Centratel Blog

For our Answering Service Clients: A $500 Reward for Referrals

Sam Carpenter — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 10:16:38 +0000

We’ve increased our customer referral reward. Here are details, exactly as posted on the Centratel website:

To our customers:
Centratel is one of the few growing answering services in the United States. Of course, we have to do a certain amount of overt marketing but a major source of new accounts has been via referrals from current clients. Thanks to your good will, and with little prompting from us, we’ve had a steady stream of new accounts through this program.

So, for 2009 we will continue to promote growth from referrals and have, in fact, increased the reward effective January 23, 2009.

Here it is: We will pay a $500 cash reward for your referral that leads to a new Centratel answering service account. The new client must contact us regarding starting service and we must know you referred them (in advance, you can inform us that the party is going to contact us, or the new account can tell us you referred them). The new account must then stay with us in good standing for a minimum of 90 days. Once the 90 days have passed, we will send you a check. With complete confidentiality, we’ll send the check to your company, to you personally at your home, or to your preferred charity. We can also simply credit your account. Your choice!

This offer is not limited to our clients and their employees. It is also available to former clients, vendors, friends and neighbors.

For more information, email Andi Freeman (andif@centratel.com). You can always call, too: 1-800-664-7159.

Thanks!

-Sam Carpenter, President

$400 Reward

Sam Carpenter — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 11:31:05 +0000

We've just come up with some statistics and found that, over the past six months, customer referrals were the largest source of our new accounts. We are determined to keep our customers happy and in doing that, find they send their friends to us. For this, we pay a $400 referral fee. Go here to find out the details. Thanks for your referrals!

-sc

New, Free Service: Pick Up Your Messages On-Line

Sam Carpenter — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 22:53:21 +0000

For 2009, we have a free new service designed to make your life easier: Real-time access to your messages via the internet. Now you can see all of your messages online 24/7! You can track messages from the time they are taken until the time they are delivered, and every step in between, 24/7/365. From any location, you

Thank You Denise Landers

Sam Carpenter — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 12:34:49 +0000

Here's a link to a blog posting that Denise Landers put up. She did a good job of summarizing basic protocol for documentation. Thanks Denise! -sc

Discount for Payment in Advance (Great tax write-off, too…).

Sam Carpenter — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:49:53 +0000

Note: we will be providing a discount for those accounts that want to pay a year in advance. It

Greenleaf, book price increase (buy now!), self indulgence

Sam Carpenter — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 21:18:33 +0000

My book, Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Working Less and Making More, is in it’s second printing, and the third printing is being prepared by our new publisher, Greenleaf Book Group. (We self-published the first two printings.) It’s been fun, putting together and then talking about the book in various forums. At the risk of self-indulgence, it’s doing well, too, evidenced by website sales approaching 2,000 copies, and having a publisher in the mix now. For a first-time author, landing a publisher is not easy and it’s been a long, hard road of interviews, blog postings and speaking which has led to our success in finding Greenleaf.

Check out the book’s website noted above. If your work is driving you crazy with fire-killing, and/or you aren’t making enough money, "Work" will be meaningful to you.

Greenleaf will have the hard-back version in Barnes and Noble and all major bookstores in May 2009. Until then, the book is available at our website.

Our first Boot Camp is scheduled for October 20 and 21. There is a large discount on this first effort, plus a guarantee.

Meanwhile, things at Centratel are good. We’ve had particularly strong growth since the first of the year. Most of our new accounts come from search engine traffic, and referrals from current customers. Our client base stands at just under 1,000.

Second Printing

Sam Carpenter — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 04:32:15 +0000

Work The System: The Simple Mechanics of Working Less and Making More is in its second printing, after a release on April 16th. We’ve deliberately self-published the book and I’ve had 100+ radio and TV interviews in the past months, including TV appearances in Los Angeles, Portland, Denver, and St. Louis (whereI taped a series of five segments on SBTV, just last week.) We’re talking to the Fox and Friends producers in NY right now, for an appearance on that morning news show soon.

We’ve sold around 1,800 copies via the website. Now a publisher has come to us and we are in the final stages of putting a deal together for major release in hardcover to bookstores after the first of January. In the meantime, the book can be purchased from the website.

This Fall we will conduct a two-day "Boot Camp" for those interested in going deep into the methodology. Info re the boot camp is also available on the site. Go there to get on our mailing list….

Centratel still cranks along with successive months of record earnings, as well as traffic. Thanks to our cusomters for your continued, unflagging support! -sc

The Book is Available (Finally)

Sam Carpenter — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 15:18:25 +0000

Way too long! But, the book is the way I want it to be. Self publishing means, most of all, that the author retains complete control. So, was it worth the wait? You tell me. Go here to buy the book or for a free download, "Six Steps to Working Less and Making More. -sc

La Quinta

Sam Carpenter — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 18:02:32 +0000

Linda and I have escaped the snows of Oregon and are enjoying the sun of the southwest. Our tandem bicycle is getting a good workout and I’ve been climbing in the surrounding hills.

The book will be in print by the end of the month, or maybe in the first part of March. It’s been more work than I anticipated! We’re taking orders now on the website . Also, on the website there is a download entitled "Twelve Thoughts on Working Less and Making More." Go to the site, add your email address, and we’ll send it to you.

Here’s an excerpt from Part 3 of the book, Work the System:

What Are Your Life

The Printer Has the Book

Sam Carpenter — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 01:56:16 +0000

This book has taken a while to get right. I would rewrite a chapter one day, thinking it was perfect. Then, the next day I would read it again and wonder if someone else had rewritten it during the night. But, it’s "good enough" now!

By mid-February we should have the book in-hand. Go to the website to order an autographed copy in advance.

It’s 26 Chapters and 80,000 words. Here’s another excerpt:

"Time and money wasted, is time and money gone forever. And a waste of time and money means some other positive thing that could have happened, didn