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SMS dollars
by Marie Bell
Did you know that you can get nearly all of your HUG conference dues back in something called SMS Dollars. The SMS dollars program has been part of the HUG conference for years. Originally, the certificates were handed out as paper copies at the end of the conference. A couple years ago, to ensure proper delivery and avoid lost or forgotten certificates, SMS changed the program to an emailed certificate. For the 2016 HUG conference, every full registration attendee received $500 in SMS dollars! That was nearly the entire cost of the HUG registration fee being gifted back to the attendee in monies that can be used to buy Springer Miller services and products.
I have tried to use my property's SMS dollars every year. Normally we apply our SMS dollars to a few days of onsite training or audits. Back in 2009 my property sent 5 attendees to the conference. Our SMS dollars went a long way that year. We needed a new interface to our POS, so in 2010 we applied our SMS dollars to the cost of this interface. This year, we plan to use our SMS dollars for an onsite training. The dollars feel like a special door prize that I can offer to my company. It's great to say "Remember when you approved that few days for training at the HUG conference? Well, I now have a gift certificate towards more training here at the property!"
I asked around to some of my HUG buddies to see how they use their SMS dollars. I heard quite a few replies where people had used their dollars for new SMS product offerings or even interfaces. It seems the greatest value that people are using them for is the same that my property had selected with the Onsite Trainings or Audits. I had one friend respond with, "I just found out my property didn't use our dollars from 2015. We sent three people! You better believe we are going to use our dollars from 2016!"
SMS dollars turn the HUG conference into the gift that keeps on giving. We normally get home from the conference and spend days bragging about all the new features we learned about, or the new products that are available, or even all the things that we never knew we could do differently to make the system work for us even better. These SMS dollars give us the ability to help apply not only what we learned, but also what we were gifted in dollars toward a pathway to applying these new features or audits/training at our property.
In 2016 an average attendee paid $519 for HUG registration. That same attendee received $500 in SMS Dollars! Effectively, they received a five day conference filled with training, food, and fun for only $19!
According to the terms and conditions on the certificate: SMS Dollars are valid for Springer-Miller Systems Software and Training purchases, Springboard, Development Services, Site Audits and Consultative Services. They are not valid for payment of Support Fees, Third Party Software or Travel Expenses.
So basically, you can learn all about SMS|Anywhere at the HUG conference, then turn around and use your Gift Certificate of SMS Dollars to pay for part of it! That's not a bad deal!
Did you attend the 2016 SMS conference? Good news! Your SMS dollars are still valid until May15th, 2017. Did your property send more than one attendee? Contact those attendees and have them check their email for their certificate. You can pool up your certificates and buy some cool SMS stuff! Happy SMS shopping!
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