callers without the added expense of hiring someone to be responsible for answering the phones after hours and weekends.  We will speak to your tenants and listen to their concerns immediately and based on your instructions, dispatch the call accordingly.  Don’t lose tenants because you have nobody available to answer your calls.  Utilize an answering service to enhance your availability to your tenants.