Posts Tagged conference calls
Does there have to be a green tax on everything?
Posted by Powwownowgreen in Opinions on December 3rd, 2009
That’s how it seems sometimes. If I want to exercise my right as a purchaser and buy the green/ethical/morally upright option, I have to pay extra. Someone somewhere is taxing me for my beliefs.
Maybe I’m being too sensitive about this. After all, if I go into my local supermarket, I’m presented with normal coffee or fair trade coffee. I accept that fair trade coffee will be more expensive, but I don’t mind buying it because (a) I can afford the extra few pennies and (b) a decent price is paid to the farmer. In short, it makes me feel good. I like to think that Western consumers like me are doing our bit to divert wealth from multinational companies to small producers.
But where I struggle is with the idea of environmentally friendly products (as opposed to just ‘fair trade’ products) being more expensive. This struck me when I considered (briefly) the benefits of paying more for a green tariff for my home electricity. To my shame, I opted for the cheaper tariff and promised to turn off more lights and not leave the tap running.
But why should green always be more expensive?
A little web research confirms the wider existence of the green tax. Eco-marketers Shelton Associates published some useful facts on their blog to prove my point:
The top product category in which consumers are searching for greener products (according to our [Shelton's] Eco Pulse study) is home cleaning products. And green cleaning products carry a price premium of 11-30%, depending on the brand. The price premium for organic foods and beverages (the number two category on consumers’ lists) is 23-118%, and the price premium for a hybrid car (the number one category in our Green Living Pulse study) is 18-43%.
But, happily, this is not always the case, and the key lies in changing behaviour, not just changing products. For example, cycling is cheaper than driving, whatever kind of fuel you were planning to use. Turning the thermostat down will save on electricity – renewable or otherwise. And, if you plan your food shopping properly and avoid letting food go out of date, you will spend less money there too. It’s about your choice of behaviour, not your choice of product.
Which is why, here at Powwownow, we are delighted to see so many businesses changing their behaviour – ie by using conference calls instead of driving or flying to meetings. Despite the disingenuous claims of low-cost airlines that they are driving down the cost of business, this is one example where the green option really is less expensive. The cost of a flight to Munich may be pretty low, but the green option – through us at least – will always be less.
Because it’s free.
Image credit: photos8.com
Overcoming the junk mail filters
Posted by Powwownowteam in Techie Talk on November 19th, 2009
(image courtesy of danshill)
We think we’ve done pretty well at Powwownow over the last few years. But that doesn’t mean we’ve not had our challenges.
And one ongoing challenge we’ve experienced is finding a way to avoid our communications (which are essential to how we provide our service) being intercepted by email client junk filters.
As Andrew explains in an article in today’s Telegraph, the success of Powwownow relies heavily on our customers receiving the information they need to be able to hold a conference call. Without that information, there can be no Powwownow. And the number of calls to the help desk asking for information to be re-sent suggest that it’s not a seldom occurrence.
So, while some of the big boys have the tools and the tricks to overcome the spam filters, for the little(r) guys like Powwownow, it’s not so easy.
It’s not a battle we intend on losing, however. We’ve not been shy on investing on new technology to make us compete in the telecoms sector, and we’ll continue to do so in the future.
And, if you do have trouble receiving details from us that you think you really should have received, please get in touch and we’ll do our best to make sure you do get the info you need – now and in the future.
The real cost of air travel
Posted by Powwownowteam in Opinions on November 12th, 2009
Here at Powwownow, we don’t mind a bit of honest competition. But recent advertising from the people at Flybe.com seemed a little less than truthful. So we felt we ought to take a little direct action with our own ad, published today in the London Metro.
OK, so it’s a little cheeky of us to take their ad and throw it back at them. But we felt there was something important missing in their claim that face to face meetings – and particularly face-to-face meetings that involve air travel – are ‘better’ than conference calling.
It’s not just that they were knocking our business, or that many of their statistics were questionable (more about that in a moment). It’s that they seem to think that the only cost of air travel is financial.
We don’t agree.
As you and I well know, air travel is highly hazardous to the environment. When the rest of the world is trying to do what they can to minimize the impact of business activities on the environment, Flybe are cheerfully endorsing the eco-unfriendly option. But the thing that gets us is that they don’t even acknowledge this, thereby suggesting that businesses see the monetary price of a ticket as the only factor here. If I was one of their customers, I’d be insulted.
Anyone who has read our blogs here will know that we are proud of our green credentials, and that we are not leaping onto a bandwagon for commercial reasons. Many of our customers are small, cost-conscious businesses who know all about keeping outgoings to a minimum. But they are also aware of their wider responsibilities, and are proud to ‘do their bit’ for the environment. So suggesting they don’t care is really not fair.
But what about the ‘facts and figures’ quoted by Flybe?
They say, for example, that face-to-face meetings will turn 40% of potential customers into customers, compared with only 16% without face-to-face contact. But they fail to mention that this figure comes from a non-peer-reviewed US study sponsored by two industry groups, the US Travel Association and the Destination and Travel Foundation. The latter’s website says it exists to “bolster the destination marketing profession and travel industry”. Come on guys.
Flybe go on to say on their website that conference calls simply don’t win business. Well, the fact is that you can meet far more often if you only need to pick up the phone – and you don’t need a researcher to tell you that the more often you meet, the better your relationships. And don’t forget that your environmental credentials are increasingly requested in new business tender documents. Your ecological attitude clearly matters – not just to the planet, but also to your attractiveness as a business. Since when did a poor environmental record help you win business?
And we’re not the only ones picking up on this: see also this excellent piece from the Guardian.
Horses for courses
But let’s be reasonable for a moment. Sometimes, face-to-face is best – of course it is. And sometimes – if Flybe were big enough to admit it – they would agree that it’s really not worth travelling when you can have a perfectly good meeting over the phone. The thing is that, every time you avoid travelling, you don’t just save a stack of money, you can also pat yourself on the back for doing the right thing by the planet.
We just felt we needed to put the record straight. For the sake of the truth, for the sake of all businesses with a conscience – and of course for the sake of having a bit of fun by making a parody of their ad for millions of commuters to see this morning.
PS: If you want to avoid air travel, why not register for free and start enjoying our free conference calling service yourself?
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