WESTBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS…

 

The strong third quarter results were buoyed by another “best ever” record month for L&W in September with an increase in cases billed up 73 percent over September of 2007. In fact, September 2008 marked the ninth straight month in which L&W has recorded its best month ever. Overall in 2008, L&W is up 44 percent over its 2007 billings through three quarters of last year.

 

“L&W has continued to grow its case billings month after month, showing that even in the midst of stock market turmoil and company layoffs, our business couldn’t be stronger,” said Neal Lyons, chairman and CEO of L&W Investigations.

 

L&W Investigations works exclusively on workers compensation, disability, liability, auto and property claims. With its network of investigations territories across the U.S. and Canada, Puerto Rico and the Hawaiian Islands, L&W boasts a client roster of more than 135 clients, ranging from insurance companies to third-party administrators, self-insured companies to law firms and municipalities. This list includes:

 

?        USAir

?        Ameriprise Home and Auto

?        Pep Boys Automotive

?        Cummins Diesel

?        Gallagher Bassett

?        AIG

?        Travelers

?        Esurance

?        CMI

?        Hanover

?        Aflac

 

L&W employs seasoned investigators who specialize in investigating insurance cases (or claims). All L&W investigators go through extensive training and have access to the most state-of-the-art surveillance equipment. L&W’s service offerings include: surveillance; statements; activity/disability checks; asset/background investigations; and medical audits/clinic inspections.

 

For more information on L&W Investigations, Inc, you can call their corporate offices at (508) 616-9370 or visit the Web site at www.lwinvestigations.com.

 

Not your everyday investigations firm

L&W Investigations, Inc. specializes in insurance claims. In addition to nationwide coverage, L&W investigators are highly trained specialists equipped with state-of-the-art surveillance technologies and other advanced systems to provide second-to-none results and service. That includes online case status reports, video delivery by digital download or CD, DVD or VHS tape, rush services at no extra charge and much more.

 

L&W Investigations territories are located across the U.S. and the Hawaiian Islands as well as in Canada and Puerto Rico.

 

For additional information, visit the Web site at www.lwinvestigations.com or contact L&W’s corporate headquarters located in Westborough, Massachusetts, at (508) 616-9370.

 

Are you accepting credit cards? No! Then you are losing out on valuable customers who want to buy your products but cannot do so as you do not accept credit cards. In the present scenario with cutthroat competition, you lack a very important tool for business opportunity. It’s time you use a merchant service to assist your business ambitions.

Credit card payment enjoys buyer’s preference due to the convenience it provides to them. Merchant Service or credit card processing service allows the seller to accept credit card. The first step towards accepting credit cards is to open a /www.swipesmart.com/”> merchant account with a credit card processing service. The service allows you to accept as well as hold payments made through credit cards. The next step is to create a form that can be used to get the credit card information of the buyer. After the creation of the form, you have to purchase a service that will process credit card payments for you. The online market is flooded with such merchant service providers; you can select a service with a good record and offer.

Once you have made provision for accepting, processing and storing the credit card payments the next step is to secure your site. This is very important, as you want your buyer to shop in secure environment so that the whole transaction is safe and his credit card information is secure. To do his your website should be on setup on Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). You can take the help of your ISP to do this. Get an SSL certificate and proudly display it to let everyone know that your site is safe.

Swipe Smart is a credit card processing service provider with many different types of merchant account solutions & merchant services. Retail merchant account, Internet merchant account, wireless merchant account, mail-order merchant account and home-based merchant account are the various merchant accounts for different target audience offered by the company.

You can choose the retail account if you have a retail business and are using a credit card machine to swipe the card. A wireless merchant account is specifically for the wireless credit card machines and the mail order merchant account will suit you if you enter the credit card information manually. The home based merchant account offers special rates for home-based business.

Swipe Smart offers many different types of credit card machines besides providing merchant service. Visit the site www.swipesmart.com to know more about the services in detail and choose a credit card machine.

WESTBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS…

 Overall in 2008, L&W’s number of cases invoiced is up 39 percent over last year at this time. The record month of August also marks the eighth consecutive month in 2008 where the Westborough, Massachusetts-based investigations company exceeded the previous month’s results.

 “Not only are we thrilled to set yet another record, but our backlog is once again up over last month and we expect September to exceed August as well,” said Neal Lyons, chairman and CEO of Lyons & Wolivar, Inc. (L&W Investigations). “What makes these record months even more gratifying is that it’s not just one or two strong offices carrying the load. We’re doing well at all our investigations territories throughout the U.S., the Hawaiian Islands and the Caribbean—both with increased workloads from existing clients and new business.”

 

L&W Investigations works exclusively on workers compensation, disability, liability, auto and property claims. Its client roster consists of insurance companies, third-party administrators, self-insured companies, law firms and municipalities, including many well-known U.S. companies, such as:

 

?        USAir

?        Ameriprise Home and Auto

?        Pep Boys Automotive

?        Cummins Diesel

?        Gallagher Bassett

?        AIG

?        Travelers

?        Esurance

?        CMI

?        Hanover

?        Aflac

 

L&W employs seasoned investigators who specialize in investigating insurance cases (or claims). All L&W investigators go through extensive training and have access to the most state-of-the-art surveillance equipment. L&W’s service offerings include: surveillance; statements; activity/disability checks; asset/background investigations; and medical audits/clinic inspections.

 

For more information on L&W Investigations, Inc, you can call their corporate offices at (508) 616-9370 or visit the Web site at www.lwinvestigations.com.

 

Lyons & Wolivar, Inc. (L&W Investigations) Not your everyday investigations firm

L&W Investigations, Inc. specializes in insurance claims. In addition to nationwide coverage, L&W investigators are highly trained specialists equipped with state-of-the-art surveillance technologies and other advanced systems to provide second-to-none results and service. That includes online case status reports, video delivery by digital download or CD, DVD or VHS tape, rush services at no extra charge and much more.

 

L&W Investigations territories are located across the U.S. and the Hawaiian Islands as well as in Canada and Puerto Rico.

 

For additional information, visit the Web site at www.lwinvestigations.com or contact L&W’s corporate headquarters located in Westborough, Massachusetts, at (508) 616-9370.

 

Business owners need to maintain accurate financial records to properly manage their business, while also conforming to government regulations requiring mandated filings, such as federal income and state sales taxes. In general, businesses need three types of services during the year which our professionals provide:

Bookkeeping Services:

Bookkeeping is the recording of a business’s financial transactions. It is the first step of the accounting process, which also includes classifying, reporting and analyzing financial data.

Accounting Services:

Business owners regularly need an accurate financial picture to understand how to better manage a business. Financial statements provide owners with crucial information such as the business’s liabilities, assets, equity and profitability over a given period.

Tax Planning and Financial Analysis:

All businesses are required by law to file with both state and federal government. These mandated filings range from tax estimates, individual and business tax returns, to quarterly or monthly state sales tax filings. Further, government regulations require that copies be kept of all financial records needed in the filing for up to seven years. Without good record-maintaining, businesses can leave themselves exposed to fines and penalties during an audit by the appropriate state or federal authorities.

Analytix is a premium provider of accounting, bookkeeping and tax preparation services for small, medium sized and fast growing companies. Our clients are served by a professional accounting staff that has a level of expertise not normally found in small businesses. For more information, you may visit us at http://www.analytixsolutions.com

The cost of choosing the OEM to offer service coverage is beyond the budget of many facilities and they turn to independent service companies for information. The lesson quickly learned is that NOT ALL SERVICE COMPANIES ARE CREATED EQUAL. The question for many medical professionals, then, is how to identify the right service company.

To start with, I suggest that you ask a lot of questions of any service company that you contact. Not all companies are suited to your needs, and I would like to give you a list of tried-and-true screening tools for evaluating a potential service provider.

Top 10 criteria for choosing a Service Company:

1. Qualified Service Personnel: The heart of the service company is its knowledge and experience. You want to choose a company that employs its own qualified personnel to service your equipment. Avoid working with companies that primarily subcontracts your system repairs to others. Qualified service companies should be able to provide you with complete service reports for your records.

2. Qualified pool of replacement parts on hand and expedited part delivery: Companies that are short on inventory will waste your precious scanning time sourcing parts to cover their service obligation, or by trying to repair components on-site instead of installing good ones. At a minimum, parts should be delivered to your site by the next AM via courier. Parts repair should be done in a qualified facility off site.

3. Original Test Equipment and tools: Your systems will need calibration by trained personnel using qualified test equipment. The right test equipment can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Beware if the service provider is trying to cut-corners by using some non-qualified test equipment to work on your expensive system. Ask if a service company has qualified test equipment.

4. Availability of live response to your service needs: When you need to talk to a knowledgeable person about your system you should have access to that person within minutes. Voice mail and answering machines are NOT acceptable in the Customer Service world. Always insist that you can dial one number and get a live person that will connect you with the right person to answer your questions.

5. On-time service delivery: Systems will go down and you will need specific answers about repair times and work schedule. Once you place a request for service you should have answers about the engineer’s time of arrival, number of hours needed for troubleshooting, schedule for parts arrival (if any) and your system’s uptime.

6. Up-time guarantees: Locking a service company to a service contract will eliminate your risk in case of any component failure; you should also make sure your service company will commit to an uptime guarantee. This will give you peace of mind that your service company is sparing no effort m maintaining your system’s reliability, while expediting repair time.

7. Availability of telephone and on-site technical support: A qualified service company will always employ qualified technical support level engineers to help fix problems over the telephone. It is to your advantage that the technical specialist receives accurate information about the problem and service issues. Telephone support may help bring your system up faster so can scan more patients.

8. Reasonable prices and no hidden charges: Service costs should be clear and understood upfront. No hidden charges should be imposed on your service bill.

9. Liability Insurance: always ask for a certificate of liability insurance to be provided by the service company in your name. This certificate should shift the responsibility from you to the service provider in the event of injury of any service personnel while on your site.

10. Request References: Ask the service company to provide you a list of customers that will attest to the provider’s service delivery and integrity.

As a side note, it makes a difference when you deal with a service sales individual who has an actual MRI and CT service background. He/She will have a better understanding of your issues and will be able to answer questions regarding the service delivery of the company and stand behind all promises made to maximize your systems’ uptime.

 

This scenario takes place every day. Companies — large and small — often fail to realize how and why their customers are leaking out of their buckets; they just know that they are indeed leaking out. So they decide to spend more money and man-hours on sales, marketing, and advertising, thinking that they can outpace the loss. These costly methods occasionally look like they succeed. However, many companies, seeing their apparent success, ignore their lack of profitability.

Always get more customers

Why is getting more customers usually first in our minds? To simplify the answer a bit, it is what we have been taught over the years — get more customers … always get more customers! Whether the theory has been put forth by college professors, business books, or what appears to be good old common sense, it is only part of a truly successful equation. Getting more customers is a very worthwhile endeavor, indeed, but not before being absolutely certain that you can retain the vast majority of the customers you attract.

Jim Collins begins his bestselling book “Good to Great” by saying that good is the enemy of great — that settling for good conveniently offers most of us the reason (excuse) for not striving to be great. In the same way that being good often disguises the need or opportunity to be great, successfully attracting new customers often disguises the loss of the ones you already had.

But only when you’re ready

Before you begin your next advertising campaign or marketing push, take the time to review the interactions you have with your customers. Examine each and every touchpoint where you come in contact with them. This includes your web site. Is it easy to navigate? Can people who have never seen it before easily and quickly find what they are looking for? Does it lead them to do more business with you or cause them to look for someone else?

Are your salespeople treating your customers as if they are guests in their homes? Do they engage customers in ways that make them happy that they are doing business with you? Do your policies and procedures appear to defend you against the customers, putting a wall between the two of you? If so, you should take action to change them immediately.

If you aren’t certain how your customers feel about each and every aspect of your business that affects them, ask them. Even if you think you know how they feel, ask them. Many of us avoid this simple process because we are afraid of what the answers might be. And that is a clue to how you believe your customers feel about you. If you are nervous about how the vast majority of your customers are going to answer you, then you probably already know that you are not going to like what they have to say.

Do not make the mistake of asking now and then believing that once you have made adjustments that everything is fine. Running a business and interacting with customers is a fluid process. It changes from day to day, month to month, and year to year. Keep asking them for their input, and when you need to make changes, do so immediately.

Constant contact

Do you stay in contact with your customers on a regular basis? If not, you are missing one of the greatest opportunities a businessperson could have. By the way, once a year or once every six months may be on a regular basis, but it is not frequent enough. Depending on your business, you should be in touch with them at least once every three months and, in many cases, as often as once a month.

You think your customers might get sick of hearing from you? Not if you do it right. Not every contact should be a sales offer. In fact, the majority of them should be made with content that is merely of interest to them. For instance, if your clients are car dealers and you see a report that discusses the latest trends in used car sales, make copies and send one to each customer. If you help retailers and you read an article that gives ideas on how to make long lines during the holiday rush appear to move more quickly, be sure to send it to them. Once they realize that the majority of your contacts are designed to help them, they will actually look forward to hearing from you.

From this point on, to have the greatest opportunity for the success that you are striving for, look at your business from your customers’ viewpoints, and never forget, your customers are the reason you are in business. Without enough of them, your bucket is going to continue to leak until the point where your business kicks it.

 

Cell phones, which are today owned by almost every one, cannot hook-up with this traditional answering machine. Messages in the cell phone are recorded by the answering service given by the service providers as an agreement with the user. Live answering services are familiar to any one who has ever tried ordered something on a phone. For example, when you call to an organization which is busy with incoming calls they direct you to this service. This way they are able to keep callers on hold before one of the operators is free to answer. Often, the service play music or company advertisements that keep caller busy to stay on line. Most businesses are turning this service today.

Research has shown that this live answering service has given good results by ensuring that potential customers stay on line waiting to be served. Other businesses will use the service to handle all the queries of the clients without the need of a person to talk. Other business give to it as a whole with all employees’ phones linked to it. Other institutions like the government ministries depend on the service to receive their missed calls. Where one missed call can cause a significant change such as in the police force or political environment this service is essential due to the large number of call received in a day.