Applications in the cloud provide business benefits but at an undefined risk to your business.

Cloud based services and ‘SaaS services (Software As A Service) are becoming all the rage the concept has been around for at least twenty years now.

Leading telecoms service providers have been offering outsourced services such as site telephony ‘centrex’ virtual PBX services for many years. With the revolution we experienced with the Internet we only gained more opportunity to connect services with businesses from a remote location.

One thing that has changed in that time is the availability of bandwidth. This has enabled applications to work at a business speed whereas before the line speeds limited enterprise grade applications from running fast unless significant data networks were in place.

Will your cloud computing solution turn into the perfect storm?

Yet one thing that hasn’t changed in that time is both the network’s ability to fail and for data centres to go offline for various reasons. So whilst cloud based services and software services delivered from data centres offers some compelling benefits, business continuity plans need to plan for these unforeseen events.

This technical dilema wont go away soon. So the less reliant your business is on your  network’s up-time to run your business the better and cheaper your disaster recovery and business continuity plans need to be. Whilst EPOS systems as a networked application are critical for the operation of your business, the solutions tend to be bullet proof because everyone knows how key they are. But as more and more opportunities for new applications come online to benefit the operation of businesses, the more businesses need to push networked applications through the same network and the more risk businesses take.

This is one of the reasons why Melody Pods takes the distribution benefit of a network but doesn’t rely on the network to always be available to play music constantly over long commercial opening hours of modern day businesses.

The silence within a store that has lost it’s background music can be disconcerting and go to confirm to customers a business is not ‘open for business’. So keeping clients longer, just long enough to get the network up again and the business trading is critical. Anything, such as the music, has got to be a god-send in these situations.

Whilst networks may be down, we can still play music to your customers leaving you to focus on get those EPOS and other business critical applications operational again as soon as possible.

So don’t worry about us, we will keep on playing and leave you alone to get on with your recovery plans.

A warm smile, a confident, “good morning” is going to start their day off and their experience in a more positive way than feeling they are the next on the long list queuing to be fed through a busy reception area.

Making them feel cared for and that their own personal needs are considered is very much the receptionist’s role. But there are a few more things that can help. A bright clean waiting are with good seating, warm natural colours and as much natural light complimented by a few healthy looking plants can go along way.

But out how about the music? Is the radio on? Will it be on when the news is broadcast? How ill people feel about the troubles of the world being played whilst they anticipate their treatments ?

Will advertising distract them? So have you got a CD player with a 40 minute collection of music that can be changed regularly? Who chooses the music and does this relax your clients or are there a few ‘artistic curved balls’ on your receptionist’s favourite album that might be considered “too experimental” to feel like they are relaxing your clients.

With Melody Pods we can offer you a large download of music designed for evoking emotions in clients; relaxing or invigorating.

Calming music that has a gentle beat can work well across a wide range of demographics, but if your clients can be more finely targeted we can produce a collection that even better targets their taste.

The right music can make a significant reduction in the anxiety of clients having treatments they are worried about.

Using music in treatment and therapy rooms can also help to continue to relax clients throughout the complete process. Where treatment sessions are in private rooms with Melody Pods we can offer you ways to offer your client’s music that they can choose, save and expect again the next time they return.

Making music work harder for you and your clients is possible with Melody Pods.

From semi-permanent eyelash extensions, eyebrows, manicures and pedicures to waxing and tanning, consumers are looking for a personal touch.

A boom in personal beauty and wellness services is clearly happening around us. Tanning, waxing, eyebrows and beauty products and services are filling the retail spaces. Cosmetic services, dental and injury treatments such as chiropractic services are also becoming more aware of the growth in the growing consciousness and knowledge of our health.

Yet whilst these markets grow consumers will be challenged to differentiate between brands and propositions where the services don’t look, sound or feel that different. So whilst these organizations tune and emphasise their services and how they are the best in class to meet consumer’s needs there is something more that music can do than just provide background ambience and be there in the background of the call when clients are waiting to be put through.

Personalize Your Client’s Experience By Letting Them Choose the Music That Is Being Played

Now this idea wont be rocket science to businesses who use an ipod or similar today to offer up a range of music they have downloaded and are licensing expensively under traditional performing licensing. Yet where organizations have a managed and centralised source of music distributed to a network of locations, businesses have tended to be forced to accept a ‘one style fits all’ approach to music.

“You can have any colour as long as it’s black.” *

As Henry Ford said, where there is no choice you just have to accept what is available. So for businesses trying to meet a range of client types in terms of age, ethnicity and culture offering up a single source of music is likely to miss most times and hit only a few.

Yet with new technology this doesn’t have to be the case, nor is any solution more expensive than the existing. In fact, it is cheaper. With mobile OS devices such as Goodle’s Android and Apple’s IOS we have today great platforms for serving up applications that make serving up music centrally managed and distributed easy.

It’s not rocket science any more.

You don’t need a bulky PC costing a lot on electricity, mobile devices have enough processing in them today to download music and play that music. Not only that, with a fresh look at music licensing it is simple to just brush away the complex traditional methods of calculating licenses and just get down to simple ways to enable businesses to offer a range of music within a location to meet the needs of each client that walks in to a private booth and have the same music they love played to them each time they visit.

The result? yes of course. Clients return. They come back because the whole experience is better than organizations who don’t feel they need to go the extra mile to male a client’s experience personal to them.

Lets talk today!

*Henry Ford’s famous quotation about the iconic Ford Model T. More details here: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_Ford