The ‘View Today’s Activities’ window is the primary method of managing your day-to-day customer transactions.  It gives you easy access to all Quotes, open Work Orders, current Website Orders, today’s Invoices, and today’s Payments.  This window is the most used window in the software, so because of that fact, we are constantly trying to make the window better and more efficient.  A new bonus feature on this window is the ability to now sort by the column header.  For example, during a busy day, you may have many open work orders pile up under the ‘Work Orders’ tab.  When the list grows too long, this makes finding a specific customer’s open work order difficult.  Now, simply double-click on the column header ‘Customer’ to sort by the customer’s name.  Your customers are now sorted by name, so this makes finding the customer’s name a snap.  Give this tip a try the next time you need to find a customer’s transaction quickly, so yo ...[more]

One of the many powerful tools inside of Tire Power software’s point-of-sale is the “Tire Estimator” tool.  This feature allows you to quickly and easily give a customer who is either on the phone or in front of you a “4 and out the door” price on tires.  From here you can create a quote, work order or invoice in one simple step by using one of the buttons at the bottom left of the window. Depending on what type of business you are (retail vs. wholesale for example) there are different ways you will want to setup the “Tire Estimator” to work for you. There are several options to consider when setting this tool up. For example the default price class, tax group and package which will be used.

For the wholesale tire locations who don’t normally install tires, t ...[more]

SIGNS
An essential element of a business’ overall image should be proper and well-executed use of signs.  As you well know, signs come in a multitude of sizes, shapes, and forms.  They can also be designed to serve multiple purposes, ranging from identification, to promotions.

The most prominent sign would be displayed at the place of business.  This allows for immediate recognition.  Additionally, most businesses post signs in their windows, whether in poster format, or painted directly on the glass.  Signs can also be displayed on vehicles, such as magnetics or wraps.  For promotional purposes, it’s not uncommon to see other types of displays, such as portable a-frames, banners, balloons, and inflatables.  Alternatively, businesses may use a hand-held sign to attract the attention of passing motorists; we’ve all seen someone standing on a corner holding/waving a sign.  At times, they may even be dressed as a caricature of the ...[more]

The importance of creating a favorable first impression cannot be overstated.  As our brains receive data through the five senses, as well as “intuition” and “gut feelings”, an involuntary response is set in motion.

If we observe something our brain responds to as undesirable, an emotional reaction to that stimulus takes place.  This holds true for the other senses as well.  Hearing, tasting, touching, or smelling something undesirable all tend to influence our emotional state according to previous programming.

This holds true in any environment.  You can imagine how undesirable stimulus would impact you adversely whether at a restaurant, at a hospital, at a supermarket, in an office, or at a tire shop.

Conversely, you can imagine what desirable stimulus would impact you in any environment.

Initially, one may garner exposure through a multitude of vehicles, whether a billboard, a sign on a building, circulars, newspaper ads, ra ...[more]

As the first part of this tradeshow season comes to an end, we would like to thank all those customers and potential customers for spending time with us and supporting their local tire dealer association. If you have not done so yet, we encourage you all to get involved with your local association. It is a great way to network and find new and exciting products in the industry. Membership with most associations also includes benefits of technician training and many other services. If you are interested in what association is in your area, please contact us at (888) 449-8473 and we will be happy to put you in touch with them.  So thank you all again, and we hope to see you and many new faces next year!

If you are a developer (like me), have you ever wondered how to determine if the color set you are using on your web page or in your software is a good choice?  After all, there are lots of things to consider.  Color makes what you present “eye catching”, and can boost the enthusiasm of your target audience.  It can attract attention to an important area, or help distinguish regions of information.

On the downside, the wrong color choices can make your information displeasing, hard to read, and actually discourage readers.  Also, colors which may look really good, can be near impossible to distinguish by individuals with varying degrees of colorblindness.

So, how do we make sure the colors we have chosen do not do the exact opposite of what we want?

The answer, at least for text, is some math.  There are 2 methods to test a color combination, the first being the older AERT algorithms proposed by W3C, and the second being the Luminosity Contrast ...[more]

If you were to turn back the hands of time and bring the clock back to the late 80’s and early 90’s, we would agree a backup consisted in most cases of a small thin plastic square which was inserted into an equally thin slot, which after a few minutes would allow you to save data.  These plastic squares of storage, also known as floppy’s, are now but extinct and have been replaced with devices which hold hundreds, thousands, or even millions of files.  Now, what’s the point of the remembering the golden years of the floppy?  Simply because it reminds us that backing up and saving our data was important then, and it’s even more important today.  With technology taking bigger and bigger leaps every year, our dependency on computers grow with every leap.  This means our data becomes more of  a priceless possession than just a simple file saved on a hard drive.  If your server were to crash, if a thief broke in and stole your computer, if a fire broke out in the middle ...[more]

Permission marketing is when you ask your target market and web site visitors for their ‘permission’ to do, or send them something. It is an important part of your internet marketing. The key is to get your target market to willingly volunteer to participate in the process. In order to do this, whatever you are offering needs to be of value to the user and you have to make that value clear to them. If they see no benefit in participating, then they will not. It’s that simple! Adding an opt-in email sign-up is a good example of permission marketing.

What makes permission marketing so effective?

It’s not intrusive. The user volunteered to receive the information you are sending because it is of interest to them. This significantly increases the chance of the user viewing what you send to them and also being receptive to it. Permission marketing can be a valuable asset in acquiring new customers and building relationships with your existing ones. ...[more]

Just as you want customers to visit your tire and automotive service location frequently, you also want potential and present customers to visit your website. Displaying promotions on your website is a great way to encourage return visits. You will want to change your promotions regularly and add a few features to make it easy for your visitors to share your promotions with their friends.

• Let your visitors know to “Keep checking back!” and include a bookmark to your site to make it easy for visitors to get back

• Add permission based marketing such as “Click here to be notified when we update our specials” or “Click here for advance notice of deals”

• Make it easy for visitors to share your specials. Add a “Tell your friends about this special” button

• Leverage viral marketing by offering incentives such as ”Tell 2 friends and you will be entered into a drawing”

Remember, each time ...[more]