Neighborhood America hosted another Leadership Conference in Naples, Fl on May 9th. We had the pleasure of having Paul Greenberg as the Keynote speaker. Paul used his creatively named presentation "Wassup2008" to both inform and entertain the audience of about 30 people.

 

Paul Greenberg is CEO of the 56 Group, an Enterprise Applications consulting firm, and Partner of BPT Partners, a CRM focused training and consulting organization.

 

Paul is also the author of the CRM at the Speed of Light. Now in its 3rd Edition, it has been published in 8 languages and is referred to as “The Bible of the CRM industry”.

 

Paul is considered a thought-leader within the CRM industry, and his Blog on CRM is the “go-to” authority on all things related to CRM. Paul consults to Fortune 500 companies on their strategy.

 

Some of my notes from Paul's keynote:

 

The right way. The new model -

 

 

- Customers want access to real company information.

 

Seven to 9 percent of Americans don't have home phone lines and use their cell phones as a primary phone. Just under half (48 percent) of cell-only respondents are under 30. Thirty-five percent are 30 to 49. About 55 percent of cell-only respondents are men, and 46 percent are women.

 

It’s fair to say that cell phones can induce laziness. They enable effortless directory assistance, mobile Web access and the ever-important luxury of calling someone in the next room so you don’t need to get up. But this laziness can be reversed in an instant: Just misplace your cell phone at home, hear it ring and note how quickly you move—running, climbing stairs or flipping couch cushions—to find the phone before a caller hangs up.

 

VTech Communications wants to put an end to this mad phone dash with its $150 Expandable Cordless Phone System with Bluetooth, the LS5145. This device synchronizes with your cell phone and redirects incoming cell calls to ring wherever the VTech phones are placed in the house. It works with your land line and up to two Bluetooth-linked cellphones, and can be expanded using additional handsets that cost $80 each. The concept of a cell phone extender isn’t new, but not many of them have caught on.

 

Another popular add-on to cell phones at home is the repeater, which focuses on boosting a phone’s signal in a place with poor coverage. The VTech 5145 could work as a repeater, assuming you put it and the finicky cell phone in a place with good coverage. But if your entire house has lousy cell coverage, it won’t work as a repeater.

 

AT&T licenses its corded and cordless phones through VTech, which sells a less-expensive product similar to the 5145 called the AT&T EP5632. It costs $100 and has the same basic functions as the 5145, but is clunky and much less stylish. Its additional handhelds cost $60 each.

 

The VTech phones are stylishly thin and have bright color display screens, which can be set to one of 27 still color wallpaper images or four animated designs. It takes only a minute to pair cell phones with the system using Bluetooth, a wireless technology that connects devices that are within about 30 feet of one another. But the 5145 doesn’t display the numerous names and numbers stored on one's cell phone contact list. Unless you wanted to painstakingly enter the data into the VTech, incoming calls are only identified with phone numbers. Also missing are other features from your cell phone, such as text

messaging and voice mail.

 

Each handset is equipped with a speakerphone, and missed calls are noted on the color screen and in a call log, along with the date and time. A built-in intercom system lets handsets communicate with the other or the base station. Users can choose from one of 23 ringtone-like melodies.

 

If you’re looking for an easier way to answer your cell phone whenever and wherever it rings, VTech’s system might be a good solution for you. But if you rely on your cell phone’s address book to identify callers and aren’t up for inputting these data again, it might be worth waiting for a Bluetooth cordless phone system that will automatically copy data from your cell phone.

Let me know if you're one of the growing number of folks who have forsaken Ma Bell and gone wireless only in your home by commenting below.