The garden is slowly coming together! I cemented in the edging (tumbled limestone pavers turned sideways), planted half of the hedges (other half will be planted once the cement is set) and put chip bark over the areas that will soon be garden beds. Unfortunately I can’t move the roses yet because they are still flowering and to minimise the impact it is better to wait until winter when they are dormant. I also glued a piece of cracked marble back onto the step. I am pretty happy with how things are looking so far, it will be good to see everything grow into place. Hopefully it won’t take long until I have to start trimming the hedges into shape.
Year: 2009 Page 10 of 16
Sydney Airport (SYD) is one of the oldest continually operating airports in the world. This also means that the city of Sydney has slowly grown around the airport over the years, with many people now living directly under the flight path. This is particularly true for those in the inner west. When buying a home in this area it is important to do some research as to whether you will be affected by the flight paths. The weekend flight paths are often very different from those during the week. The street seems sleepy and quiet during the Saturday Open for Inspection, but during the week you might be able to feel the windows rattle as a 747 thunders in to land. The curfew from 11pm until 6am does help, however airlines are allowed to break the curfew (for a fee) and of course a curfew is not guaranteed to stand forever (especially now that Macquarie Bank owns the airport).
Sydney Airport Noise Contours - Q3 2008
So what can you do? The first website you should visit is the Air Services Australia site, in particular their Noise Exposure Index Reports section. Attachment D is particularly interesting, the report provides noise contour charts that are overlaid on an abstract map of Sydney. The various coloured lines and shading show the regions exposure to aircraft noise. The noise contours for July-September 2008 are shown to the right. The rest of the report is also interesting, as it shows changes in noise and movements over time, notes reasons for some of the changes (i.e. the east west runway currently being closed due to a safety upgrade) and the types of planes.
Some of the councils affected by aircraft noise also have noise exposure reports on their websites (although they are often difficult to find). For example Marrickville Council provides a Australian Noise Exposure Forecast 2023/2024 (ANEF) Map. This provides forecasted noise exposure information to those people looking to live in or around the Marrickville region. This means you can not only see what the noise levels are like currently, but also predict whether you will be affected in the future. With constant delays and indecision still preventing the construction of the second Sydney Airport, it seems wise to plan for aircraft noise being a staple of Sydney for a long time to come.
InsideCRM posted a good article on the top 5 reasons why a CRM system increases in importance during a recession (the US is in one, it is only a matter of time before Australia and others admit they are in one too).
Stressed about sales?
For me, the key is working smarter not harder. When unemployment starts creeping up people start getting stressed about their jobs and start burning the midnight oil. Here is how a CRM helps you achieve more without burning yourself out:
- You can slice and dice your customer data to target the customer segments that aren’t suffering so much or have fallen through the cracks in the past.
- Customer retention is easier as you can track and schedule catch up emails, meetings or calls.
- Customer wide cross-sell strategies can be more easily implemented and coordinated.
Many companies have implemented a CRM system because it is easy to demonstrate reduced data entry, documenting customer complaints or managing product inventory. During a recession, companies should be looking at the analytical and other tools that have gathered dust within your CRM during the good years.
So what are some facts that can motivate you? Improving customer retention by 5% can boost profitability by 25% to 95%. Sales force automation and a consistent sales process has been shown to increase sales per representative by 30% over a three year period. Still not enough reasons?
Well what are the top 3 reasons why now is a great time to go through a CRM implementation?
- CRM retailers are hurting like everyone else, prices are better than ever.
- Excess capacity within the business can be used to scope, build and train on a new system.
- Business model change is slowing as new entrants fail to gain VC or other funding. This gives you some breathing space to document your current business model and tighten the screws.