What do you think of the Grasshopper commercial?

Between our rebranding campaign once again being discussed and summer launch parties, these past couple weeks have been big for Grasshopper! Check out where we have been in June and July.

• WorkBar Boston and Grasshopper Partner to Rev Up the BeIn Initiative for Boston’s Startup Community

  The Summer entrepreneur launch party at Workbar Boston celebrated Boston’s large entrepreneurial population. Different companies networked and shared advice, good food and drinks. Read Boston Innovation’s recap of the story

• Webcast – Finally an affordable small business phone service for Small Business

  Canadian Small Business features Grasshopper as a phone system solution for small businesses. Read the full article and listen to the webcast!

• 20 Tips Your Small Business Can Use To Build Web Credibility

  Every business today has a website, so how exactly do you make yours stand out? Small Biz Trends features Grasshopper in this article and how it can make contact easy.

• Five Ways to Increase Sales From Existing Customers

  Jonathan Kay, Grasshopper’s Ambassador of Buzz, talks about the importance of customer connection via Twitter in Bnet’s article on key strategies to how to get even more sales from your current customers.

• Entrepreneur Recruitment with Jonathan Kay

  Get Your Biz Savvy features Ambassador of Buzz Jonathan Kay in an article about his job, Grasshopper’s campaign, and entrepreneurial ideas.

• Case Study: Grasshopper- Rebranding done right

  Grasshopper’s rebranding campaign is featured in The Rules according to you, which talks about Grasshopper from the GotVMail days to their creation of new products.

• 22 Small Business Phone Services

  Small Business Trends talks new and upcoming phone services and the features they like- and Grasshopper is one of them! The author in particular liked the faxes emailed as PDFs features.

With the beginning of our National Entrepreneurs’ Day campaign, there are a few great stories from this past month. Check em out!

• Bootstrapped SaaS Gains Critical Mass

  Forbes discusses bootstrapping and how it you can build sizable companies without venture capital. Grasshopper is featured as one of the successful companies who have done so.

• Are You Ready for National Entrepreneurs’ Day?

  AOL Small Business features the Grasshopper National Entrepreneurs’ Day campaign and even takes an excerpt from the blog.

• Twitter Users Campaign for a National Entrepreneurs’ Day

  Inc. Magazine breaks down the National Entrepreneurs’ Day campaign and the importance of Twitter as a medium.

• Live: Big Omaha 2010

  ZDNet covers Big Omaha 2010 where Grasshopper co-founder David Hauser is a speaker.

Here at Grasshopper we know how important it is for our customers to be able to reach us. We love getting feedback on what we’re doing well and what we can do to improve.

We also love helping other entrepreneurs succeed. Whether it’s getting press coverage, writing about their business or simply providing useful information, our goal is empower entrepreneurs.

Here are a few places you can find Grasshopper:

• Twitter

  @grasshopper not only offers updates on the Grasshopper virtual phone system but provides information for and from entrepreneurs. Get tips on starting a business, running a small business, marketing ideas and more. Follow us now!

• Facebook

  See what’s new on the blog, read what our customers have to say or watch one of our favorite Grasshopper videos. http://facebook.com/grasshopper puts many of the Grasshopper outlets all in one place. Let us know what you would like to see, ask questions or just stop by and say hi! Tell us you like us!

• LinkedIn

  LinkedIn is a great place to network with Grasshopper employees and see what jobs are available at the company. Join the Grasshopper Entrepreneur Network and chat with fellow entrepreneurs or just see what’s new on the blog.

Grasshopper is also out there in forums, blogs, etc working to share our knowledge and learn yours. Send us a tweet, write on our wall or leave a comment here and let us know where you get your info.

On every page of the Grasshopper.com site, we have a navigation element that allows users to click on the link, fill in the form and send a $25 credit to their fellow Entrepreneur, encouraging them to sign up for the Grasshopper virtual phone system.

The Word of Mouth Marketing theory dictates that once you have the customer in the door, it’s much easier to convert them to a paying customer, especially if their friend sent them in the first place. By comparison to the COA (Cost Of Acquisition ) from search, online advertising, print, TV, and radio, it’s a no brainer. In addition, if this new customer now endorses you to his or her friends, it causes a ripple effect.

Pieces that any good referral program should include:

• Understanding the lifetime value of your customer verses cost of acquisition

• The existing client should feel as though their reference is valuable.

• Insuring the referred potential client feels their incentive is significant enough to make the purchase.

Finally, the referral program you present your customers with needs to be easy to use and require minimal effort on the part of the referrer.

Have any questions about our Refer an Entrepreneur program or want to showcase how your referral programs have been successful? Leave a comment.

Well, I finally made my television debut in the new Grasshopper TV commercial and I gotta say, I look pretty good! Check it out as I take a drive through the mountains, work from the local cafe and even go sky diving…all the while showing you how easy it is to use my Grasshopper virtual phone system.

Look for it to air next week on Bloomberg, MSNBC, Fox Business, CNN, CNBC and more!

Small business tools and guest posts make up this month’s Grasshopper in the News. Definitely some great stories to check out from our friends around the web:

• Grasshopper Engages People in Order to Build a Global Brand

  Diana Huff talks with Jonathan Kay and provides a great overview of how Grasshopper uses social media to engage customers and entrepreneurs.

• David Hauser of Grasshopper.com at LessConf 2009

  See co-founder David Hauser’s presentation at this years LessConf 2009. David provides some insight into building a company beyond the start-up phase.

• The 10 Rules to Creating a Win-Win-Winning Partnership

  Lisa Canning of Entrepreneur the Arts gives us 10 great tips for finding the right partnerships for your business.

• 10 Ways to Boost Profitability in 2010

  NFIB provides 10 ways small businesses can boost profitability in 2010, including using the Grasshopper virtual phone system.

• Best Ad of 2009: Creating a Creative Campaign that Reaches the Right People

  Jennifer Donogh of SOHO Wife lists the Grasshopper ‘Entrepreneurs can change the world’ campaign as the best ad of 2009.

• How to Build an Army of Brand Loyalists

  David Hauser guest posts on ZDNet. Find out what it takes for businesses to create an army of brand loyalists simply by doing the little things.

• 3 Biggest Challenges Startups Face — and How to Fix Them

  Co-founder Siamak Taghaddos lays out three problems start-ups often face and what solutions there are to each issue in a recent Bizmore post.

]]> http://grasshopper.com/blog/2010/01/grasshopper-in-the-news-december-january/feed/ 0 http://grasshopper.com/blog/2010/01/grasshopper-vs-google-voice-what%e2%80%99s-the-difference/ http://grasshopper.com/blog/2010/01/grasshopper-vs-google-voice-what%e2%80%99s-the-difference/#comments Mon, 11 Jan 2010 13:21:09 +0000 Gary G http://grasshopper.com/blog/company/?p=856

With the launch of Google Voice this past year, awareness surrounding the virtual phone, virtual pbx, hosted pbx industry has skyrocketed, and here at Grasshopper we have been fortunate enough to enjoy the benefits. More awareness means more people wanting to know what a virtual number is, what a virtual phone system is, how it works, who does this, how it can benefit them and how they can get it?

It also means more people asking, “What is the difference between Grasshopper and Google Voice?”.

The first thing we say is, Grasshopper is designed for small businesses and entrepreneurs versus the general consumer. We are dedicated to helping our customers sound professional, stay connected and ultimately grow their business.

That being said, our feature set has been built as a focused set of tools for entrepreneurs and their businesses – that is really the key difference.

Below we have highlighted just a few of the core features of the Grasshopper virtual phone system – all items not available with Google Voice:

Toll Free 800 Numbers

• A primary difference and business essential – A toll free number is a great way to help a business grow, look bigger and more professional, and provide customers with a means to reach you. With Grasshopper you can get general 800 numbers (800,888,877 & 866 numbers) along with custom vanity numbers (i.e. 1-800-AWESOME) and have them forwarded to any number on any phone in the world.

Phone Number Ownership

• As a Grasshopper customer you own the rights to your toll free or local number. If you decide to change service providers you can take the phone number with you. For businesses this is extremely important as the majority of marketing materials (business cards, website, etc) contain a business phone number. When you own the phone number, you don’t have to worry about adjusting all of your current materials just because you change providers.

Multiple Extensions

• As a business you probably want to add extensions for your employees. This is not only possible with Grasshopper, but also extremely easy and you are never charged for adding extensions. We offer unlimited extensions! That’s right we said an UNLIMITED amount at no extra charge ever. Each extension includes voice mail, call forwarding, custom greetings and more.

Multiple Numbers in ONE Account

• With Grasshopper you have multiple numbers within the same account. These numbers can all forward to any number you wish without limitations. This is important when you have several local numbers and a toll free number for your business. You need the ability to forward all numbers to one phone (whether this is home, office or cell). With Google Voice, you currently have the ability to forward two numbers to landline but only one to a mobile phone.

Human Voice mail Transcription

• One great feature with Google Voice is the voice mail transcription. As a general consumer, using my phone just for personal use, it is an awesome feature. The problem is, sometimes what you read, isn’t what was said. We know this can be the case with transcription which is why we offer a human transcription option included with our Read Your Voicemail feature.

• Example: Say you’re in a business meeting, can’t take a call, see the voice mail is from an important person but the transcription just doesn’t read correctly…choose human transcription and someone will actually listen to the voice mail, type it up for you and send it back. You never have to listen to your voice mail and perhaps miss an important message.

24/7 Live Support

• This is probably the biggest difference when it comes to our service and Google Voice. With our users being business men and women, we know how important it is to make sure service is always available and reliable. Just as we wouldn’t want to miss a call, we don’t want our customers to either. Our 24/7 dedicated support team offers help with set up, online account management and any issues or questions you may be having.

• That means if you live in California and decide to improve your business at 3am PST a real live Grasshopper support team member (yes we understand it is a rare occasion to get a real person on the phone nowadays) is just a phone call away at 800-820-8210 to help you out.

Away Greetings (After Hours, Vacations, Holidays etc.)

• You are a 1-2 person operation who has business calls forwarded to your cell phone using Grasshopper. Do you want to be receiving calls at 9 o’clock at night when you have settled down with your family? Probably not. With Away Greetings you have the option of creating a specific greeting for designated hours each day. Phone calls will not be sent to your phone and callers will hear the message you want them to.

On Hold Music

• You are on your cell phone, you put someone on hold, what do they hear? Silence. With Grasshopper you are able to upload your own on hold music or commercial. Choose music, commercials, jokes, whatever it is you want your customers to hear. Again, it helps your business sound professional and maybe even promote your lasted product to your customer, which is our goal.

We hope that answers any questions you have but if not, please feel free to contact our previously mentioned “live 24 hour/7 days a week” support team at 800-820-8210.

Interested in more information on Grasshopper vs. Google Voice?

• Grasshopper vs Google Voice – Live Crunch
• Your Hidden Potential Interviews David Hauser
• Grasshopper vs. Google Voice for Small Business – Longer Days
]]> http://grasshopper.com/blog/2010/01/grasshopper-vs-google-voice-what%e2%80%99s-the-difference/feed/ 6 http://grasshopper.com/blog/2009/12/grasshopper-in-the-news-november-december/ http://grasshopper.com/blog/2009/12/grasshopper-in-the-news-november-december/#comments Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:53:08 +0000 Gary G http://grasshopper.com/blog/company/?p=713 We have some great interviews with our co-founders this month. Read those and all of the latest stories featuring Grasshopper:

• Your Hidden Potential Interviews David Hauser

  Find out a little more about David’s background, building Grasshopper and being an entrepreneur. David gives a few tips on running a business and some good advice for young entrepreneurs.

• Grasshopper Takes Bronze Momentum Award in WOMMYs

  The Grasshopper “Entrepreneurs can change the world” campaign took Bronze in the Momentum category. See who else placed in the Word of Mouth Marketing Awards.

• A Grasshopper Answers My Phone

  Laura Legendary, owner of Legendary Insights talks about her use of the Grasshopper virtual phone system. She was also a featured blogger on Grasslands this past month.

• The Web 2.0 Show Interviews David Hauser

  Adam Stacoviak talks with David Hauser and Jonathan Kay about Grasshopper and Grasshopper Labs. A great interview to listen to, you’ll get insights into Grasshopper, Chargify and starting new businesses.

• Tips for Inspiration and Creativity from Co-Founder Siamak Taghaddos

  Under 30 CEO interviews Siamak Taghaddos on finding inspiration, getting creative and moving out of the office to find those new ideas.

]]> http://grasshopper.com/blog/2009/12/grasshopper-in-the-news-november-december/feed/ 2 http://grasshopper.com/blog/2009/10/the-best-virtual-phone-system-is-even-better/ http://grasshopper.com/blog/2009/10/the-best-virtual-phone-system-is-even-better/#comments Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:15:05 +0000 Don Schiavone http://grasshopper.com/blog/company/?p=192 To those long-time GotVMail users that have incorporated our service into your business workflow, why should you get excited about the new Grasshopper virtual phone system? Yes, I know change is difficult. Why fix what isn’t broken. However, there’s plenty to get excited about and hope it will make any pain from change worth it.

So what’s new? Well, here’s what I think are the most compelling changes:

• Flexibility – we’ve introduced the concept of a user and separated it from an extension and a phone number.

  Now, you can easily point your phone numbers to any type of extension (e.g., department, employee, dedicated fax, Q&A, etc.) and enable your staff to have access to one or more extensions, or even have multiple staff monitor the same extensions. What’s more, you can limit access to administrative features like plan changes and billing info.

  [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V9X8N11dm8]

• Security – You can now specify users names and passwords for added security as opposed to the old phone number an PIN security model.
• New features – We’ve redesigned our service from the ground up to enable rapid updates and new feature releases. Based on user feedback, we are releasing improvements every month to ensure our service keeps pace with the changes affecting your business. Here’s some of the exciting new features already available on the new Grasshopper platform:

  - Unlimited voice-to-text: View your voicemails as text and send for human transcription for improved accuracy

  - Tag messages, add notes to any message and filter messages by tag, extension and more, plus advanced message searching

  [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUy6BJlYP4k]

  - See a Google map representation of caller location based on the area code of the caller

  - Store contact information for frequent callers and automatically see who has called

  - Record greetings by computer using a mic

  - Add up to 15 separate call forwarding destinations and unlimited email addresses for call notifications

  - Add additional toll free and local numbers to your account, or upgrade/downgrade your plan at anytime at your convenience online

  - Additional features like click-to-call and advanced dashboard stats like “recent calls” and “missed calls” are also in the works and will be released in upcoming months.

So, keep the feedback coming. Our product roadmap is based on the features and functions that are most important to you.

*The Unlimited Voice to Text is now referred to as “Read Your Voicemail”

]]> http://grasshopper.com/blog/2009/10/the-best-virtual-phone-system-is-even-better/feed/ 0 http://grasshopper.com/blog/2009/09/migration-madness-the-new-grasshopper-interface/ http://grasshopper.com/blog/2009/09/migration-madness-the-new-grasshopper-interface/#comments Mon, 14 Sep 2009 19:20:53 +0000 Don Schiavone http://grasshopper.com/blog/company/?p=23

We are about a third of the way through the migration of our customers off the old GotVMail platform and onto the Grasshopper platform.  I’m amazed to learn just how inventive our customers are in configuring the old system to do things that were not originally anticipated.  Fortunately, our customers will have many more options to configure their system to meet their unique business needs once they are migrated to Grasshopper.

On the other hand, all of the custom settings and unique configurations that are in use today have certainly been keeping our migration team challenged to ensure a smooth transition between platforms.  Rest assured that we are moving cautiously to handle the many nuisances in configurations and to make certain that our customers’ accounts are being migrated to Grasshopper as seamlessly as possible.

Could we miss something? Possibly.  But don’t worry; our support team is standing by 24/7 at 800.820.8210, should you notice anything that doesn’t seem quite right with your virtual phone system after your account has been migrated to Grasshopper over the next month or so.

So, what exactly is the new Grasshopper platform?

First, I should clarify an important point: we won’t be changing the way that your phone system fundamentally works. Your clients will still call your same number, they’ll still hear the same greetings, they’ll be forwarded to your cell phones and home phones, and leave you messages, just as before. So, most of what you’ve come to depend on won’t be changing.

Under the surface, however, everything has changed. We’ve rebuilt the software on which our service is based.

Why the change?

To make sure we can continue to grow and innovate to serve you better. Our previous platform was not easy to make changes to, and this meant we couldn’t easily add new features or make quick changes to improve performance. At the same time, we heard from many clients who felt our user interface could be better organized and easier to use. So while we rebuilt everything from the ground up, we decided we should address this feedback at the same time.

So what has changed?

• Increased upper limit in quantity of call forwarding numbers from 6 to 15
• Increased email addresses for message notifications from 3 to unlimited
• Sign in more securely using user names and passwords
• Create as many users as needed, with different levels of access to your account
• Add contacts to automatically see who has called in addition to the phone number of the caller
• More options for finding and organizing messages such as searching, tagging and filtering
• The ability to record greetings over the computer using a microphone instead of just through the phone and much more

We’ve created Knowledgebase Articles that answer the frequently asked questions we’ve been hearing from newly-migrated customers.  If you run into something new, or would like some personal assistance, contact our support team 24/7 at 800.820.8210 or create a support ticket at our Support Center.

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