Q: What's your name and position in the company?
A: Aaran Gravestock - development guru
Q: Describe your company in 5 words.
A: fresh, innovative, honest, simple, creative
Q: What's your business philosophy?
A: We stand by our ethos of finding a solution to fit the need, rather than moving the goalposts.
Q: Describe your office environment.
A: We work as a distributed workplace, meaning that we each have our own home-based office. This allows us to work in our own environment while reducing the need to cover the costs of traditional office space. This facilitates calm working spaces that offer a relaxed and homely environment in which to think, plan, design and work.
Q: Describe how your team interact and work together.
A: We make full use of cloud-based technologies and communication mediums to ensure that we keep fully in sync. We use team development environments and online project management tools to allow us to work in a clever and streamlined fashion.
Q: What makes you different from other web design companies?
A: As a very small and close-knit team, we can offer a completely personal service to our customers. Each of our customers will only work with a single member of the team for all aspects of the project. Small portions of work may be undertaken by any member of the team, but each project is planned discussed, managed and delivered by one person.
Q: How do you get the majority of your business?
A: Most of our new business comes via word of mouth. We pride ourselves on being very fast workers, incredibly adroit problem solvers and exceptional at making the most of each and every one of our clients projects.
Q: Describe how you manage projects from the initial client contact to completion and handover.
A: The initial client meeting is the point at which we aim to guage the scope of the project, create conceptual solutions and suggest further improvements and ideas. Ongoing work is trackable by the client using our online project management tool.
Q: What do you think is the most crucial element of creating a good client relationship?
A: By far the most important element is keeping in constant contact. It's imperative that the client is informed of any progress, problems and decisions every step of the way. This ensures maximum efficiency and guarantees that the end solution is a perfect fit to the customer's goals.
Q: How do you manage demanding clients?
A: We find it important to have regular face-to-face meetings with our customers to ensure that any required decision making is done in person. We feel that these meetings achieve so much more than a standard email or telephone dialogue.
Q: If a client was trying to decide between a shortlist of web design companies, how would you recommend they go about selecting the right one for them?
A: Ultimately, price should never be the first consideration when choosing a design company. More important is how you feel about the company. Specifically, it's important the establish a good working relationship from the start. This can include such factors as personability, ability to quickly suggest the best way to acheive any required goal, and how adept the company seems with project planning and management.
Q: Where do you see your company in 10 years time?
A: In 10 years, we will have more designers working in more locations across the country. This will help us to ensure that we can maintain our ethos of keeping in regular contact with our customer base no matter where they are. I'd like to think that very little else will have changed...apart from the odd grey hair maybe...
Q: Where do you see the web design industry in the future?
A: The importance of the Web is finally starting to be recognised by smaller-sized businesses. And with the emergence of cloud-based technology, the web design industry has a lot of work to do. Gone are the days where the MD's son could knock together a site using Microsoft Frontpage. Today, making full use of the technologies available is one of the most important factors to success. I don't know anybody who doesn't use the Internet to research potential products and service providers.
Q: What computers do you have use in your offices, PCs or Macs?
A: PC
Q: How was your company name chosen?
A: We wanted something catchy, unique and innovative whilst remaining instantly recognisable. We feel that our brand name IS indeed recognisable as a web design company without having to use these terms directly. We are also confident that our brand conveys a positive, funky and forward-thinking image to our customers.
Q: If you were to give your clients one tip on how to get the most from their website what would it be?
A: Update your content regularly! Search engines love it, and your customer base will keep coming back. With social media coming more and more to the forefront of every day life, you'll find that keeping your site visitors engaged will vastly reduce the need to spend a fortune on traditional advertising mediums. Have you seen how many of the business heavyweights are using Facebook these days?