From Marketing to NOLA Happenings…
Tag: Ray Reggie New Orleans
“I was given such a great gift. It’s a miracle that never stops amazing me and reminding me to give thanks, every day. Having a wife and daughter gives me a lot more purpose. I was much more selfish before, but now I think about what kind of role model I’ll be. I just want to be a better man.” – Jake Owen
Learn about Ray Reggie (Raymond Reggie) here: https://about.me/rayreggie
Auto dealers owe a big shout-out and many thanks to Alexander Graham Bell. Yep, that Alexander Graham Bell; the father of the telephone. We owe Mr. Bell a huge thank you, as his invention dating back to 1876, will be the number one tool used in every automobile dealership in 2017.
The newly released Reuters survey clearly shows another increase in internet traffic coming from mobile devices. That projected increase is confirmed by Mega Digital Ad Buying Group, Zenith, projecting 75% of total internet use in 2017 will come from mobile devices. Mr. Bell’s device is in every prospects hand and they are empowered to use it every day, all day.
Cellular service providers held on as long as they could, charging consumers for data usage and exorbitant fees for data usage overages. Those days are gone as we now enter a Mobile Dominated Marketplace (MDM). Car dealers need to embrace MDM and embrace it now! MDM is here and it will be the future! Every auto dealer needs to direct it’s marketing to the MDM. The traditional pushing of a prospect to a form-filled “tell me more” Call-To-Action (CTA) is rapidly being replaced with Mr. Bell’s brainchild, the telephone. The dealers that strategically place CTA’s (in the form of Click-To-Call buttons) will see significant more conversion than the tradition lead-gen forms. That means, dealers will see less form-filled leads! Get ready, but don’t panic. Conversions will increase, but it will be via telephone and less with the traditional, soon to be old-school, forms that require a prospect to give their name, address, phone number and email address just to get the dealer’s best price, or to check availability. This is a good thing for dealers!
Ask a salesperson at any dealership, would you prefer a complete form-filled lead with a prospect’s, name, address, phone number, email address and what type (or exact) car they think they want, or, a telephone call on line 2 with a live prospect calling them. The salesperson that is embracing the new media push of the phone, that “new” tool that has been around since 1876, will convert at a much higher percentage and will be more successful.
As clearly confirmed in the recently released study 75% of TrueCar prospects never spoke/emailed with more than one salesman/dealership during the shopping process. That is a two-fold problem. Salespeople are like fisherman. They make a couple phone calls (casts, and they send a few emails (more casts), and if they don’t get a bite, they are on to the next fishing spot (next prospect). The national average from the time a prospect makes their original contact with a dealership; is another 27 days before the sale is completed. The majority of salespeople working leads have long gone from that prospect. Car salespeople no longer follow a prospect until they buy or die. This is just not happening anymore. The other prong of that two- fold problem is consumers are much more attentive and focused on time management and they won’t answer the phone, knowing it is a salesman calling, until they are ready to speak! They would rather work via text message and email. If you don’t believe that, ask any parent of a teenager or millennial today, their son/daughter will text all day and night, but try to get them on the phone, that is a real challenge.
With that said, be ready and embrace the phone. Be ready when it rings! Don’t make the prospect press 1 for this and 2 for that, and don’t answer the phone “Thanks for calling XYZ Motors, hold please!” That is a complete turn-off. Just like the silly recording that says, “Your call is important to us…” if it really was important, you would answer my call, NOW! The phone is ringing… Be ready and be prepared to convert that phone call into an appointment.
-Ray Reggie
New Orleans, Louisiana
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It may have started with female-friendly chainlets like STK in the early 2000s, but lately chefs and restaurateurs all over the country are redefining the steakhouse in new and unexpected ways. Below, we’ve rounded up some of the most notable carnivorous trends of the last year – and shared our picks for the best places in the country to try them yourself. Vegetarians, turn away now.
I found this article from http://www.Zagat.com about the 8 Hottest Steak Trends Across America and I wanted to share it with you.
I’d love to hear from you on trends in preparing and presenting steaks and what’s you favorite steak restaurant and any tricks you utilize when cooking a steak.
Thanks for reading and I look forward to hearing back from you.
Ray Reggie
Mandeville, LA
@rayreggie
http://www.RayReggie.com
Ray Reggie links this article , saying it’s agreat article that was posted on http://www.nola.com
The full article is here: http://blog.nola.com/interact/2013/12/broken_smart_phone_fix_right_a.html
Broken smart phone: Fix right away or wait for the upgrade?
“Dropped your iPhone into the toilet? Cracked your mobile or tablet screen? If you live in Louisiana, you have company,” reports Lauren McGaughy.
“According to the 2013 Clumsiest States Index, which tracks which residents incurred the highest rates of accident and damage to their mobile devices, Louisiana consistently ranks as among the top 10 least adroit states.”
•Read McGaughy’s full story about Square Trade’s “Clumsiest Index.”
Honestly, I have so many shattered iPhones that I could start a Broken Smart Phone Museum. I’ve had the misfortune of breaking every generation of Apple’s iPhone, but fortunately they were all during a time where I could simply upgrade to the next model.
NOLA.com commenter nola32 writes, “Well if these overprice(d) smart phones would put stronger glass like Gorilla glass, we wouldn’t have a problem.”
I used to think, “Who would be silly enough to make a phone made of glass?” But then I realized that we were the foolish ones for buying them. In any case, cell phone manufacturers and repair guys are laughing all the way to the bank. Or at least they’re smiling when I walk though the door.
The “Clumsiest Index” keeps tabs on the number of insurance claims, but what about those who walk around with the shattered screen? (I’ve also heard this called the “spider web app.”)
@rayreggie
Ray Reggie
Mandeville, LA
http://www.RayReggie.com
November 4, 2009
New Orleans – Four Years and Counting: Talking with Ray Reggie
By Joan Brunwasser
Welcome to OpEdNews, Ray. You’re the president of the board of Just the Right Attitude, (http://www.jtra.org/) the New Orleans food bank/soup kitchen (http://www.FoodBankNola.org) But right now, I’d like you to switch hats. There is still so much to be done to rebuild your fine city. As a reminder, I’m collecting and sharing Katrina stories. I understand that you have a humdinger. Can you tell our readers a bit about it.
“>Looking back four years ago to when Hurricane Katrina’s waters poured into New Orleans, I have this constant image of my first of many rescues. This first rescue was the worst. It was just hours after the flood waters began to rise when I heard the loud, repeated barking of a large dog at my front steps. My house at the time abutted the 17th Street canal – the canal that failed and flooded so much of New Orleans.
When I approached the door, I saw a large black dog barking profusely. I realized something was wrong. I grabbed two brooms and jumped in a commandeered small boat (pirogue) and paddled to my friend Web Deadman’s house. I knew the dog belonged to Web and that something must have been wrong.
When I got there, I realized Web was in bad shape – in the water and having a hard time breathing. I was able to pull him up on his lawn and out of the water but was unsuccessful in keeping him breathing. He passed away. All I could do was to go back to my house. I brought a sheet and wrapped his body in it after I propped him up on a pillow from his couch and wrote his name and my information on his arm for identification purposes. I sprinkled Web with holy water from my church and blessed salt and prayed for his soul.
Sadly, Web would remain on his front lawn for several days until I could get a body bag from Acadian Ambulance and place him in it and get the ambulance to take him to the makeshift morgue in St. Gabriel. It would take me over a week to make contact with Web’s relatives and let them know that my first rescue was a failure.
I had failed at saving my neighbor’s life. It is a horrible memory – one that appears in my mind often and especially when the anniversary of Katrina approaches. It made me so much more determined to never fail again while rescuing. I question myself often.
What could I have done differently to have saved Web? I beat myself up hard often and can only pray for his soul. I keep telling myself that I did everything I could, even though it was not enough. I will always remember that dark, eerie, quiet night, when Web’s dog was barking non-stop and will continue to question why. Why did he have to die? Why couldn’t I have saved him?
What a powerful and very personal story. You did your absolute best and it just wasn’t enough. But, what happened to your neighbor didn’t put an end to your attempts to rescue others. So you obviously didn’t climb into bed and pull the blankets over your head. What happened next? Was your own home underwater?
While I was saddened and depressed, it made me more determined to rescue as many people as I could. At daylight the next morning, I went to Ms. Dru, my 90+ year old neighbor and demanded she leave. She said she would stay. I had to tell her that Web had passed away and that I was insisting she leave. She finally agreed. I helped her in a boat that I was able to “borrow” and floated her out of the neighborhood on a route that wouldn’t allow her to see Web laid out on his front lawn.
“The boat didn’t have a plug in the drain so Ms. Dru had to bail the water out with a small bucket while I pulled her to a staging area. Then, I was able to get her on the back of a dump truck and on her long long journey to Lafayette. I was able to make contact with her niece and nephew in Oklahoma and they immediately started driving down to pick Ms. Dru up and bring her to their home, where Ms. Dru started volunteering, just like she did all her life in New Orleans. One of the best days of my life was seeing Ms. Dru coming down our street months later – she had returned! The neighborhood would never be the same without Ms. Dru
I continued rescuing every day in my neighborhood until I was certain that I had every neighbor out safely. I have one more very challenging rescue that still gives me chills. It was Wednesday after Katrina. I was at the bridge on Metairie Road over the 17th Street Canal when a thin, young woman walked up to me. She asked if I was in charge. I explained to her that no one was in charge.
“She then started crying and asked me to help her by rescuing her baby. She went on to tell me that her 28 day old son was left in her home on Hamilton Street in the Hollygrove area of New Orleans. She explained to me that she couldn’t swim and that she didn’t know what to do, as her mom didn’t even know she had a baby.
I was lucky enough to get a boat owner to take me on his airboat to the house. While he stayed on the boat, armed to protect it, I went through the now dark and flooded home to find the baby boy in a closet on a pillow, wearing only a diaper. He was not in the flood waters yet. I grabbed him and had to dunk him in the water to get him out of the house as the water was so high. I washed his face off with water from my water bottle and we rushed this tiny baby to an ambulance and with the grace of God, the baby was taken to a hospital in Baton Rouge. I was unable to find the mother of the baby for over four weeks.
“When I found her, she hugged me and we both sat there and cried and cried and cried. The baby boy made it, thanks to the help of the generous boat owner who risked his life to safe this baby boy. I say risked because the gunfire on Wednesday was horrible and his boat was a hot commodity. We were both determined to save the boy. Especially after losing my neighbor Web, I wanted to save this 28 day old boy!
We were blessed not to have had flood waters in our home. We did have a fire that burned our den down the month after Katrina when Entergy was working on the power lines and a surge blew out of electrical boxes and started a fire.
Wow. I’d forgotten all about the gunfire. I’m sure your exploits made you a neighborhood legend. Did most of these folks eventually return and rebuild?
“A lot of residents returned to the three streets that make up that neighborhood. Although several people (me included) have sold and moved for various reasons, it was and is the best neighborhood in the city! A very close knit group of caring, fun loving people. Katrina brought the neighborhood closer and more connected especially when my friend Gibbons Burke set up a neighborhood-exclusive Google group email service – one that allows only neighbors to communicate. That was key when people were spread out across the country all looking for information.
That group email later became a helpful tool when people attempted to find a repair man, contractor, baby sitter, or report suspicious activity. Today, thanks to Gibbons, that group email is used daily by the neighbors to communicate. That has also been a bond to bring people together – as communication is a key and Gibbons had the foresight to see that we needed it four years ago as well as today.
That’s a great idea. Someone should take it to the mayor or governor for the future emergency planning. Anything you’d like to add, Ray?
Not having to evacuate once this hurricane season was such a relief. I hope that we can get the flood protection we need to make New Orleans safe and never have another Katrina wreck our city and lives again. Thank you, Joan.
Amen to that.Many people were lucky indeed to have you as their neighbor during Katrina. Thanks for sharing your story, Ray. It was a great one to kick off this series.
Reposted by Ray Reggie as we approach the 2013 Hurricane season in New Orleans.
It should be noted that I just attended Ms. Dru’s 100th Birthday celebration! What a God send she is! We enjoyed the day talking about funny times and the day I forced her to evacuate after Katrina. She is blessed to have wonderful nieces and nephews, who, like me, love Ms. Dru very much!
Original Posting: http://www.opednews.com/articles/New-Orleans–Four-Years-a-by-Joan-Brunwasser-091104-201.html
@rayreggie https://twitter.com/rayreggie
Ray Reggie New Orleans, LA
Raymond Reggie
Look at this article on John Crosby, a well respected real estate developer. John found a bank pouch with over $2,500 in it and returned it! What a great positive, uplifting story! Here’s the link to the story. http://www.fox8live.com/story/19231502/good-samaritan-returns-thousands-found-in-street
This isn’t the first time John was at the right place at the right time. In April 2010, John dove in the lake to a save a life. The world could use more great people like John Crosby. Thanks John!
Ray Reggie
Mandeville, LA
This article, New Orleans And Katrina Past Prediction, Future Dystopia by Garry Potter is a really interesting article about Katrina. It is about the author watching a National Geographic show on television that he thought originally was about Hurricane Katrina. He realized later that the show was actually made before Hurricane Katrina and it was more like a prediction. Hmmmm……
The article is kind of long but a very good read with the author touching on topics like global warming and the disturbing economy. Worth the read if you can take a couple of minutes.
–Ray Reggie–
Finding this article about author Ned Sublette and his memories of New Orleans brought some interesting insights into how people feel about New Orleans. Sublette will be launching his book at the Mother-in-Law Lounge. “The Year Before the Flood” is not a “Katrina book,” but rather a reminder of what life was like “the last year the city was whole,” Sublette said, here in the place he calls the northernmost point of the “Saints and Festivals belt.” And when he writes of a post-Katrina second-line, with the crowd chanting “Reee-birth!” he says, “Were they supporting the band, or shouting to their city? It was the same thing.” At one point, Sublette realizes, “You don’t really love New Orleans until you’ve hated it.” Definately a book to read.
–Ray Reggie–
This long form graphic novel tells the story of seven different Hurricane Katrina survivors and how they survived and lived with the aftermath of the storm. Writer and illustrator Josh Neufeld has had a fairly long career as a cartoonist and had a very strong relationship to Katrina and what happened in New Orleans.
In the structure of this book, we see pictures of New Orleans as it was, and then we see the storm come to New Orleans and Biloxi, and then it begins to tell the story from the points of view of all of the characters. And then it goes back after the storm and checks in with wherever they are, and then at a later point, it goes back again.
It seems that the people in the book gradually seem to recover their balance, but the book really brings home how very pervasive the sense of loss was and still is in New Orleans. Read more…
–Enjoy, Ray Reggie–
Last week was a difficult yet enlightening week for me. As I spent the week remembering and honoring an amazing man and his family with the rest of the country, it caused me to also do some personal reflecting. Roaming the streets of New Orleans with my memories keeping me company, as I watched the children playing in the parks, the police and city workers doing their jobs and the many unfortunate ones in line at the shelters and food banks, I was faced with the one great truth that we all must face. This is that every single one of us is born, we live and then we pass on to another place, another journey. The one thing that truly separates us is how we live. Staring at this one common denominator that we all share made me wonder if I am doing everything that I can to be the best person I can be. Could I be kinder? Could I help more people? Could I share more of myself with the important people in my life? Will I look back someday and wish I had done more? I hope not. I know that I will make plenty more mistakes in my life and make wrong decisions but I would also like to think that at those times, I will remember last week and what it meant to me and it will make me a better person.
–Ray Reggie–
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