Archive for January, 2009
Se habla Español
Mastering another language is a goal that many people have (it usually makes its appearance in quite a few lists of New Year’s resolutions); Unfortunately, only a few even get past the first lesson. The intent is there, but the task can be daunting, and when frustration sets in, the handy instruction manual ends up neglected and ignored.
For some, wanting to learn a new language is more than just a personal goal. There are those who whose aim is to penetrate a market to broaden their reach. One such market is the Hispanic community. They make up a large segment of the population here in California and in other states, and if you’re not targeting this market, you are limiting your client base and potentially losing out on much-needed revenue.
Outsourcing companies like Prialto can offer a solution to help expand your reach to the Hispanic community. We have bilingual remote assistants who are fluent in both English and Spanish. You can utilize our assistants in a number of ways: as front-office assistants answering phones and taking messages, or as translators, helping to communicate to potential clients to better understand their needs.
Even in a sunny economic climate, it is a smart business practice to never limit your options, and this becomes especially true in these rather gloomy days of late.
If you are, however, still intent on learning another language, check out Tim Ferriss’s blog post (author of The 4-Hour Workweek), “How to Learn Any Language in 3 Months.” It might be the key to unlocking your inner polyglot.
When hard work and diligence pays off
From one of our members…
“As a new user of Prialto, my wife and I were eager to put the service to good use. My wife works for an international economic development agency, which promotes poverty reduction through economic growth in third world countries. Accordingly, we put forward a rather unique request for our Prialto agent, Bert: research and compile a set of websites outlining best practices for creating a voucher system for agricultural development programs in Africa. The nature of the request was time sensitive and within a day of the initial request, we received a neatly organized list of websites which succinctly and clearly addressed each of our questions, saving my wife hours of research and enabling her to leverage the results for immediate review and synthesis into a report that was distributed to her organization’s Board the next morning. Kudos to Bert and Prialto for providing such a cost-effective, and incredibly versatile, personal remote assistant solution.”
Rob, Washington D.C.
“You rock!”
Here’s just one of the ways we make life easier for our members:
After trying unsuccessfully to book three nights at the Yosemite Lodge where he is planning to take a vacation with his wife, James, one of our members, sought my help. He gave me the dates and asked me to call the Lodge every now and then to see if any rooms become available - he was aware that the dates fell in the middle of the high season.
I called the Lodge consistently for two weeks when finally, a room freed up. Although it was only for two nights, not three, I asked the Lodge to hold the room and notified James immediately. I was hoping to add an extra night later on. I suggested to James that he take the room. He said yes, and the reservation was made.
Today I called the Lodge to see if we could extend the reservation to three days. They answered in the affirmative. I booked the extra night right away.
James was thrilled to know that he can plan his vacation the way he wanted without spending a lot of his valuable time making it happen, and I was glad to do it for him.
He sent me a succinct email that said it all:
“You rock, thank you.”
James
Yes, you can still afford to travel…
As a travel junkie who’s always looking for deals, I came across this great article on money-saving travel tips from Travel + Leisure. Reading it, however, I began to wonder how much time I’ll be spending on the phone and on the web researching the deals that are currently being offered by hotels, cruise lines, etc. Then I thought, “I’ll just have my Prialto assistant do it for me.” Problem solved. Now I can continue with my work so I can afford these vacations!
To read the article from CNN.com, click on the following link:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TRAVEL/traveltips/01/20/money.saving.tips/index.html
Travel Tips
It often comes as a shock to receive your phone charges after using it during an international trip. That may be because your international data usage is not covered under your existing data plan.
For all iPhone users out there, the following tips from AT&T offers ways to minimize data charges when traveling outside the U.S.:
INTERNATIONAL DATA USAGE TIPS
Turn Data Roaming “OFF”: Be sure to download and install the latest version of iPhone software from iTunes. By default the setting for international data roaming will be in the “OFF” position.
– To turn data roaming “ON/OFF” tap on Settings>General>Network>Data Roaming
Utilize WiFi Instead of 3G/GPRS/EDGE: WiFi is available in many international airports, hotels and restaurants to browse the Web or check email.
Turn Fetch New Data “Off”: Check email and sync contacts and calendars manually instead of having the data pushed to your iPhone automatically. This way you can control the flow of data coming to your iPhone.
– To turn off the Auto-Check functionality tap on Settings>Fetch New Data Change Push to “OFF” and Select to Fetch Manually
Consider Purchasing an International Data Package: If you are traveling outside the U.S., purchasing a Data Global Plan will significantly reduce the cost of using data abroad.
Reset the Usage Tracker to Zero: When you arrive overseas access the usage tracker in the general settings menu and select reset statistics. This will enable you to track your estimated data usage.
– To reset Usage Tracker to Zero tap on Settings>General>Usage>Reset
From iPhone Travel Tips:
http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/international/roaming/iphone-travel-tips.jsp