If you do business via smartphone like me, to have your phone go on the fritz is enough to have you pull your hair out. I use a Samsung Galaxy S5 and am not really wanting to upgrade to have a not waterproof phone or one that may burn me when I hold it. With my phone on the fritz and having just returned from vacation, I needed help fast.
For two years I have had extra insurance coverage for my phone and that of my staff. We use Asurion through Verizon. In less than 30 minutes on the phone with Verizon and then less than 10 minutes with Asurion, I had a new refurbished phone on the way.
I was concerned about getting a refurbished phone, but I have to say the phone I got had a brand new battery, looked sparkling clean and totally new. Glitchy behavior gone, my smartphone is now back to work and my old phone returned in the mail – all with totally no hassle.
I am so pleased with the process that I wrote this post just because I felt it important to share with my readers the service, speed, and hassle-free solution that Asurion has provided.
Thanks Asurion! My refurbished phone is great and I’d never know it was not brand spanking new.
Oh, P.S. I got a free one year no question warranty on the replacement phone giving me total peace of mind.
It’s time to review the security on your smartphone.
This past month, my husband’s identity was stolen and my access to our bank account was hacked. In my husband’s case a credit card was opened in his name. In my case my online bank user name, password and PIN was used to raise credit limits and then steal over $3,000 from our checking account.
Our bank took care of the matter, but what was problematic was just how robbers got access to my own personal online access information. The only thing we can think of is that I was using mobile banking features and may have accessed my bank while I was connected away from my home base.
As a result, here are the things that I have done to improve my smartphone security.
1. My entire family now uses on their mobile devices face or voice recognition biometrics to access our most important bank. For our other bank, we use two step verification. All family members use two step verification via text messages to smartphones to access bank accounts online through desktops.
2. My entire family now has withdrawal, deposit and transaction alerts set up for banking, savings accounts, and credit cards. The focus is to catch robbers early before too much damage has been done.
3. I personally am using NordVPN which ia a subscription base security tool for my smartphone that encrypts my communication on mobile data or when I am connected to any Wi-Fi hotspots out of my office. This will be especially important to me as I will be traveling in the months to come and this secure tunnel will allow me to encrypt data I exchange on the internet, geomask my location as well as to prevent eavesdroppers from snatching my user names and passwords.
Stay safe when you are online with your smartphone and encourage your family members to embrace new levels of mobile security to prevent the headaches that happened to us.
If you are like me, you use your smartphone as an extension of your business. From banking to email to social media to entertainment, my smartphone allows me to work from almost anywhere. But just how secure can that be?
It turns out that if you connect to Wi-Fi at stores, Starbucks, and even the grocery store you may be putting your personal information and even credit card and banking information at risk. Connect to your bank while piggybacking on free Wi-Fi and you may be letting hackers into your accounts.
This is where a private encrypted virtual network can solve the security problem, especially in airports or while on travel.
I have tested a number of applications this month and NordVPN has been my winner. First I am not being paid for this blog post or given free service for my review. I did test Norton Wi-Fi Security, ViperVPN and NordVPN
Here’s why NordVPN gets my vote:
First, it is super easy. To be protected, I click one button in the app. If I want I can select my server location. So if I am in India, I can appear to be located in the US. But, I don’t have to do that if I don’t want. I did not have to use any complicated settings as I did on the other apps.
Second, it works! I connected at Giant Grocery Stores, Target, my home Wi-Fi, and even secured login Wi-Fi and wide open Wi-Fi. I had trouble with the Norton app connecting anywhere but home. With ViperVPN they have your free trial so limited that you cannot even test could you connect where you wanted. NordVPN on the other hand gave me a free three day trial no strings attached.
As I will be using this app to be secure for my business when I travel, ease of us and consistency was really important for me. I am no techie and don’t want to learn about TCP and packets, I just want to be secure. NordVPN makes is super easy. I can easily see I am connected, I get connected fast, and I can see the key in my top menu to know I am encrypted on Wi-Fi or using data.
Not important to me but may be important to you is the low price. I am paying $8 a month on a month to month basis, but could pay about $6.58 or so a month if I paid for the year in advance.
With my bank account having been hacked and the hackers knowing my online user name, password, and PIN you just cannot be too safe when it comes to your smartphone and any banking information.
Try it out yourself by visiting NordVPN. You’ll have to ask customer support by email for the three day trial. Set up your account, but don’t pay and give them your email to get your trial.
Sometimes a well meaning friend will send you a link to a bad review about you or your business that they found online and it can spoil your day. Here are a few things to know about how to handle a bad review.
Not all bad reviews need a response
Not everything needs you to respond. In some cases a response may be worse than just letting the review stay out there. If you do decide to write a response, take a deep breath. Never respond to or write a rebuttal when you are upset or angry. Take time to craft a thoughtful response and be conciliatory in your comments. Acknowledge the feelings of the reviewer.
You cannot please everyone
This is hard for some business owners, but you cannot please everyone every time. Take the bad along with the good and know that there are simply some “trolls” out there that get their jollies crushing you online.
Consider the review placement
If the review is on Google+, Yelp, or another highly visible site, I do recommend that you consider writing a rebuttal. If appropriate, I would encourage you to even contact the client – if they have given enough information for you to identify them and see if you can fix the problem. A customer who has had a problem resolved can be your biggest advocate. Don’t forget to ask them to update their review after you have fixed the problem. If the review is not on a high profile site, know that even then, it may still be visible to others and may still need your attention.
Move forward and learn from any errors
If you did get a bad review that is warranted, use the opportunity as a chance to retrain staff or challenge your current processes. You can really learn a lot about how customers perceive you from reviews even bad ones.
Move forward after a bad review, remember you’ve pleased plenty of other customers and stay focused on what you do right and work to improve areas where you may be weak.
Need help solving a problem like a bad review? Visit our website at www.McCordWeb.com to find out how we can help today.
