Have you used an in car GPS?

My wife and I spent a night in the City a few weeks ago. We stayed at the Sydney Harbour Bed & Breakfast.

We had a great time and maybe a review later on. But I had just obtained a Navman and thought i would use it to get to there from our home at Glen Alpine. Now you may say that this trip was not difficult. Just M5 to City, take a city exit and make you way over to the Rocks. Well yes.......

On the M5 no problems, but loved the speed camera alert that was pretty accurate. It said I was near it in the M5 tunnel and I looked around and sure enough I could see the camera for the first time.

Next, I would normally take the Kings X exit and make my way across the City that way. The Navman told me to go further on the ED and exit around the Art Gallery. It then expertly directed me, with Karen telling me to left and right etc through Hunter Street, across George and eventually into the Rocks ending near the King George V Recreation Centre and the ubiqutous Australian Hotel.

The story was the same the next day. My wife had taken the train to the City and she heard all about the Navman at dinner that night. Mrs Technophobe was even impressed by the Navman on the way home although she was wondering what other voices were available.

I have been thinking of new voice that could save your wife from having to get huffy on the usual car trip. "Turn left 300 metres.....turn left 100 metres.......Oh [sigh].....turn around and turn right 100 metres....I told you we would be late !"

theBizWiz

www.boulterassociates.com.au
www.informgroup.com.au

Asus EeePCs

The other day my daughter was looking for a laptop for University. She would have a long commute to/from University and wanted something cool that would not be a piece of luggage. I thought I would ask some questions on LinkedIn.

The response was great. Within the hour I had comments from all over the world. Some people were users and not geeks, others were geeks. the balance was great. I quickly understood the technical aspects of the machines in question and also had live experience from users.

Just about all the responses (over 80) were positive. There was always a note of caution about what the machines limitations were. These essentially revolved around the screen sizes and the keyboard. The screens are around 10" in size and the keyboard a bit small for lots of typing.

My thoughts would be to have the no disk drive version (SSD) and carry a small external drive (like a Seagate 120GB) that plugs into the USB for the files I may need sometimes.

Battery life was exceptional and the weight was a plus. The price is outstanding and on EBay you can pick these up around the AU$399 mark running Windows XP.

theBizWiz

www.boulterassociates.com.au
www.informgroup.com.au

Retaining Customers in Hard Times

Back to basics is probably the best advice that was given to me recently. You may be having trouble getting people to buy your products or services at present, especially if your business is not in the necessity category. But if you already have customers that buy from you regularly, keeping them is a number one priority.

So how?

Well first remind them of your services or products.But you have to watch your own costs, so develop a focused and planned marketing message that consistently reaches your target audience through the best channel.

Tell them why you are different. Brand is partially about great customer experiences. If a customer has a good experience with your business they will relate better to your brand and be a marketing channel for you.

If a customer is loyal, reward them. This can be as simple as a discount program for repeat purchase. It could be a competition only open to existing customers. It could be special days where only existing customers are invited to your showroom and items are specially discounted.

We all know how hard it is to get a new customer. Keeping the ones we have is even more important.

theBizWiz

www.boulterasscociates.com.au
www.informgroup.com.au