When the Internet Goes Down... What do you do?
With the "buyout" of Media Com by Morris Broadband came an unexpected technical fiasco in Western North Carolina last week. Without notice, 40,000 or more business entities lost internet service! Normally we see this type of outage on a regular basis and it only lasts for a few minutes or hours at the most, but not this time. Minutes turned into hours, and hours into days, 5 days to be exact! Now, as a Realtor in the New World Paradigm, internet access is a "must" in order to do business. We email, we search, we blog, we train, we attend webinars, we prospect, we communicate with our colleagues, we send contracts via the web, we access our MLS, we do almost everything on the INTERNET! Not to mention that our customers find US on the web and when our service is down.. our RAPID RESPONSE to them is TURNED OFF... bye bye Customer! Frustrations and tempers reached a boiling point in WNC last week as this seemingly momentary outage turned into days... So what to do? Thank God for capitalism and competition! I got on the phone and called a local Franklin NC company called D-NET and spoke to a man named Dave Jones. Within 30 minutes of speaking to Mr. Jones, there was a team of "install" professionals in my EXIT SMOKEY MOUNTAIN REALTY office and in 30 minutes we were BACK ONLINE.. and BACK IN BUSINESS while the rest of FRANKLIN NC and WNC who were Media Com/Morris Broadband customers remained in THE DARK! Sometimes we just don't realize how dependent we are on these services until they are shut off. Think about it for a moment, when was the last time your PC went down and you had a customer walking in the door to view listings online with you? Do you have a BACK UP PLAN in place for the likely event of an internet outage, a power outage, a PC CRASH? It would be my suggestion that you start to source the vendors in your local market who can help you put a plan together in case one of these unfortunate events take place in your market area. Find out who is the best computer repair person, the best internet provider, the best generator vendor, and start a relationship with them NOW. Searching for them in times of crisis is almost impossible because everyone else is pulling on them at the same time. You just might find yourself at the front of the line if you have an "understanding" with them BEFORE an event takes place. You'll be GLAD YOU DID.
Franklin NC Real Estate - Macon County NC- Otto,NC
"Offering Solutions To My Clients"
John Becker / Bald Head - your gateway to Paradise in the Smokey Mountains of Franklin, NC.John Becker / Bald Head,provides a superior level of informed, professional real estate service to Buyers and Sellers of real estate in Franklin NC, Macon County, and the Great Smoky Mountains. You can find every bit of information you require for your Franklin, NC real estate endeavor with John Becker / Bald Head Exit Smokey Mountain Realty.Call 828-506-3719
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