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On 11th of May 2011, the governor of the Bank of England, warned:  “Gas prices may rise by 15% and electricity prices by 10% by winter 2011″

That’s on top of the 15% increases we have already seen this year.

In line with this, Scottish Power have just announced domestic price rises of 19% for gas and 10% for electricity effective from the 1st August.

This will result in a average increase of £170 for a household, pushing a bill from £1,150 to £1,320.

Wholesale Energy prices are around 25% higher than this time last year.  Pink Connect predicted these increases and we have helped lots of customers to make substantial long term savings.

Renewals

If you have received your Renewal Letter from your existing supplier you need to act now as increases in price can now happen on a daily basis. Contact us with the details from your last electricity or gas bill. We will advise you of the best deal for your business and how you can make long term savings.

Even if your contract is not due for renewal, if you provide us with your renewal date we will also insure you do not get “Rolled Over” at uncompetitive prices.

Business Energy

We can provide you with independent advice to assist you in making substantial savings on your gas and electricity costs, as well as protect your business from the forecast long term price increases.

Provide prices that are often considerably lower than those offered by your existing supplier for the renewal of your supply contract. We help thousands of businesses cut their utility costs every year!

The other big suppliers are likely to follow suit, with widely reported comments by British Gas and SSE that current consumer prices do reflect market conditions and will need to rise ‘later this year’.

Insure that your business never “Rolls Over” into a new contract at expensive rates without having a choice.  Interested? Please get in touch click here, or give us a call.

We are here to help…

David Cameron of Pink Connect Watford has just connected a delighted Prontaprint with the fastest speeds on the internet. Pink Fibre Pro has given Aarif Merali (pictured right with David) upload speeds of up to 10Mb and download speeds of up to 40Mb!

“Our previous supplier provided us with a very slow broadband connection and we needed to improve the speed in order to cope with the larger file transfers that our clients were demanding. Pink Connect came in to evaluate our requirements and managed to provide the Pink Fibre service which increased our broadband speed twenty fold.” said Aarif.

“From the initial requirements gathering, installation and post-installation follow-up Pink Connect were extremely professional and competent while demonstrating a great deal of understanding for our requirements. I would have no hesitation in recommending their services and, in particular, their Pink Fibre service. If you haven’t done so already – go Pink!”

If you would like to know whether you too can take advantage of the fibre superhighway, just contact the friendly team at Pink Connect

I’d like you to imagine that a magnificent new store has opened in your local area; you have seen lots of adverts for it in the paper and you have even heard about them on local radio.

You have checked out their expensive website and it looks fantastic.

So, filled with anticipation, you go along to the store.

When you arrive, however, there is a long queue to get in. Unfortunately there is no information on how long the queue will take or if there is an alternative entrance. There is not even the option to leave a message and ask someone to let you know when it might be less busy. So you leave.

A little unhappy but still keen to visit the store, you go back the next day early in the morning and find there is no queue and you can walk straight in to the store.

Unfortunately, once inside, you are bewildered: there are several different areas, all with different counters but after trying two or three you are finally sent to the one that has what you want.

As you approach, two assistants are busy with clients and the other is on the phone so you stand around waiting and notice that a message pad has been left on the counter for those who can’t wait. After another 10 minutes you leave a message on the pad feeling somewhat disgruntled but still keen to make a purchase at this store.

You go home and wait for a call. Three whole days later somebody who has your name wrong calls you. I don’t think I need to tell you how you feel about this whole experience.

Ask yourself, “Is this how my telephone system treats my customers?”

Do you know how many people have queued outside your door?

Do you know how long they have had to wait to get an answer?

Can your potential clients get to the right department quickly?

Are voice mail messages handled efficiently and responded to promptly?

Pink Connect call handling and management systems guarantee that you will never be associated with running business like the one described above!

You own a business, which you are very proud of.  You have invested £1000’s on a great name, a memorable logo and spent weeks developing your website.                                                                               

You have some of the best brochures money can buy and you network avidly spreading the word on your great proposition.

So following all of your hard work and invested money, excited clients ring up to get some of what you offer

Unfortunately, the first two times they ring the phone is engaged. No matter; the customer thinks this must be such a great product everyone wants it.

Early the following morning the client rings again.  After hanging on for what seems an age he finally gets through to a crackly answer phone.He is a little happier and least he has something to talk to.

He leaves a message, stating that he needs a response at the earliest possible opportunity as he needs to buy today

The customer spends the rest of the day awaiting the return call. He logically thinks they must ring back quickly as he has told them he wants to buy.

As the day drags on the client’s demeanour changes from expectant to depressed to angry

At 6 pm in the evening you get back to your office after a busy day. You see several messages on your answer phone, unfortunately your answer phone is old and you can only just make out the number and what you think is his name but great, he wants to buy.

You call the client expectantly. Unfortunately, the name you guess is wrong and not surprisingly he puts the phone down on you

That definite sale has turned into a very unhappy individual who feels nothing but negativity for your business and he has never even used you!

So the answer to the question is….. they are all important but if your inbound calls are not anwered and dealt with appropriately, the rest is worth nothing!

We can make sure you never miss another call, no matter where you are or what time or day it is.

It’s worth thinking about

We wish you a very Happy Christmas
and a prosperous 2011!

power costs keep going up. This no idle threat. Here are some real and up-to-the-moment examples of huge increases

Businesses are tied into contracts for Electricity and Gas supply for up to three years. At the end of your contract your supplier has the right to “roll you over” into another two year contract at price of their choosing! Do nothing and your bills will soar.

Unfortunately, we have some customers who have been caught out this way:

• a hospitality customer has just been rolled over to more than double the best rates we quoted
• we saw an electricity bill from a customer who had been rolled.  It was obvious what had happened when we saw the bill.  April 10p per unit, May 10p per unit, June 15p per unit.
• just last week, 7 days elapsed between an orginal quote and agreeing the contract and in that week the 3 year pricing went up by 10% – about £1100pa for this customer. Happily we were able to find them a better contract which will start February 2011.

It seems that about 700,000 businesses are rolled over every year. Don’t let it happen to you.  Let us know if you require help

Andy Moore (Pink Connect Bristol) has words of encouragement for us all – especially on these dark, cold mornings:

“I have been networking like mad over the last 3 weeks. Last week I did 4 consecutive morning meetings!  By the last one I was ready to turn the alarm off, roll over and go back to sleep.

However as I was substituting at a different BNI group I had to be there and I am glad I made the effort.

I had only been there a few minutes when the owner of a local business asked me if I could help her sort out her telecoms.  Obviously I was happy to do this & within an hour of arriving back at my office I received a call asking for an appointment on Monday.

On Monday I got hold of copies of all of their phone bills and made further enquiries with the incumbent supplier including getting a £300 overcharge credited back!

We are now going to provide her with 2 broadband connections and 5 lines.

I am so glad that I dragged myself out of bed because you just never know who might be wanting our services. Bring on those morning sessions!”

Editor’s note: The phrase “the early bird catches the worm” means success comes to those who prepare well and put in effort. It was first recorded in John Ray’s A collection of English proverbs 1670, 1678: “The early bird catcheth the worm.”

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Pink Connect is delighted to announce new offices opening in Stockport (Manchester) and Edinburgh.

We warmly welcome Ki Yu and Lars Nielsen who will be running these first northern franchises which brings the total of Pink Connect offices across the UK to 14 – with many more anticipated!

Ki (Stockport)

Lars (Edinburgh)