Some emergency situations develop immediately and require an immediate response (In a post by Gail McGovern, The American Red Cross Details Haiti Earthquake Response and Plans for the Future).  Some emergency situations involve an event that started in one area but have far reaching consequences (Connor Radnovich, Ofelia Madrid, William Hermann, Lindsey Collom and Maria Polletta wrote Jun. 7, 2011 article in the Arizona Republic entitled “Arizona fires: Evacuations in parts of Eagar.”).  And, yet, some emergency situations develop over time and take some time to culminate (The BBC posted info on “Japan’s nuclear response ‘exemplary’” on June 1, 2011.).

Whatever the situation is, you want to be prepared to handle it.  Some, may think, incorrectly, that the response to an emergency situation is exclusively in the government domain.  Quite to the contracy, an emergency response plan can be put together by a household, a business, or a government entity.  Almost everyone can conclude, having a plan in is a great idea.

A great thing to realize is that over the years, stake holders have had an increased awareness, if not outright interest, in “mass notification & emergency communications systems” (its acronymn: MNEC).  A natural outcropping of the interest in MNEC systems has been standards.  Standards are always a good place to start.  One organization, with a long history in this area, is the NFPA (National Fire Protection Associatoin – with regional U.S. offices located in Huntington Beach, CA; Gallatin, TN; Bend, OR; Rehoboth Beach, DE; Quincy, MA; Miami Lakes, FL; Toms River, NJ; &, Louisville, KY).    Emergency response notification is truly a multi-disciplinary subject matter (with professionals from Emergency Response, Healthcare, IT, Telecommunications and other professions playing a key role).

So, whether you are just getting started, or, are an old pro, let CPTG (in conjunction with experts from your team and other areas) help you develop a a rational response to emergency notification.    Start with baby steps (realize Rome wasn’t built in a single day).  These days, all one has to do is turn on a television to realize stuff happens.  When anyone sees this, they immediately want to jump into action to (a) help, (b) prevent future emergencies, or, (c) donate time, marterials, food, water, shelter &/or thoughts & prayers. 

CPTG can help you put together an emergency notification plan.  We start with a rational approach and tailor our recommendations to your solutions.    While speed is important, we don’t always jump in with immediate solutions.  On the other hand, there are some simple, immediate steps any person or entity can take.  We tend to focus on the senses; in particular: (1) sight, (2) sound (“don’t you wonder some times about sound and vision?“). 

What we offer is a rational set of products geared towards (a) getting a message out quickly, (b) to as many people as possible, (c) for a reasonable price, with (d) a high degree of reliability that the message will got out whether it’s an audio or visual message.  Please let us help you put a plan together.

http://calllogic.info/

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When it comes to vacationing, people generally go on vacation to vacation.  There are those workaholics, who go on vacation and work.  Even for those of us who like to relax, we’ve all probably checked emails and voice-mails while on the road.  But, heaven forbid, we forget our cell phone (or charger) and need to make a call from the room.  It gets expensive.  In fact, the LA Times ran an article about this.

Not so with Call Logic’s Net Call service which has ‘the best dollar value VoIP service in any market and the only known VoIP service in the rental home market.’    The service offers a flat monthly (or weekly) rate for calling and even includes calls to a select set of international countries.  From what we can tell, the Net Call service is generally available from vacation rental homes (what a great way to vacation – staying in a home in a nice vacation spot).

What’s so great about the Net Call service is that it appeals to guests (those who stay in the rooms), vacation rental home owners (those who own vacation homes) & vacation home property managers (those who are in the business of managing vacation rental homes on behalf of vacation rental home owners).  It’s a real triple play.  To reach Call Logic you can call 866-642-6116 or email sales@cptg.com.

In today’s business and economy keeping a business going starts with re-thinking what you are doing, and asking yourself  if you can cut back on spending.  You don’t want to change your basic principles to save your company money.  How can you gain the most for your dollar?  How to continue reaching out to the community at a cost that won’t break you.   One option is to change your strategies.   Get back to basics, and get the word out to potential customers.  Start using todays technology to help your company grow in today’s market. 

CPTG and Impact Messaging can offer nationwide toll free, local DID’s, after hours answering service, and an on line messaging service at a cost you can afford.  We offer free quotes and competitive pricing.  Continue your outreach to your potential customers at a cost you can afford.

With so much of the media attention focused on national elections, people tend to forget about the state and local elections.  In reality, there are thousands of elections (and tens of thousands of candidates) during a 4-to-6 year cycle. 

Many tend to focus on just the presidential and congressional elections.  However, there are lots of different types of elections: (governors, judges, state legislatures, mayors, school boards, attorney generals, secretary of states, lieutenant governors, treasurers, etc.).    Each campaign (which is generally built around a candidate) is like it’s own business (it has contributions (revenue), expenses, staff, a product (a set of policies or positions that a candidate may have), events, marketing, strategy, financial reporting, regulatory and tax compliance.

Many people (including some voters) tend to think of elections just in the few preceding weeks before an election (the run up period).    Yes, politics is seasonal, but the run up period for a candidate (and his/her staff) is a lot longer than it is for a voter.  Candidates come in two flavors: (1) incumbents – those in office & (b) candidate – those seeking office.  The two have some similarities and some differences.

Right now, we are starting a campaign to reach out to incumbents (because we know who they are).  We’d like to reach out to candidates (those seeking office) too (but, because we don’t always know who they are, we’d like for them to reach us as well).   

Whether you are an incumbent or a candidate, our tools can help you.  As an incumbent, why wait until the election cycle to communicate with your potential voters?  With our tools, you can stay in touch with your voters in a meaningful way.  As a potential candidate, why wait until the election cycle to communicate with your potential voters?  With our tools, you can communicate with voters in a personnel way all throughout your time (in office or as a candidate).

IMPACT MESSAGING’s National-Local Contact Service (sm) allows you to set up a local number in the market of your choosing.    For instance, if you wanted to set up a local number in Los Angeles, Seattle, Phoenix, Portland, Denver, Salt Lake City, Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul, St. Louis, Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, Raleigh, Orlando, Philadelphia, Newark, New York, Boston, & DC (OK you get the point) we could.  In fact, with IMPACT MESSAGING’s National-Local Contact Service (sm) you could set up a local phone number in over 500 cities in the United States. 

OK, so don’t hold back the excitement (we know it’s hard to contain).  So, you might ask, if my business sets up 50 numbers in 50 different markets, do I need 50 phone lines in 50 cities?    The answer is no.  That’s why you engage Impact Messaging.  Impact Messaging works with telecommunication carriers (not the easiest task, let us tell you) to bring this service to you.  All you do is select the markets you want to be in.  We’ll do the rest.  Once you’ve made the selection, you simply inform Impact Messaging of where you want the number pointed to.

A case in point.  Because Impact Messaging sets up custom marketing programs, we can’t share customer specifics (unless someone wants us to).  But, why give away the super secret hamburger sauce anyway? Right?  But, we can speak in generalities.  So, here’s how it could work . . . . . .

Let’s say that you have a call center, or HQ location (in city, let’s say Austin, TX).  Your marketing department wants to appear in local searches in 10 markets.  To make it local, you want to put a local number on each advertisement.  So, when potential customers surf the web, the come across you ad, see a local number.  They are so interested, they want to call you.  So, they call pick up a phone and call the local number that appears in the add.  Alas, they dial, your call center answers.  It seems so local, yes, in reality the call center is in Austin.  Through the marvels of the cloud telecommunication network, Impact Messaging was able to deliver the inbound call right to your call center.  So, without setting up a series of new out of state offices (or virtual offices), you just created a local presence in 10 markets (with one simple phone call to Impact Messaging (855) 735-1111.

Simple, sounds easy, done, now give us a call and we’ll help you with our National-Local Contact Services (sm).

On Tuesday, March 1, 2011 Impact Messaging launched its ”DANCE SUITE” studio automation service(s).    The suite consists of two initial products: (1) DANCE CALL (sm) notification & (2) DANCE MENU (sm) Services.    For dance studio directors, this means help is on the way.  Market support for the products was based on some basic questions applicable to all studio directors:

1. are you ‘tapped’ out answering routine calls? Like where is the studio located?  What are the studio hours?  What events are  coming up?
2. do you ever have last minute schedule, venue or instructors changes (& have to quickly call all of your students, parents & instructors)?

If you answered yes to either question, then you need our ‘DANCE SUITE” services.  Our DANCE MENU service provides an auto-attendant which provides your callers a menu.  For instance, press 1 for directions, press 2 for events & press 3 for reception.  So, when someone calls for directions, they press 1 and hear a prerecorded message (in your voice) informing them of where the studio is.  So, a routine question is now answered allowing you to get back to the things that really matter (like instructing your students).

Our DANCE CALL notification service allows you to notify your entire studio, or any subset thereof, of last minute schedule, venue or instructor changes (or any last minute emergency you might encounter).  For instance, if you’ve faced a situation where an instructor is ‘under the weather’ you can quickly enter a web portal, record a message, upload a list of numbers and then schedule an outbound call campaign.  Within minutes, your entire studio is notified of the change.

DANCE CALL (sm) & DANCE MENU (sm) Mailer

Based on our marketing research, we believe that dance studios spend a lot of time on routine phone calls.  For instance, in once instance, we discovered that 14.4% of a studio’s inbound calls were asking a simple question (where is the studio located?).    In another instance, a studio director was faced with calling over 80 students/parents quickly.  Imagine, it’s 7:30 a.m., your sick, your instructor is sick and class is scheduled to start at 9:00 a.m.  Do you really want to manually call 80 people?  Or, could you let DANCE CALL (sm) place the calls for you?  Or, imagine it’s 3:00 p.m.  Suddenly the weather changes.  A picture perfect sunny day goes gray bringing in rain clouds and showers.  Your event is scheduled to start at 5:00 p.m.  You have to move it in doors.  You’ve invited 300 guests to attend.  Do you really want to call 300 people.  The answer is probably not!

Impact Messaging has also published a simple order form/agreement for this product.  Please check it out:  dance_call_suite_2011

Impact Messaging’s Dance Call (sm) service does have some limitations.  It should primarily be used to call your clients that you have an existing business relationship with to notify them of matters that require their attention.

Impact Messaging looks forward to rolling the DANCE CALL (sm) and DANCE MENU (sm) services out nationwide.  Please call us with any questions at (855) 735-1111.

Some messages have a limited shelf life (meaning, you can discard them as soon as you receive them).    Other messages have no shelf life (i.e. you can discard them before you receive them).  Still, other messages have long term impact (they stick with you for a long time).

At Impact Messaging, our goal is to give a voice to your message (to give it life) – whether it’s a short term message or is intended to have a long term impact.   We want to help you craft the right message with the right media.

That is our goal!  We look forward to meeting and working with you!