Smart Computing Ltd

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

Q: Describe your company in 5 words.
A: Friendly, Professional, Innovative, Customer orientated,

Q: What's your business philosophy?
A: We operate on the principle that we are not happy until the customer is happy.

Q: Describe your office environment.
A: Group of friends working together in a relaxed environment. We work long hours but enjoy every moment of it.

Q: Describe how your team interact and work together.
A: We strive to keep good communication and great teamwork through every project. No matter what position in the company we ensure every idea is valued and encourage progression through the organisation.

Q: What makes you different from other web design companies?
A: We don't use templates and pass them off as our own as some do. We design everything from scratch along with the customer to ensure that they get what they want.

Q: How do you get the majority of your business?
A: We get most of our business through referrals from our exisiting customers.

Q: Describe how you manage projects from the initial client contact to completion and handover.
A: We keep the customer as close as we can during every stage of development to ensure they get what they want and not what we think they should have. The client has a project manager who is with them every step of the way and at the end of the phone when they have thoughts, concerns or ideas.

Q: What do you think is the most crucial element of creating a good client relationship?
A: To listen to what the client really wants and not go off and create something you think the client should have. As I have said already, a lot of web design companies don't listen to their clients ideas. Every client knows what they want, some tell us outright and some need to be given the chance to tell us.

Q: How do you manage demanding clients?
A: Again, we listen to them. We believe that each client should get exactly what they want, therefore we seek to meet their demands.

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: Talk to the people at the company and ask them questions. This is the only real way you get to know a web design company and the designers.

Q: Where do you see your company in 10 years time?
A: I hope we are still going strong. I would love to see 20 + team of designers and developers working for us.

Q: Where do you see the web design industry in the future?
A: You never know where it will take you next but you've got to do your best to keep up. We never stop learning.

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

Q: How was your company name chosen?
A: The founders had a brainstorm at the beginning and most of the names we thought of had been taken so we went with something a little different.

Q: If you were to give your clients one tip on how to get the most from their website what would it be?
A: Advertise it! You could have the best looking website in the world but if no-one sees it, it's no good. Also, make sure you have all the information possible on there.