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Jan 31

Gain Face to Face Customer Experience

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Kaylyn Kling

Web conferencing is used in many different industries across the board. One of the most interesting industries that uses web conferencing is the banking industry. To must, the banking industry is just a place you go to get money out or  to deposit; many people utilize online banking so that they never need to go to the bank. They can pay all their bills online.

Now that many people use online banking they feel that they aren’t getting the best customer service because everything something doesn’t work they have to call in. Many financial institutions are finding that by utilizing web conferencing that they are enhancing their customers over all experience.

While all web conferencing improves over all customer experience it is also closely tied to the number of new services banks offer in today’s market, portfolio management and financial planning just to name a few. We are far beyond the days of just making deposits and accessing wire transfers. In today’s world it is often the norm to have a bank account that is not near where you live or do business. Many people hold international accounts and access them through the use of web conferencing over seas.

While you still might use your local credit union, don’t be afraid to step outside the box, there is a digital age of customer service out there awaiting you.

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Jan 30

Let Patient’s Family Members be that, not Interpreters

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Shawna De Long

Video Remote Interpreting in the hospital

Effective communication, we all know that phrase by now.  With the release of the Joint Commission’s: Advancing Effecitve Communication, Cultural Competance and Patient-Centered Care standards and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 those words can cause a lot of concern for compliance officers within your facility.  So why is “effective communication” so important in the health care setting?  The Americans with Disabilities Act answers that question like this:

“Effective communication is particularly critical in health care settings where miscommunication may lead to misdiagnosis and improper or delayed medical treatment.”

So let’s say a person who is deaf and hard of hearing comes into your facility and you do not have an interpreter available to you.  What do you do?  Some hospitals, might use a family member or friend, they do communicate daily right?  Wrong! The ADA has this to say about the use of family members or friends as interpreters:

“Sign language or other interpreters must be qualified.  An interpreter is qualified if he or she can interpret competently, accurately, and impartially. In the hospital setting, the interpreter must be familiar with any specialized vocabulary used and must be able to interpret medical terms and concepts. Hospital personnel who have a limited familiarity with sign language should interpret only in emergency situations for a brief time until a qualified interpreter can be present.

It is inappropriate to ask family members or other companions to interpret for a person who is deaf or hard of hearing. Family members may be unable to interpret accurately in the emotional situation that often exists in a medical emergency.”

So, now what? Well, on site interpreters are a possibility, but what if you could have access to a live, on demand ASL interpreter?  Imagine the kind of care you could give to that patient without waiting for an on site interpreter to be available.  You can, with Public Telephone’s on demand Video Remote Interpreting Service provided by NexTalk.

NexTalk is an on demand video remote interpreting (VRI) service for the deaf and hard of hearing. With a secure Internet connection you can be connected to an American Sign Language interpreter in less than a minute.  This software also allows for point to point and VRS calling and keeps you in compliance with your ADA regulations working as a portable TTY unit.

If you are interested in seeing a live demonstration of this product and how it can keep you and your facility in compliance with the Joint Commission and Americans with Disabilities communication standards give us a call!

 

 

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Jan 25

Interviewing “Virtual” Anywhere

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Kaylyn Kling

The economy is down and jobs are scarce as businesses try to minimize overhead expenses just to keep afloat. Company growth is important for business, period. With training a new employee, how do you find the candidate that is the best fit for your organization so you can reduce turnover?

The perfect candidate could be around the corner or across the country, you may never know because your interviewing scope can only be so wide. Utilizing virtual interviewing, you can now expand your potential market by taking advantage of your existing web conferencing service to effectively broaden your interview scope by about 40%.

It’s a new year and times are changing. Here at Public Telephone we are gearing up for a big 2012, beginning with a few in house changes as we are currently seeking to expanding our team with some additional talent. The economy is still working on producing more jobs, I have found that it costs around $1,000 to recruit and hire a new employee. Now we are not a large company, nor did we make the Fortune 500 list, so our company does not have an outrageous recruiting budget, but we do want the best candidate we can find. Job posting boards can be an effective measure, but tend to be a bit pricey. A job board such as monster.com can cost $375 for a 30-day ad, where LinkedIn charges $195.00, yet no results are guaranteed.

By using virtual interviewing tools it allow us to:

  • Save money on travel costs
  • Save time
  • Improve candidate experience
  • Reduce Hire time
  • Increase Candidate Pool
  • Improve quality of hire

Many companies, like Green Job Interviewing, offer web platforms with integrated interviewing tools. The most essential tool for improving the interview process is web conferencing. Web conferencing allows you to not only ask the questions you want to ask but it allows you to interact, much like a face to face manor, while it is not as personal, it is the next best thing, especially when it comes to the first and second round of the interview process to help narrow the selection down to the candidates that are the best fit and invite them to the face to face interview.

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Jan 24

A Day Late, A Report Short

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Kyle McGuire

A plan of action is important. In unfortunate events, only 9 months ago 243 fatalities occurred after a series of tornadoes wiped through Alabama between April 25-28th.

In the wake of the event, the Tornado Recovery Action Council (TRAC) was tasked with creating a recommendation for becoming more prepared for future events. Through interviews and communicating with 1st responders, the general public and many state officials, the TRAC group created a report of best practices and to note improvements that could be made in preparation for future events.The document was to be turned into Alabama Governor Robert Bentley, unfortunately the recommendation was not presented to the Governor on schedule.

On Monday morning (January 23rd) members of Maplesville, Alabama were awoken with debris flying through windows and into their living rooms with winds exceeding 150 mph. The tornado left a large path of destruction from Chilton county to Clanton, AL. Reports given through local new entities tallied: 2 fatalities, over 211 homes left destroyed and a trail of wreckage including several hundred homes, businesses and schools requiring significant repair. Currently there are limited plans for facilitating the several thousand students whom are currently left without buildings to learn in.

Interviews of the effected residents conducted through CNN and Insurance Journal presented no current plans on how to recover from the wreckage. Since the impact of this recent event, Robert Bentley has since postponed his meeting with the Tornado Recovery Action Council, stating that it will be rescheduled.

As a harsh reality, disasters do occur. Often the creation for a disaster plan is fueled by a recent event that presented a weakness or limitation in your current system. What would your company do if you were left without an ability to answer the phone? Telecom Recovery provides a powerful business continuity service that allows your company to communicate through many avenues, during an outage or disaster. Also, our system comes with a omprehensive Emergency Communication Plan (ECP), allowing your facility to plan ahead and be better prepared for an outage, no matter how big or small.

 

 

 

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Jan 23

Public Telephone is proud of their client, USC Medical Center

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Shawna De Long

Friday, January 20, 2012, after spending the first five months of her life in an incubator, one of the world’s smallest surviving babies was discharged from USC Medical Center.

Born August 30th, Melinda Star Guido was born weighing a mere nine and a half ounces (that’s less than a can of soda).  With the help and amazing care of the doctors, nurses and staff at USC Medical Center she now weighs four and a half pounds, has passed her hearing test and the car seat test for premature babies, making her doctors comfortable with discharging her with the aid of an oxygen tube as a precautionary measure. Her doctor,Dr. Rangasamy Ramanathan had this to say about her:

“I am cautiously optimistic that the baby will do well, but again there is no guarantee.”

Doctors and nurses gathered to bid Melinda farewell.  Her mother, Haydee Ibarra, said:

 ”I’m just happy that she’s doing well. I’m happy that I’m finally going to take her home … I’m just grateful.”

Public Telephone would like to congradulate the entire staff at USC Medical Center for an amazing job well done.  We are proud to be working with such an amazing facility that takes the utmost care in providing excellent customer service!  Well done, USC!

 

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Jan 20

New name possible, new location definate for Public Telephone

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Scott De Long

Public Telephone logoIn a previous blog, we had mentioned that the company which has been known as Public Telephone, is actively searching for a new name, one that more accurately reflects not only what we do now, but really where we are going.  The corporate entity, is actually De Long Industries Group, Inc.  but that is just for the government.  It is not as easy as you would think to come up with the right name.  Public Telephone was great, because we got our start in this industry as a pay phone company.  We still own and operate about 1,000 public pay telephones, but as you could imagine, if that was all we did, we would not be around long.

For the past 7 to 8 years now, we have put together a suite of services designed for our vertical markets, health care and higher education, that has allowed them to lower costs, eliminate single source vendors, and most importantly improved service.  We have sourced new innovative products, like the disaster recovery business continuity program from Telecom Recovery, as well as Video Remote Interpreting VRI, from what we believe to be the most comprehensive service provider, NexTalk.  We are always seeking new technology to add value to our client base.  We listen to their problems, and hit the streets looking for creative solutions.

So, what do we call ourselves?  Names are flying around the company, people are searching synonyms, acronyms, foreign language options that describe who we are and what we do.  The checking with the governmental agencies, and web domains for the availability.  It is a process, but it also kind of fun.  The sales and customer service staff get together weekly to debate the merits of what they have found, and this search has actually led us into some potential new markets.  I think the process has made us smarter, or at least more aware of who else is out there and what they do.

One thing is certain however, that we have made a definitive decision to move our office location.  We found a place that fits so much better, were are doing tenant improvements now, and will be moving February 3.  The new offices will be located at 232 Avenida Fabricante, San Clemente, CA  92672.  It is a nice quiet business park, we have an ocean view, and better cell phone reception!

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Jan 19

Seeking an Intern

Posted on January 19, 2012 by Kyle McGuire

Through a series of orchestrated events, the office has become increasingly more productive since ringing in the New Year. To continue building upon our current energy we at Public Telephone are actively seeking to expanding our current team.

The prime candidate would be a talented individual, with a strong aptitude in journalism and media, whom could assist us with varying necessary functions regarding our multimedia and marketing outlets.

The internship is a great opportunity to gain real world hands-on experience where you have the opportunity to earn credit from your school for the work you are completing, as well as, being compensated for your time and effort.

If you are, or know of, any talented individuals that would like to join Public Telephone, please feel free to view our Career Opportunities on our website to see if you are a good fit.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

 

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Jan 18

Keeping World Peace through Conference Calling

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Kaylyn Kling

Conference calling is only helpful because it is cost cutting on travel expenses.

In reality, conference calling is one of the most important technologies in today’s business world.

Finding out that there is a SEAL raid in Afghanistan, protesters in Greece or nuclear threats from Japan these situations are made known not because someone happened to be listening to the chatter but because there is an entire room inside the State Department that is dedicated to listening in on countries that are unstable. While this entire room is lined with clocks reading the local time in “areas of interest”, the final clock lists what time it is where ever Secretary Clinton is.  The “secretary time” allows the Ops team to know where Secretary Clinton is at all times. That way they know where she is at any point in time so that she can be pulled on to a web conference or a conference call at a moment’s notice.

Our product Roll Call allows you to have this same type of access. No need to make reservations; hop on a call at an hour with as many people as you need. Weather you need to stay connected to keep the world safe, or need to cut travel costs for weekly meetings Roll Call can make it easier for you to have complete access to conference calling and web conferencing.

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Jan 17

Hacker Paradise

Posted on January 17, 2012 by Kyle McGuire

Where do all the computer hackers dream of relaxing? My initial answer was hacker paradise, but apparently they wanted to call it “Hackerspace Global Grid” (HGG), a bit less catchy.

The projects scope is relatively simple; HGG would like to create a way for enthusiasts to access an uncensored Net connection. The project is founded with the intent to provide an alternate communication route, primarily in areas facing political instabilities where regimes may work toward suppressing there people through cutting off communication resources.

There are four levels of satellites: LEO(low earth orbiting), MEO(medium earth orbiting), GEO(geosynchronous earth orbiting) and HEO (High Earth Orbiting). Unfortunately, the access to LEO satellites has increased substantially in recent years, but the sky is still limited on the quantity of real estate available for these satellites.  In LEO there are 466 functioning satellites, but there are about 8,000 objects the size of a softball or larger, currently in orbit in LEO, all of which are moving at a rate of about 17,000 miles per hour  at 200-500 miles above the Earth.

The system can operate in a similar fashion as an advanced HAM radio network or hand-held satellite phone, building a small network of strategically placed satellites to transmit messages. A single satellite can be accessible for a window of 20 minutes for every 90 minute rotation around Earth. The delay between available usage windows creates a need for a greater number of satellites to expand the coverage area. With an estimate of approximately 100 satellites, the costs incurred would be about $2 billion USD for the equipment to be in orbit, not including associated software, support, and maintenance.

For the sake of the HGG project, I hope they have considered investments with greater yields. A MEO or GEO satellite would greatly reduce the quantity of satellites necessary for a global communication alternative. A system, such as Telecom Recovery, utilizes the benefit of geosynchronous satellites, which have a life span about triple that of a LEO. Additionally, communications could be spread through alternative avenues to deliver more functionality to the areas requiring communication than being limited to individual text of IP interactions.

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Jan 16

A “Business Friendly” Letter about TTY’s Creates Quite a Stir

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Shawna De Long

There’s a difference between educating people and ”legal extortion”: that’s essentially the big debate that a letter sent out by Richard Roehm of the Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center. Teri Sforza an O.C. Register columnist for the OC Watchdog wrote about Roehm’s attempt to educate Orange County business owners. The letter reads:

“Thank you for taking the time to read this important message from a deaf advocate in Orange County, California.  Here in the United States we have a $600 access kit that contains a TTY, Amplified telephone, Light signal flasher, and a Videophone,” it says. “It’s easy to set up and saves business from the minimum $7,000 they’d end up paying to settle claims by hearing impaired consumers for being caught without access equipment….

“…this is very important you look into making your business accessible to the hearing impaired and I sent this from my iPad because I just heard plenty online chatter from the deaf and disability community members that would lead to access lawsuits against your business.

“Furthermore, tax incentives are available to businesses that earn $1 million or less a year. This means these businesses can get up to $5,000 in tax credits…. We can help you save even more by having us get you the information on the tax incentives.

“Remember, our goal is to prevent lawsuits and that’s what we are doing…. let us help you save your business.”

Roehm goes on to explain that his letter was indeed more agressive than other actions his organization has taken in the past to increase compliancey among small businesses in the Orange County area. He states his intent was not to scare or shakedown rather to inform business owners who may not be aware of The American’s with Disabilities Act, which was signed into law back in 1990 by President George H.W. Bush.

Americans with Disabilities Act

Present Bush signs the Americans with Disabilities Act into law in 1990

After I finished reading the piece I was very interested to see responses to this article from readers in the blog version.  As I suspected the comments left by readers very passionate and a mixed bag of opinions.  While some praised Roehm’s attempt, others saw it as exhotortion and abuse of a law created to give equal rights to those with disabilities for financial gain by trying to sell his TTY kits in this manner.

As a sales organization in the telecommunications industry we get asked questions in regards to the ADA regulations all the time: from payphone installations to patients rights.  We are very happy to offer assistance and guideance with legisation compliance, but I think the difference is the unsoliciated advice that creates such a stir.  What’s your opinon on the matter?

 

 

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