The Synergy Consulting Blog Writing Content
Blog Title: The Entrepreneur's Journey: The Uplift App
Shi Tang travels to China four or five times a year to visit her family. Although she always looks forward to being there, there’s one thing she dreads the most about traveling home: jet lag. There’s a 12-hour difference between New York and Beijing – if it’s 11 am in New York, then it’s 11 pm at home- and she usually takes a 14-hour flight to get there. Long-distance traveling alone is exhausting, but the difference in time zones really takes a toll on her body: drowsiness, disorientation, headaches, insomnia, and dizziness. She loses her appetite, and she becomes irritable during the first few days. Her family calls her “the traveling monster”.
According to the American Sleep Association (ASA), jet lag is a psychological condition caused by the disturbance of the body’s natural circadian rhythms or internal body clock. In a travel survey, sleep scientists uncovered that jet lag affects 93% of long-distance travelers. So far, there are very few ways to prevent it from happening. There are over-the-counter medications, such as melatonin, to help with the symptoms, and doctors recommend taking preventative measures such as exercise and a caffeine-free diet. However, people who travel often think of jet lag as “part of the package” when it comes to traveling.
But what if we told you there was another way?
After 30 yrs of R&D and the personal journey of world-renowned neuroscientist Dr. Charles Krebs, SYNERGY Consulting was selected to design, build and launch the new mobile app Uplift, a revolutionary new acupressure solution to jet lag! Uplift provides a natural, safe, and effective way of bringing your body back to its natural rhythms without pills or extensive preparation before take-off. Though the solution was discovered by Dr. Charles Krebs, it took the vision of co-founder and serial entrepreneur Ted Finn to add a streamlined distribution strategy that can scale globally. The way it works is very simple: You download the Uplift Jet Lag app from the Apple Store or Google Play and input your flight information. Uplift will show you in 3 simple steps, which acupressure points in your body to activate in order to bring your body back in sync to your new destination.
In our new blog series – The Entrepreneur’s Journey, we take a closer look into Uplift by sitting down with cofounder Ted Finn as he gives us a closer look into the Uplift story:
Ted out of all the things you could’ve done at this stage in your life, what inspired you to launch a new startup?
“Well, I met Dr. Charles Krebs about four years ago, and we became friends. I was immediately inspired by his personal and scientific journeys that led to the discovery of the Uplift jet lag solution. We then decided to start the company about two and a half years ago.”
Why did you choose SYNERGY to bring your idea to life?
“I met Andy at MassChallenge which is one of the largest tech accelerators in the world; he’s part of that community. We started talking about developing Uplift, and he told me SYNERGY Consulting had the experience building apps and web platforms that we needed to scale. More importantly, he himself has a passion for travel and seemed to believe in what we were trying to do with the project when it comes to the global impact we can have on the travel industry as a whole.”
Now everyone knows entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart. So what were the biggest challenges you faced before you hired SYNERGY?
“I actually came in with a lot of entrepreneurship experience, but I had never really built a mobile application before. It’s a kind of technology that is very new to me, and I had no idea where to begin, and more importantly what pitfalls to avoid.”
You launched in Boston the city with the best sports teams ever from Red Sox, to Patriots, to Celtics. The art of building a team in the startup world has many parallels sports. What’s the best part about working with a team like SYNERGY?
“I think they are tremendous business partners. I’ve worked with a lot of different companies over the years, and they have provided good service, but SYNERGY has so much experience and insight in technology and entrepreneurship that they have been tremendous partners when it comes to developing not only when it comes to mobile development but also the complementary business strategies needed to make it all successful.”
What’s Uplift working on right now?
“Today we’re starting to sign-up corporate partners in the travel industry to start using our travel solution and also architecting the infrastructure to support these pilot programs to consistently keep innovating the Uplift solution. Not too long ago we were featured in The Boston Globe, and we’re also super excited to have an article featuring the company in Travel and Leisure Magazine’s next issue.”
Looking forward to hearing more great things from Uplift in the future. Where can people follow news and updates about your company?
“Our app is available in both app stores for both Apple and Android, and we have a website with news and information about our product at www.upliftnaturally.com. We also have a newsletter sign-up on our website to get real-time updates of what is going on with the brand and our team.”
Shi Tang is going back to China in December, luckily and thanks to Uplift, she’ll be able to leave “the traveling monster” behind and enjoy every minute of her time at home.
Please stay tuned next month for another featured story founder of our monthly series – The Entrepreneur’s Journey by following our blog. To find out more on how you can bring your innovative ideas to life, contact SYNERGY at www.synergyconsulting.us
Blog Title: The Solution to No-Shows: Pulse 24/7 App
Today there is a big issue plaguing the service industry, leaving companies throughout the country with less money and fewer resources each time it occurs. This issue is referred to by many as “no shows.” It’s when clients don’t show up to their appointments at all or show up late to them. In the health industry alone, each no show that occurs costs the company on average of $196. However it is not just the health industry that is affected, most industries are. There are ways to exterminate the issue of no shows in a company, some of which we will talk about in this blog.
No shows affect businesses for a number of reasons. First, the lost time from a no show cannot be regained. This time should have been used by a paying client adding to overall company revenue. When people don’t show up to their appointments, it decreases customer engagement as well because they are not getting feedback from their customers. When you’re catering to customers who do not show up, valuable customers who would have used the appointment are also losing valuable time. Overall, this decreases the customer base. None of these things are good for a company, especially in the service industry. When you make an appointment with a client, you want to be ensured that they are going to show up.
What can be done about this issue? How are you going to ensure that people show up to the appointments that they make? One possibility is to hire a receptionist or someone who can confirm their appointments. However, this option comes at a cost, as receptionists make on average thirty thousand dollars a year. This becomes another expense a company is responsible for. Each firm must decide whether the decrease in no shows outweighs the added cost incurred.
Another way to prevent no shows from occurring is having an option to prepay before appointments. This is beneficial to the amount of money that you make because it prevents you from losing money on these no shows, however many customers may be averse to this idea of paying for an appointment without receiving the service.
Rather than paying for a receptionist, it is more economically beneficial for you and your company to develop push notifications to send out to your clients before their appointment. These push notifications can be emails, texts, or even automated phone calls that are delivered to the client's phone the day before their appointments. This type of system will reduce no shows because it will force the client to see the information about their appointment right in front of them, especially when it comes up on their cell phone, a device that people rarely put down these days. This takes away from yearly costs incurred from hiring another team member. Rather than hiring a receptionist, you can now spend that money on something that will greatly improve your company, for example, a new member of your marketing team to market your company more than it currently is.
One online program to help solve this problem is Pulse 24/7, a custom software that helps organize companies sends push notifications to the clients of the companies who use it in order to prevent these no shows from happening. These pulse notifications will get rid of all the issues that come with no shows. Although we hope that no shows don’t occur in your company, there is a great possibility that it will happen at some point. It is unfair to you and your employees when this happens, so it’s important to work as hard as possible to prevent this from happening.
Blog Title: Do You Need Anything? The mobile app you might need
Living in an apartment with three roommates leads to incessant begging and nagging for various groceries and supplies. The struggle of trying to decide who is going to buy what is constant. Although we all try to take turns, our schedules just do not permit flexibility. So, whenever we have the time to squeeze in a trip to the store we attempt to gather everything that everyone needs.
However, there has not been a time when one person remembers everything that is asked for. Has anything like this ever happened to you? If yes, an app called NeedAnything may be essential in your everyday life. Need Anything is an app that enables quick and efficient messaging for people on the go. Today, losing time is extremely avoidable and with apps like these, we can see how. By simply asking if a friend, family member or roommate might “Need Anything” from the store, people can save both time and energy.
Different circumstances can prove this app to be extremely beneficial. For example, if a roommate or significant other cannot get to the grocery store to pick up a few items, but you are going, you can easily let them know on NeedAnything that you are at the store. Or, if you go out for food or drinks and cannot remember the orders you were supposed to pick up, you can message on NeedAnything to keep track of who wants what. It is important to note that contacts who have not downloaded the app can still interact and respond to any messages sent through the app. This app proves efficient success by limiting the user’s time it takes on standard iMessage and also includes the ability to send specific locations.
The app enables the user to easily add locations by category and distance. Once added, the specific location can be quickly sent to any chosen contacts or groups. The message will send as “Hey! I’m going to (inserted location). Need Anything?” The speed and accuracy of the specific store or shop you are going to is helpful in sharing proper details to friends, family, or roommates. By sending a standard text, the user is avoiding the ability to have one all-inclusive text with all the needed details. Additionally, when you are at one of your frequented stores or shops, you are sent a text message reminding you that you are at this location and if you want to send a message to any contacts.
A survey, completed by US Bank, shows that 46% of respondents use cash less than eight days a month and 5% of people do not use cash at all. With these statistics in mind, it is important to highlight the payment feature on the app. Through NeedAnything, users can get paid instantly with PayPal or Venmo, which eliminates the need for cash. These days, Venmo and PayPal are extremely useful for people who are spending money fast and with ease. Therefore, the fact that NeedAnything intertwines this option for users only benefits their time-consuming capabilities.
After working with another team, the founder of NeedAnything decided he needed the expertise of Synergy Consulting in order to perfect the app. In just three and a half months, through various methods of designing, editing, and evaluating the functionalities, our team has successfully implemented the necessary facets to create a beneficial and efficient app. Need Anything app can come to your aid and offer advanced opportunities for productivity. Whether it is getting paid back quickly, successfully getting everything needed for friends and family, or even just reminding you to get various supplies, NeedAnything comes in handy.