There are some days when being a business owner just simply rocks. The best days are when you know your employees are going above and beyond to serve customers and honor the company mission – and it’s exponentially better when you get that validation from an article in Forbes.com.
InsideSales.com conducted their fifth annual study into companies’ response times to customer internet inquiries. They secret shopped 2,241 companies across the country to see what kind of response times they would get, and the results showed just how important it is to get back to customers quickly…and by quick we mean in less than 5 minutes. Among other fascinating stats, the study found that the average response time for these companies was 34.6 hours, and 45 percent didn’t bother to respond at all. These numbers are dire when considering that a similar study found that if a company can respond to a lead within 5 minutes of it being generated, versus waiting even 30 minutes, the odds getting in touch with that person are 100 times higher.
Which brings me to the most amazing news for Paramount Equity and why I’m so proud of our awesome employees – out of all the companies surveyed we are #12 in the whole country for response times and attempts. That’s incredible! We returned the inquiry within 2 minutes and 13 seconds and reached out to that customer an average of 6 times!
This is what makes my job as CEO so rewarding and I am so grateful and proud of my employees and company for this achievement. Keep rocking and rolling!
Sacramento’s Entrepreneurial Spirit
I recently had the great honor to kick off SARTA’s fourth annualLiquidity Event at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento. The event welcomes entrepreneurs and business owners from around the Sacramento area to promote the entrepreneurial spirit and inspire the next round of small business owners that will continue to drive Sacramento to greatness.
Since its inception in 2003, Paramount Equity has been on the radio airwaves, informing people about how to save money on life’s biggest purchase – their home. When the recession hit, many companies scaled back their advertising and marketing budgets. But Paramount Equity stayed the course and continued its radio advertising and direct marketing presence.
Join Paramount Equity Founder and CEO Hayes Barnard as he shares lessons learned from marketing his business in a tough economic climate and discusses the organization’s newest marketing efforts. Learn how the company came out of the recession strong and expanded its services to include solar and insurance offerings. Highlights from the interactive lunchtime talk will include:
Integrating core values into your marketing plans to help your business grow
Sharing best practices on increasing market share through radio advertising
Expanding marketing efforts to include social media and public relations
Happy Father’s Day to all those dads out there this weekend! Having three wonderful children of my own, Father’s Day brings me so much joy and fulfillment. On this day, I’d like to encourage fathers to view the world through the eyes of their children. Kids see the world through a wondrous lens that’s full of imagination, creativity and, most important, fun!
Father’s Day was created in 1909 by Sonora Dodd, a daughter who was listening to a Mother’s Day sermon and decided to create such a day for her own dad, a widowed Civil War vet who raised his six children on his own. In this light, we’ve seen the role of dear old dad shifting. Currently, there are about 70 million fathers in the U.S., about 2 million of those are single fathers, and 176,000 were “stay-at-home” dads in 2011. These married fathers with children younger than 15 have remained out of the labor force to care for upwards of 332,000 children for at least one year while their wives work outside the home.
This Father’s Day is particularly special for me because I will be attending the U.S. Open golf tournament with my father and my son, Luke. I met my father when I was 30 years old and we’ve created a bond through golf, a sport for which we share a common passion. Through I did not have a relationship with him growing up, seeing my son share time with him allows me to imagine what it might have been like when I was young. We’ve shared so many special moments these past years reconnecting and watching my son grow, and I’m looking forward to creating more of these memories as we spend time bonding over this weekend of golf.
On this special day, take the time to go back to that time of childlike wonder and fun, and cherish the moments spent with your fathers and children.
At some point in our lives we fall in love with a home far far away. Making that dream home yours has gotten tougher in recent years due to tougher lending guidelines. Head on over to the Paramount Equity blog to get the 411 on the ins and and outs of second-home lending.
“In life you need either inspiration or desperation.” - Tony Robbins
Paramount Solar successfully launched Solar Phoenix 2 this week. We partnered with the City of Phoenix, National Bank of Arizona, SRP, and APS to bring affordable solar power to the residents of Phoenix. There was some great coverage of the event and we look forward to helping 1000 homeowners go solar this year!
