Stripe4

Q: What's your name and position in the company?
A: Shaun Hogg, Managing Director

Q: Describe your company in 5 words.
A: Distinctive, Reliable, Innovative, Honest

Q: What's your business philosophy?
A: We’re completely down-to-earth, we don’t blab on about ROI or business buzzwords that sound like they come straight from a textbook. We’re straight talking, creative and engaging – but let’s let the results do the talking, shall we?

Q: Describe your office environment.
A: Quirky - it's fairly plain but filled with cool things like monkey USB hubs!

Q: Describe how your team interact and work together.
A: We talk mostly! We've always tried to stay clear of the whole skype messaging people across the table! We also use (and love) Basecamp for working on projects - we often just invite the client into the basecamp project as well so they can watch things starting to take shape and the process been carried out.

Q: What makes you different from other web design companies?
A: While this may sound fairly dry, it's our commercial grounding. Yes we love been creative and playing with new technologies, but we have to remember why we're actually doing all of it. It normally comes down to making money for our clients. We won't start an engagement until we know what the 'success indicator' is going to be.

Q: How do you get the majority of your business?
A: Typically word of mouth and face to face networking. People buy from people so this is the approach to our marketing that we've taken. We also get a fair amount of referrals in through social media and our blog. Naturally we're an inbound marketing company so we should be using these methods ;)

Q: Describe how you manage projects from the initial client contact to completion and handover.
A: Initial Meeting, Proposal, Half day discovery session, final plan/roadmap, several sign off phases, training, handover

Q: What do you think is the most crucial element of creating a good client relationship?
A: Been honest and open. If something isn't working out for example the easiest way to maintain a good relationship is to tell the client. Most people we work with accept that we are as well people! If someone is ill for a week just tell them!

Q: How do you manage demanding clients?
A: Typically we take a very frank and honest approach to demanding clients. Naturally we will always do our upmost to deliver what they are asking for, if it's not realistic though we just tell them and re-work the request to be more achievable.

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: Ask for a meeting with the company, and the people you are going to be working with. Naturally if they are on your shortlist you know you'd be happy with their work/they can do the work. So what you are left with is who do you get on with best?

Q: Where do you see your company in 10 years time?
A: Still a fairly small agency, we never set out to be hundreds of staff with a ton of clients. We like to keep a small pool of clients that we can really get to know and stay boutique.

Q: Where do you see the web design industry in the future?
A: I think we'll see more of a shift towards 'do it yourself' and more collaboration between freelancers and small companies. We're finding a lot of people would rather work with a smaller company rather than one of the huge companies in our area.

Q: What computers do you have use in your offices, PCs or Macs?
A: Mac

Q: How was your company name chosen?
A: We were initially called Burnt Zebra Digital. However we later found that we'd infringed someones trademark (yes, you can trademark the word Zebra). At the time there was 4 directors of the company, and we had a cool picture of a zebra on the wall that we wanted to keep - so we went with "Stripe4".

Q: If you were to give your clients one tip on how to get the most from their website what would it be?
A: Remember that the people using your website are people not numbers. Think about how you can create a fantastic user experience online not just 'sausage factory' to churn out leads. Treat people like like people and the numbers and the leads will follow. Naturally track the numbers as well ;-)