| ProfitMaster Selected by SEARS | ProfitMaster PowerDay2 | June 98 CD (SR-1) – Installation Notes | Our New Phone System |
| Special of The Month | Books of the Month | Ron’s Corner | The Sears Corner |
| ProfitMaster Selected by SEARS |
| LOS ANGELES, California -- SEARS Roebuck Inc. and
Pacific Turn-key Systems (PTS), publisher of the ProfitMaster line of software products
for the Service Industry, announced an agreement naming PTS the preferred vendor of
software for SEARS Carpet Cleaning operations. Under the terms of this agreement PTS will
provide software and technical support for over 80 SEARS carpet-cleaning operations in the
US. The SEARS network will use a standardized version of the ProfitMaster customized to meet some specific needs of SEARS, including an advanced upload feature that automatically updates the SEARS centralized database of Home Services. With this feature SEARS can now include carpet-cleaning transactions in their Quality Assurance Random Mailing Program. "We are very pleased to strengthen our relationship with SEARS. This new agreement
will allow us to commit even more resources to the development of ProfitMaster. SEARS as
well as the general market can therefore expect more frequent updates and improved feature
set", said Ron Pinkas, President of Pacific Turn-Key Systems. "Although,
we serviced most of the SEARS network since December 97, this new agreement, along with "We have been happy with the ProfitMaster for the last 18 months, and are looking forward for even closer relationship with PTS in the future", said John Hassey, President of Continental Carpet Care, the recently purchased wholly owned subsidiary of SEARS Roebuck. "We intend to invest in the most advanced management features, to help us bring SEARS to the forefront in the carpet-cleaning home front".
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| ProfitMaster PowerDay2 |
| Our 2 day PowerDay2 held on June 19 & 20 at the Warner
Center Marriott in Southern California proved that "2 days are better then 1".
For those of you that couldn’t make it you missed 2 days of intense lecture,
questions & demonstration. The Subjects covered were: Day 1 Win95 Desktop, Win95 Explorer, Networking, Internet, ProfitMaster Orientation, Job Lifecycle, and a bonus presentation by Carl Williams of Academy of Textile. Day 2 Daily Procedures, Post Job Processing, End of Day Reports / Sub Entities, Preparing for Next Day, Performance Reports/Sales Analysis, Contact Management / Marketing, ProfitMaster Options, Mail Merge Wizard, and a bonus seminar by Tony Policci of Piranha Marketing (Joe Polish‘s company)! We would like to thank the representatives from the following companies whose attendance made this unique event a smashing success:
Our next PowerDay will take place Sunday, September 13th. At the Holiday Inn On The Bay (Following the CFI convention. Don’t miss this event, you’ll be amazed at what it can do for your bottom line. Click here for more details.
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| June 98 CD (SR-1) – Installation Notes |
| At the end of the ProfitMaster Installation program, after
ProfitMaster has been correctly installed, the Instant Update Wizard is automatically
started, prompting users to look for a more current version on the PTS web site. The user
can then choose either "Next" or "Cancel". If you know you have the
most current version of ProfitMaster or you do not have internet access, you are likely to
press the "Cancel" button. Upon doing so the following screen appears:
Does this mean that ProfitMaster was not installed and you will have to reinstall it? No! Though a little confusing, this message simply means that the Instant Update Wizard did not complete its purpose of looking for a newer version of ProfitMaster. It runs independently of the ProfitMaster installation and does not mean that ProfitMaster wasn’t properly installed! Therefore, an apparently incomplete installation is in fact a complete installation, and you may safely click the "Exit Setup" button. One final note. If you choose the "Next" button on the Instant Update Wizard, you may get the following message:
It means that you do not have an active internet connection. Simply exit the
installation program, start your internet
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| OUR NEW PHONE SYSTEM |
| In order to meet our customers growing needs, we have
upgraded our phone system. This new system will cut down on "hold" time by
automatically routing phone calls to the next available technician and by helping you
quickly reach the person or department you wish to speak to.. When you call in, you may be
answered by an "Auto Attendant" if so, you’ll get the following menu items: #1) Sales #2) Tech #9) Company Directory Or if after-hours: #4) Leave message for Sales Department #5) Leave message for Tech Support #6) Emergency Call Forward to After Hour Tech ($45 with your Service Plan, $75 if you are not insured). If you know the extension you of the person you want to speak to you may dial it now, or dial any of the above options. When you select the Company Directory option you will hear a list of all extensions. After finding the extension number you want, dial 0 first and than the extension of the person you want. At any time during this automated process you may dial "0" to reach the operator. The operator can than connect you to the extension or department you want. If the person your are trying to reach is not available you will be transferred to their voice mail. You may than leave a message or dial 0 to get out of the Voice Mail and than dial another extension or 0 to get back to the operator. One of the features of this new system is that it pops up onto the screen the record and history of the calling customer (based on Caller ID). This enables the tech answering the call to immediately begin assisting you. As we do not accept Tech Support calls on our 800 TOLL-FREE line. Please make sure to call (818) 876-86750 when in need of service. Our system will actually not allow you to connect to Tech Support when calling our 800 number. Finally, please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this change may have caused. As you may have experienced, such changes never go as smoothly as one hope for. Please do us, and yourself <g> a big favor and let us know when you experience any odd behavior, i.e. getting disconnected, wrong extension, no one returns your calls, etc. Should you not being able to use the system at all PLEASE fax us at: (818) 876-8659 or email us at: info@profit-master.com. Without your input we can’t fix any such problem. We really depend on your input.
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| Special of The Month |
| July – Enhance the advertising power of your
business and ProfitMaster with Microsoft Word (FULL VERSION). With Word you can easily
create professional looking Reminder Letters, Thank You Cards, and other
documents to mail to your customers. Word also allows you to merge your customer
information from ProfitMaster to any of the documents you create. Get the Word 97 FULL
VERSION for Only $129. August – Too busy running your business to be a computer
wizard? The Mail Merge
Wizard automatically integrates your customer information into Microsoft Word
97. No more guessing or reading Help files, this wizard is completely menu driven.
Now, performing mail merges is just a "point & click" away. For the month
of August the Mail Merge Wizard is
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| Books of the Month |
| July
By Bill Parcells with Jeff Coplon Doubleday. What does it take to succeed? Bill Parcells knows. As head coach of the two-time Super Bowl–winning New York Giants, and now as head coach of the resurgent New England Patriots, Parcells has earned the respect of players, fans, and rivals for his fierce commitment to excellence. In Finding a Way to Win, Parcells lays out his philosophy and strategies for motivating personnel and creating organizations that rely on true teamwork. It’s a handbook on leadership by one of the most well liked and admired leaders in professional sports. August
Discipline of Market Leaders, Choose Your Customers, Narrow Your Focus, Dominate Your Market By Michael Treacy & Fred Wiersema, Addison Wesley How is it that some companies are reinventing competition in their markets while others are seemingly oblivious to the changing world around them? These are the questions that authors Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema explore in their groundbreaking book, The Discipline of Market Leaders, from the same consulting firm that brought you business reengineering. The answers provide a revolutionary way of thinking about customers, competition, markets, and the structure of your company.
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| Ron’s Corner – Joe Polish’s Marketing Boot Camp |
| Recently I returned from the infamous Joe Polish’s
3-day Marketing Boot Camp, actually it’s the 3rd one I had the opportunity to attend.
I am not sure that there is anything left unsaid about Joe, yet I can’t stop my self
from telling you - he is everything you ever heard about him, and more. I only wish our
industry had few more like Joe. Sure, he is unconventional, and will do almost anything to
get his message across. So, if you get offended easily, don’t attend any of his
speaking engagements. But, if you are like me, and you are more offended by incompetence
than by the "F" word, you are going to get everything you hoped for and than
some. This 3-day seminar brings together some of the most motivational speakers on earth
and some of the most creative and down to earth methods of increasing profits. If you
didn’t yet read his FREE REPORT titled "What 99% of all Carpet Cleaners
don’t know and will never find out about... a $100,000+ Yearly Income!"
or, you are not yet a member of Piranha Marketing, call Joe’s office at 800-944-8747
and tell them I sent you.
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| The Sears Corner |
| Since Sears has now bought Continental Carpet Care they
appear to be focusing on the overall improvement of Continental infrastructure. High on
the list at this point is the central database in Columbus, OH and the reporting to Sears
HQ of all carpet cleaning transactions for the benefit of a program called HMS which Sears
has in place for the purpose of mailing Quality Control cards to serviced customers. To assist in this improvement process, Ron was invited to Columbus to meet with a newly formed taskforce and discuss the future of ProfitMaster and possible future enhancements. Many enhancements where discussed and a schedule is in the works. One of the first enhancements Continental associates can expect to see soon, is an internet based system to upload information to Columbus. This system will replace the BBS system. Continental has an agreement with a national Internet Provider and have established accounts for each associate. PTS is developing the software that will automatically upload the export files to Sears’ FTP server in Columbus and expects to complete the necessary modifications and testing in just few weeks. This system will not replace the remittance report but the money settlement is on the list of future enhancements. All Continental associates will be required to use this new system. TOLL FREE Phone Changed Please note that as of August 1st. The SEARS Toll-Free tech support number for PTS has changed. The 888-850-9808 is no longer in service. To receive the new numbers please contact: CanWay Associates – Bo Hansen at 514.689.6250 Continental Associates – Ron May at 800.586-1603 Treo Associates – NO SERVICE AGREEMENT.
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