Free car charging at new, green(er) McDonald’s
The new restaurant in Cary—opening this week—will be North Carolina’s first “green” McDonald’s, and it aims to become gold-certified under the LEED standard. Both the interior and exterior of the restaurant have been designed with sustainability in mind. More than 95 percent of the wood used in construction, for example, comes from forests certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, while tables and decor incorporate rapidly renewable materials such as sunflower seed board, wheat board, bamboo and kirei board. Solatubes inside provide quality natural light, while lighting fixtures automatically adjust to changing light conditions. All components used inside are free of urea and formaldehyde, while vinyl is PVC-free and all paints, adhesives, coatings and sealants are low-VOC. The kitchen and bathrooms, meanwhile, are designed to minimize the use of water.
Perhaps most interesting of all, there will be preferred parking spaces for hybrid and fuel-efficient vehicles, along with ChargePoint stations offering free electricity for plug-in cars. Two such stations will be available at the restaurant’s launch, according to The News & Observer.
It’s not entirely clear whether a 30-minute meal offers enough time to charge a vehicle adequately, as HybridCars points out. Nevertheless, plans are afoot to install charging stations at McDonald’s locations in Sweden as well, the publication reported, and there seems little doubt that as adoption of electric vehicles increases, there will be demand for charging stations in convenient spots around the globe. Embrace such technology early, and you boost your eco-credentials; offer it as a free perk, and you could win eco-minded consumers’ hearts, minds and dollars!
Frustrated Sign
How to Clean Your Keyboard
Use an air compressor
Get rid of the mysterious sticky stuff under your keyboard with compressed air equipped with an extension nozzle. Turn the can at a 45-degree angle and spray between the keys. Tap and shake the keyboard and then repeat spraying. Finish by cleaning the piled up grime with a damp cloth.
Use a USB vacuum cleaner
USB vacuum cleaners to do the hard part of sucking up potato chip and pretzel debris. Just plug into your USB port and use the thin keyboard tool to make your keyboard look like new again. Also includes a built in LED light. (MSRP $10)
Use CyberClean
CyberClean makes cleaning fun! Just take the yellow gel blob that looks like Play-Doh and press it over the keys to lift out dirt and bacteria. The patented sticky formula from Switzerland even kills germs on contact. It’s also good on cell phones and any other potentially infectious surface. (MSRP $11)
Use the dishwasher
Yes, it does sound extreme, but it works if you want to save time and don’t need your keyboard for a few days. Wash the keyboard using only water and remember to remove all of keys. Then let it dry out for two or three days.
Personalized Customer Service with CRM Software
We recently launched a website at which people can recycle electronics. So far, we have been contacting our customers individually by e-mail. How can we keep up that level of service as more people visit the site?
As companies add customers, they run the risk of becoming like the Dr. Seuss character Mrs. McCave, who “had 23 sons and she named them all Dave.” What bugs people more than not getting a personalized shout-out with every communication is having their individuality ignored.
Start out with a personal touch by posting a statement on your website about your commitment to customer service, advises Jack Mitchell, author of Hug Your Customers and CEO of Mitchells/Richards/Marshs, a high-end clothing retailer with headquarters in Westport, Connecticut. Include your photo and signature so site visitors know a real human stands behind that commitment.
Make sure all specific questions receive specific answers — though there’s no need to construct a fresh response every time. If you document FAQs in an internal wiki, sometimes sending a personal response is as easy as copying and pasting. In fact, cold, faceless technology is often key to providing warm, caring service. “We’ve architected our whole IT system around personal relationships,” Mitchell says. His business uses customer relationship management software to track clients’ tastes, including their favorite designers and whether they prefer Pepsi or Coke served to them in the stores. Salesclerks draw on those data to make each returning client feel as welcome as a regular.
Part of being personable is being accessible, so create more ways for customers to express their love (or hate or indifference). John & Kira’s, a Philadelphia chocolatier, includes a survey at the end of its online checkout process. The company also has a blog and accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr. Founder John Doyle says those sites are a trove of suggestions.
Technology, however, cannot be all things to all people — particularly to ticked-off people. Customer complaints deserve responses from human beings. As Web traffic increases, it may not be feasible to field every inquiry yourself. But you can try.
White House Eyes Bailout Funds to Aid Small Firms
The Obama administration is developing an initiative to take money from the $700 billion rescue program for the banking system and make it available to millions of small businesses, which officials say are essential to any economic recovery because they employ so many people, according to sources familiar with the plan.
The effort would represent a striking shift from the rescue program’s original mandate, since it would direct billions of bailout dollars toward a plan that aims more at saving jobs than at righting the financial system. Some economists estimate that small businesses, defined as firms with fewer than 500 workers, employ most of the country’s workforce.
A proposal being floated by senior Treasury Department officials calls for using the bailout funds to expand a government program that helps small companies borrow from banks at low rates to keep their businesses going, the sources said. These “working-capital” loans would come with few restrictions and could be used to buy inventory, hold on to employees and pay off short-term debt.
The initiative would bulk up the Small Business Administration’s most popular lending program, called 7(a). Lines of credit for small companies could greatly increase in size. If a firm failed despite receiving this help, the government would cover most of the losses on the federal loan, perhaps as much as 90 percent. Lines of credit act like the credit cards for companies — short-term, revolving debt used to pay a variety of immediate expenses.
Leisure with an elegance suits you, ma’am
After 40 years, Fella Hamilton still dominates fashion’s least favourite category.
The glamorous 84-year-old next month celebrates four decades since her first line of towelling turbans for Brighton’s “ladies who lunch” blossomed into a brand of leisure wear for women aged 40 and older.
“I made clothes for over-40s because that’s how old I was,” she says. Hamilton used towelling, velour and later jersey and silks because they skimmed rather than clung, and “slenderised” the figure.
She elasticised waistbands, cut to a bigger block with generous sleeves, lowered bustlines and kinked waistlines. She perfected techniques to flatter the mature figure that could be compared to those a skilled tailor uses to flatter the softening physique of a middle-aged man.
It was never the hippest market niche and younger fashion brands were more than happy to leave her to it. But they might not be so snobby soon. Hamilton’s niche market is filling up and going gangbusters despite the slumped economy. She opened her 12th shop in Bondi recently and another will open in August.
Older women increasingly complain they have money to spend but few places to spend it where they are not scorned by frosty young sales staff and racks of unsuitable clothes. “They want elegance, these women,” says Hamilton. “They want comfort and a big range, very good quality and very good service.”
Hamilton is still involved in her company, now run primarily by her son and daughter, David and Ann Hamilton, but pulled back from daily operations three years ago. She says the formula now being replicated by her rivals evolved in regular visits to her shops. She talked to women, she says, and acted on their comments. Astonishing brand loyalty was the result.
According to the 2007 census, the proportion of Australia’s population aged 50 to 59 has increased from 10 per cent to 13 per cent since 1996.
9 Ways to Decrease a Company’s Employee Benefits Cost
Given the current state of the economy it is more important than ever for businesses to carefully evaluate their employee benefit programs to find ways to manage cost. Double-digit health insurance renewal increases should not be an automatic annual ritual, as there are many options available that can save your company money without sparing the quality of healthcare offered to your employees. The following are tips on how to reduce your company’s health care costs:
- Explore The Insurance Marketplace For Competitive Proposals
- Provide Your Employees With Multiple Health Plan Options At Various Cost Levels
- Review Alternative Contribution Strategies
- Extend Your Plan’s Waiting Period And To Bridge The Gap, Add A Lower Cost Plan Option
- Investigate Adding A Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA)
- Consider Utilizing A Professional Employer Organization Or Co-Employment Arrangement
- Separate Your Prescription Plan And Investigate Self-insuring Through A Third-Party Vendor.
- Educate Your Employees On Becoming Wise Healthcare Consumers And Healthier People
- Shift A Portion Of The Plan Costs To The Members Through Benefit Changes
By proactively identifying ways to reduce the overall cost of your benefits program and potentially enhancing the overages offered, both you and your employees will be rewarded.
