With National Small Business Week taking place May 2nd through the 7th, Verizon wants to start celebrating small businesses early.
From April 29th through May 7th, Verizon's doors are open to serve small businesses for Small Business Days in cities across the country including here in Salt Lake City.
We were joined by Wendy Taccetta, Verizon's head of small business to learn more.
She said, "Verizon Small Business Days is us formally welcoming small businesses back into our stores with special offers on phones and plans for customers looking to leverage the newest technologies to move their business forward. Additionally, to help these businesses understand how they can be using technology more in their day-to-day business, we are offering personalized free tech evaluations virtually or on-site."
Businesses of all sizes have had to pivot how they do business in the last year. But among small businesses in particular, there's been an increased adoption of digital video conferencing platforms like Verizon's BlueJeans service.
Taccetta says they've also seen demand for tools like OneTalk, which easily enables businesses to manage their office phone systems whenever and wherever they are. And with many employees working remotely, they've seen an investment in cybersecurity solutions as employees are accessing company systems outside of their office network.
One of the areas that Verizon prides itself on is direct customer interactions… and Taccetta says while they've been able to do that with the help of remote collaboration tools like BlueJeans, they miss that in person connection with customers and want to be able to offer that to those that desire it.
She says, "And we know that customers are looking for answers as their businesses have been forever changed and we are excited to be there to help them. Specifically, the areas that we believe are critical for the growth of small businesses are 5G technology and 5G-enabled applications. And beyond our nationwide network for mobile, we recently announced that our 5G Business Internet offering is now in 24 markets across the country. Because 5G is a newer technology, we believe that our representatives in store can not only explain the value of 5G, but more importantly the impact it can have on their day-to-day operations. In fact, according to a recent Verizon Business survey, 69% of business decision makers believe 5G will help them overcome the effects of the pandemic."
If small business owners aren't comfortable or aren't able to come into a store, they can sign up and schedule a virtual consultation on BlueJeans with a consultant.
Verizon also offers advice, and access to resources through small business webinars and panels. They've conducted many of these over the past year from small businesses who are looking for advice and inspiration. And they've assembled business leaders outside of Verizon who represent multiple industries and offer insight and guidance to small business audiences. Small businesses too often don't know who and where to reach out to for advice and assistance, so Verizon's worked to find individuals ranging from leaders in the Small Business Administration to experts in small business marketing to help these businesses.
For more information about Verizon's Small business Days and how Verizon is welcoming customers back in Salt Lake City stores, visit verizon.com/smallbusiness.
