Blog posts of '2013' 'April'

More and more these days the term “sustainability” is a topic I hear about and read about when it comes to the earth, producing food, going green, etc.  Many corporations are now producing “sustainability reports” showing the details of how they are incorporating the “three pillars of sustainability” into their daily operations. 

The Three Pillars of Sustainability is to overall reduce the negative impact humans.

1. Managing the Environment which falls under the ecological way of thinking of sustainability
2. Managing Human Consumption of resources such as food and products which is the economic approach to sustainability as well as the running out of resources
3. Political and Cultural Concerns

There are environmental costs for using many resources; and scientists, inventors, and people are trying to find alternatives so we don’t run out of resources.  Everyone is responsible for making sure there will be healthy food to eat, clean air to breathe, and products to buy to maintain a certain quality of life. 

Here at Business Telephone Sales we have been continuously working to improve our efforts in creating a sustainable business plan.  The measures we have taken have become easy and second nature to all who work here and can be easily copied by other companies as every little bit to save the earth, keep items  out of landfills, and help reduce production of new items helps when you add it up.  A lot of these methods also save the company money and in now way compromise our quality services we provide.

Examples of some of the sustainability methods used daily at Business Telephone Sales:

1. Items such as boxes, copy paper, and paper products like toilet paper and paper towels all come from recycled materials. 
2. Our printer we use has the lowest cost of ink and prints the most pages using the least amount of ink and this actually saves us money and helps us go through less products. 
3. We try our best o reuse any parts we can from defective phones such as housings, buttons, plastics, and accessories whenever possible. 
4. All defective “greenboards” get recycled professionally as well as all used cords we receive in. 
5. The boxes from incoming shipments go in our cardboard recycler. 
6. Glass and plastic bottles get recycled. 
7. By purchasing used phone systems they don’t end up in landfills and get reused.
8. For those systems we do not purchase we provide resources to help the customer find local ways to recycle their electronic goods
9. Our warehouse does not have air conditioning (fans help to cool the Florida summers)
10. Promote car pooling
11. All computers are set to energy efficient power down cycles
12. Get rags cleaned professionally to reuse versus using disposable

Communication has evolved over time starting with smoke signals, to letters, then the telegraph and now look at all the ways we have to communicate with one another.  When Alexander Graham Bell started working on improving the telegraph in the 1870’s he used his knowledge of sound and music to create a device which could transmit speech electronically and then further improved it to allow users to make multiple calls at the same time over the same wire.  Today, in 2013 we still heavily rely on telephones with many improvements being made over the past 140 years.

Personal use of phones has grown from having one single phone per household to each person in the home now possessing an individual cell phone. Telephones have enabled families to keep in touch whether they live in the same city or a different country.  Phones have helped to cultivate and maintain relationships.  Besides just personal use of phones and teenagers keeping up with the social gossip, businesses also utilize phones for professional reasons as well. Modern day telephones and business phone systems allow transferring calls, placing people on hold, and having multiple people on the same call.  Phones are used to answer basic questions and allow companies to join together from great distances to create complex contracts and business transactions.

Personally, we at Business Telephone Sales use the Nortel phone system.  For the last 15 years we have used the same system successfully without feeling the need to get caller ID or call forwarding to a cell phone as we are here in a single location from Monday-Friday during normal business hours. These days there are many sophisticated phone systems available on the market.  Whether you are like us and continue using an older system or have a newer system with more bells and whistles, can you imagine what the world would be like with no phones?  It would be impersonal, full of texts and emails with no ability to detect tone or have that ability to fully connect.  Void of emotion, lacking customer relations, ultimately eliminating that personal touch.  Life without the telephone is not a way I want to conduct business, it is a tool just like many others to help you successfully maintain your business and personal relationships.

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April 17th 2013

Have you seen the latest Discover Card commercial?  It discusses this exact topic.  A lady was calling Discover and she got a real person over the phone.  The whole commercial is discussing how neither the customer nor the Discover rep like dealing with "machines" and "robots."  Technology has gone so far, companies are now having to advertise getting a live person over the phone versus an auto attendant to deal with customers.  

In today's modern world there is rarely a day which goes by that there is not a new modern innovation being promoted. Everyone is in a rush to get the newest "toy" to stay current. So why buy refurbished? When it comes to buying phones for your business, there are mainly two types of consumers. There are those who already own a phone system and want to maintain it, and there are those who are starting out and need a low cost phone system to get their business off the ground. Refurbished products can assist both consumers greatly.

In regards to the already established business, the consumer can save up to 80% off of buying new. However, most of the older phone systems out there are no longer being manufactured. I get asked all of the time if I have a particular phone, like the Nortel T7316, brand new. The corporation Nortel went out of business a few years ago. While there may be a handful of brand new Nortel T7316 phones on the market, the vast majority will be have been used. The consumer can spend countless hours hunting down a new phone which will cost triple what a refurbished phone would, buy a refurbished replacement which are plentiful on the market, or completely upgrade their phone system to something that is brand new (which will costs thousands of dollars, plus having to learn how to use the new equipment). Refurbished equipment is restored to like new condition and are under warranty resulting in a money saving advantage to those purchasing refurbed phones to maintain their current systems.

With the above being said, this article is only dealing with the financial savings to the costumer and not relating to the fact these products being refurbished are not ending up in a landfill as these sorts of electronics will take millions of years to biodegrade. Look for future posts on e-waste and how Business Telephone Sales cares about the earth and the steps we take to maintain our “green” philosophy.

Today Business Telephone has officially launched it's new blog.  Check back often to learn more about Business Telephone Sales.