Jack of All Trades

Sometimes Conrad Garth feels more like a juggler than anything else. At any one time, Conrad has so many different things going on that he isn’t sure which way is up or where he is going next.

To begin with, Conrad runs his own business, providing writing services to a variety of business clients. “I’m sort of a hired pen,” says Conrad when asked about his work. “If you need something explained - especially if it’s technical in nature - I’m your man.” But that is far from all. Conrad also works with another local businessman, sub-contracting as a computer consultant. That means he never knows from one minute to the next if he'll be at his desk or at a customer site.

“There’s just no predicting where I’ll be at any given time,” he explains. “If people had to try to figure out how and where to find me, I’d be losing customers left and right. But with the Universal Office, that’s not a problem. Genie tracks me down no matter what. Customers always ask me for my cell phone number, and I always tell them - Just use the Universal Office number. It will track me down so you don’t have to.”

Even all that is only the tip of the iceberg. Conrad is also highly active in state politics, holding a seat on his party’s Executive Committee, and managing a couple of local campaigns. “I don’t keep my political work a secret, but I also can’t let it conflict with business,” says Conrad. “So I took the rather unusual step of getting two Universal Offices. I have a Business Office for my consulting and sub-contracting work and a regular Executive Office for my political work. I could do it with one, but I like having the two Universal Offices, so that I can put political information in the greeting on one number, without affecting what my business callers hear.

“All of that came to a head one recent morning, and Genie really saved the day for me! I was doing some computer work at a customer’s office when another customer developed a crisis. They called my sub-contracting partner, and he called me to see if I could handle it. I could, but it would also involve Customer Two’s Internet Service Provider. Meanwhile, our Party headquarters was trying to get a press release out the door, and the Chairman wanted my feedback as a writer on the tone of the piece.

“So, there I am, driving 22 mile across town on the freeway, on the cell phone (headset of course), calling Customer Two to say I’m on the way, calling tech support at the ISP, fielding callbacks from the ISP’s salesman, nervous calls from my business partner, calls from the Party Chairman - you name it! I could not possibly have done it without Genie to handle the multiple incoming calls, route them to me and most important let me know who was calling and the context of the call. I think in the space of about 20 minutes I used every single feature of Call Follow Me, from taking the calls to Quick Answer.

“By the time I got to Customer Two’s offices, I had the technical solution to their crisis in hand and ready, the sales rep off my back, my partner mollified, the press release out the door - and absolutely no one knew about any of the other stuff. Just another day in Paradise - Genie style.”

"When things aren't so stressed, Genie helps out in other ways as well. On the writing side of the house, one of my biggest customers happens to be a big Genie user as well. When it comes time to invoice them, I just send them an invoice by email and they pay me by transferring money directly to my GenieCard. I get paid in days rather than weeks or months. Heck, sometimes it's in hours!

"And the political side gets great service from GenieCard as well. I set up a Virtual Merchant account and now we can take some of our small-volume campaign contributions by credit card, where we couldn't afford to do it before.

"All around, Genie makes things a lot easier than they were before.