That's right, you heard it here first. Our new website is alive and well. Check it out:

www.rentbark.com

We are all about giving our clients the best user experience. That’s why we’ve taken our time to redesign our site, just for you.

Forgot What We Do???
Here is a reminder:

We are the Fastest Way To Spread The Word.
In just a few easy steps you can send out voice and SMS messages to a massive amount of people in a short time.

Here are some helpful tips for people who are dealing with flooded basements after yesterday’s storm. (Special thanks to the Canadian Red Cross for providing many of these tips).

It’s important to contact your insurance company before removing anything from your home or doing any work to the affected area. They may require an inspection or photo documentation of the flooded area.

If necessary, contact the appropriate utility or service company to have your service restored (i.e. electricity, gas, cable, phone, etc.).

Use extreme caution as you enter your home. Protect yourself by dressing properly, including rubber boots or sturdy boots, safety glasses, hard hat, rubber gloves and a dust mask.

Use pumps or pails to remove standing water, then a wet/dry shop vacuum to mop up the rest only if the water has not reached your basement electrical outlets.

Do not use flooded appliances, electrical outlets, switch boxes or fuse-breaker panels until they have been checked by a qualified electrician.

Have your central heating system checked by a qualified technician before use. Replace any parts that have been damaged or soaked. Replace filters and insulation inside furnaces, water heaters, refrigerators and freezers if they have been wet. 

You may need to consider replacing the whole appliance, depending on the severity of the damage. 

If water has reached the bottom of your water heater, do not try and light it yourself, call a qualified professional. Your tank will be inspected to ensure it will function properly before the technician restarts it. 

Clean or replace footing drains outside the foundation when clogged. Consult a professional plumber for advice. 

Flush and disinfect floor drains with an all-purpose cleaner or unscented detergent and water.

Rinse and clean all floors after consulting with a professional cleaner. You may need to replace flooring that has been heavily soaked. 

Dry carpets within the first two days. Hire a qualified professional for large carpeted areas. Throw out carpets soaked by sewage, as they are unsalvageable.

Clean all affected interior walls with all-purpose cleaner or unscented detergent and water.

If you have a finished basement, you will likely need to remove drywall or paneling and any insulation, up to the water line. Allow stud work to thoroughly dry before replacing damaged materials.

Remove residual mud and soil from furniture and dry it off. Consult a furniture restoration professional to see if any upholstered furniture can be salvaged.

Remove cushions from covers and dry separately.

You may need to replace particleboard furniture entirely if it has been saturated by floodwater.

Here is a sneak peek of Rent Bark's new user interface. Look out for this cool new UI early next week.

As any business knows, sometimes it’s not the big things that mean money lost, but the myriad of little things that add up to big bucks. One of those little things is missed appointments. When a client or patient doesn't show up for an appointment, you lose out on that revenue. Or when a customer isn't home for a delivery, it wastes your delivery team’s time and costs your business money. For the healthcare industry, a study by Medical Group Management Association revealed that medical practices average a 5 to 8 percent no-show rate—those kinds of numbers really add up. So how do you avoid wasting time and money while also cutting down on appointment no-shows?

The Next Generation of Automated Appointment Reminder Calls The concept of appointment reminders and confirmations is nothing new. For decades businesses have been manually calling customers to confirm appointments. But today’s appointment confirmations are easier, faster, and more convenient for everyone involved. With a voice broadcasting service, outbound phone calls are automatically delivered to your clients’ telephones. The messages that are delivered are set up through an online interface, recorded over the phone, and delivered based on any schedule. These automated appointment confirmations can be manually scheduled, or can be integrated with an appointment database so that clients are automatically called a given amount of time before the appointment.

After a customer has listened to your appointment confirmation call, they can easily confirm or request to reschedule by pressing a button on their keypad or saying “confirm” or “reschedule”. If they confirm, you’ll be notified via a report. If they chose to reschedule, you can immediately connect them to your business, or route them through a series of hosted IVR menus to reschedule their appointment.

Reduce Patient No-Shows48 hours before an appointment—or any time frame of your choosing—you can program your voice-based marketing automation database to deliver a phone call to the patient. When the patient answers the phone, he hears your variation of: “Hi, this is Dr. Smith’s office calling to confirm that you’ll be able to make your appointment on Wednesday at 10am. To confirm, please say ‘confirm’ or press 1. To reschedule, please say ‘reschedule’ or press 2.” If the patient needs to confirm, he can: pressing 2 can either connect him to your office, or even to an intelligent IVR menu in which he can select a new appointment time himself.

Plus, if the call goes straight to voicemail, you have the option of having the voice broadcasting system leave a different message. It could be something that better fits a voicemail message, such as “Please call us back to confirm your appointment”.

Confirm Scheduled Deliveries, Etc.A similar scenario can be applied to home deliveries, pick-ups, house calls, and other transactions that involve your business’s reliance on the customer being home at an allotted time. You can schedule an outbound phone call to ring the customers’ phone with a message such as, “Hi, this is Speedy Delivery calling to confirm your delivery today at 4pm. To confirm, please say ‘confirm’ or press 1. To reschedule, please say ‘reschedule’ or press 2.” The customer has the option to confirm or reschedule, meanwhile your employees aren’t spending time making these confirmation calls. The calls are prescheduled and go out automatically, saving your business time and hassle.

Click here to try voice and sms broadcasting for free

By Olivia Cole | Business 2 Community – Wed, Jul 3, 2013 8:00 PM EDT