As global awareness of environmental risk spreads, we’re hearing more and more great stories about the greening effect of our collaboration solutions. It turns out that LINK customers began reducing their negative impact on the environment long before it was trendy—by reducing travel in favor of Web, audio, and video conferencing.
The potential benefits to the planet—not to mention the attractive cost savings—are significant.
Case in point: State of Nevada. With the state capital in the north and huge population centers and tourist-serving industries surrounding Las Vegas in the south, keeping the state government operating means a lot of long-distance collaboration.
Last year, in fact, state employees made more than 31,000 trips across the state. Ouch—that’s a lot of jet fuel, not to mention all those shoeless trips through airport security.
According to the Nevada Appeal, even arid Nevada is turning greener. State officials are moving to cut the high costs of travel ($3.5 million on flights alone last year) by replacing many in-person meetings with Web, audio, and video conferencing. The result: more green in the state’s coffers, and a smaller carbon footprint, to boot.
Examples are everywhere. One doesn’t have to look far to see more businesses going green. A recent phone survey shows a significant trend, with 76% of surveyed business employees using audio conferencing, 63% using Web conferencing, and a startling 50% taking part in one or more video conferences.
The survey also showed a sharp increase in telecommuting. No wonder they’re doing all that conferencing!
In fact, fully 95% of those surveyed confirmed their companies are aggressively working to reduce environmental impact. Recycling and a preference for “greener” vendors were also identified as important green strategies.
Roughly one third of companies surveyed are embarking on carbon footprinting projects in the next year. The likely result: more conferencing, less travel.
At LINK, the trend keeps us looking forward, planning for the bandwidth, support, and service features we know our customers will need. We consider ourselves lucky to be part of an industry that’s good for the planet. Oh, and some of us bike to work, too.
LINK’s invoices are getting smarter.
Here’s some welcome news: LINK has made significant upgrades and improvements to its invoicing processes. We ponied up for some new billing software so our customers could have more choices and automate some of their own processes. Here’s a rundown:
More delivery options. Now customers can choose invoices in a range for formats including PDF, Excel, HTML, and more. Whatever you do with invoices, you can get them in the form that’s most convenient to you.
Online billing and viewing. Yes, we can all shrink our carbon footprints just a bit more by skipping printed invoices and doing it all online.
Invoices that practically read themselves. Yes, we really DO want our invoices to be easy to read, and we’ve made it happen.
Call detail options. Sometimes you want the bottom line, sometimes you want to analyze things call-by-call, conference-by-conference. Now you can choose.
These exciting (!) new billing options are part of a larger effort underway here at LINK. We’ve also replaced our business management (ERP) software and our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software.
Why? We’re able to serve you better, and we’re better prepared to assist more and more customers as they move to lighten up their carbon footprints and travel budgets. Yes, we’re a little short of breath, but we’re ready.
New Live Chat option when you need help.
Keep an eye on your inbox, our Web site, or wherever you get your daily does of great news from LINK. Soon we’ll announce a new, handy option for you and your conferencing participants whenever they need help: live chat.
Yes, when you have a question, you’ll be able to connect immediately with a LINK Client Care Operator via live chat. No need to pick up the phone (or leave a conference momentarily)—simply click and connect. We’ll be there to help – and, we believe, we’ll be able to do so more efficiently, so you get the answers you need in a hurry.
Speaking of support, we’re also beefing up our online FAQs and other documentation on our conferencing services – all in the name of better service to you. Check it out online next time you have a question – or if you just feel like doing some fun reading.
A bond that won’t be broken.
Many of you—especially those of you who have joined the LINK family recently—know that LINK has been growing rapidly, in spite of a challenging economy.
Obviously, we’re thrilled—and moving quickly to ramp up our capabilities so we’ll be ready for more, and, most importantly, so we’ll deliver the completely positive conferencing experience you and your colleagues deserve.
To help make sure we’re crafting precisely the solutions our customers need, we have brought on board additional sales staff and are refining our processes to make sure we’re highly responsive to your needs.
Count on LINK to live up to our promise— Above and Beyond the Call every step of the way. And depend on us to continue to expand our capabilities to make collaboration easier for you.
The last word.
So now you know: we’re extending our Above and Beyond the Call support to the chat channel … responding to and preparing for growth so we can continue to deliver … and even improving our invoicing habits. It’s nice to know that every one of these efforts can, in some way, help reduce our carbon footprint—and yours.
Finally, we still love to share—so if you know someone who might find it personally rewarding to receive LINK Connect, please feel free to forward this edition. And don’t forget to tell us what we can do to improve LINK Connect, too.
Thanks! And see you next time.
LINK Conference Service, LLC
3245 146th PL SE, Suite 230
Bellevue, WA 98007
©2008 LINK Conference Service LLC
All Rights Reserved.
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