Big news in the office this week: we are embarking on a training scheme to improve our customer service. Why? Because much as we’d like to believe we meet our own high standards all of the time, a couple of recent customer complaints alerted us to the fact that this may not be so.

In over ten years of business, we have had very few complaints, but when two come in close succession, we sit up and take notice. The truth of the matter is that in a busy office like ours, when we are juggling many accounts, we do sometimes drop a ball.

Well, no longer.

We want to be certain that we really are giving the very best service that we can, so we’re ready to learn where we have been going wrong, and put processes in place to ensure that it never happens again.

Meanwhile, we want to take care that we manage customer expectations too, so that there is complete understanding from  both parties. Web design and building can be a complex process on our side (though not on yours – well, that’s our aim, anyway), so there is always the potential for confusion. We hope that if we set down our processes, both sides will know precisely where they stand.

So that’s what we will be working on during our training scheme: there will be a particular emphasis on communication from the very beginning of every new project, and we will endeavour to keep communication channels open until its conclusion.

Meanwhile, we’ll rely on you, the customer, to tell us if we are falling short of these aims. We’ll be honest: complaints come as a blow. We never like to think that we have failed to meet our customers’ expectations – but if we have, we need to know, so that we can start work on making improvements.

To the cynic, Twitter can seem like little more than an arena for self-promotion. In the space of those 140 characters, we’re all trying to find new ways to ‘big ourselves up’.

One way to gain Twitter brownie points is by being among the first to ‘retweet’ emerging or interesting news. The temptation may be to do so without checking its veracity, and so it is that we saw, last week, the spread of a pervasive rumour that rapper Kanye West had died in a car crash.

When rumours can flash across the globe like wildfire, it’s perhaps easy to see what the attraction is in starting them, standing back, and laughing at people’s credulity.

On this occasion, however, it didn’t stop at a few thousand people being suckered. Within hours, those Twitter users who were bothering to check the truth of the story before retweeting, found that a search for ‘Kanye West death’ on Google was actually returning pages apparently corroborating the story.

What’s more, clicking one of the links would have led the user to that time-old PC-infecting chancer, the fake anti-virus page.

It seems that the originators of malicious viruses are opportunistically exploiting rumours such as these (or worse – creating the rumours in the first place?) to create new channels for the unwary to fall into their traps. How are they doing it? With the same SEO practices that we all use to try to get legitimate websites ranking highly on Google.

It is a sad day when hackers manipulate a trusted arena like the Google search results page – and it just shows how we have all become complacent thanks to Google’s usually excellent anti-virus safeguards.

Our advice? Check a verified news source such as the BBC before you retweet – and cross your fingers that the hackers don’t find their way onto those sites any time soon.

We’re always talking about the many benefits the social media revolution has brought us. But remember that, just as in real life, the virtual world is an environment in which it pays to be wary.

Case: The Reel Poster Gallery is situated in west London and renowned for its collection of vintage original movie posters as well as related books. Trading for over 17 years, the company was certainly well established and successful but its online presence was poor. The Gallery had obtained many rare items that would be of interest to a number of international niche markets but did not have a way of reaching those people. Four different companies managed various aspects of the website from domain management to website design and development. The Reel Poster Gallery found it difficult to manage the website effectively having to communicate with so many suppliers.

Solution: We offered a comprehensive programme that included enhancing the capability and ease of use of the existing site; using the same design and brief to develop six further sites to promote individual collections; rigorous optimisation to ensure heavy presence in the search engine rankings; taking over the complete management of all aspects of their online business.

Results: ReelPoster.com now has excellent presence in the search engine rankings for keywords such as ‘original movie posters’ and ‘vintage movie posters’, consistently achieving high positions on the front page of Google and other search engines. The online business is greatly enhancing The Reel Poster Gallery, reaching a large number of international buyers and sellers, allowing The Reel Poster Gallery to tap in to more niche markets. The co-owners, Tony Nourmand and Bruce Marchant, are free to continue their search for original items whilst Notting Hill Internet Services manages all aspects of their online business from web hosting to optimisation, website management to Internet marketing.

Case: The Back Shop is a well established retail outlet selling orthopaedic furniture, trading for over 20 years, with a showroom in central London. It had an online presence but the website was not generating enough interest nor had it been updated and therefore did not truly represent the company’s products or services. The domain name, web hosting and website design were handled by three different companies. Therefore, when a problem arose it was difficult for The Back Shop to identify the source and rectify it quickly.

Solution: We firstly consolidated the management of the domain, web hosting, website design and maintenance. This meant that The Back Shop only had to place one call if any problems occurred or if amendments were needed. We then provided an eye-catching design displaying their vast range of products giving the visitor the ability to buy direct from the website. We also embarked on a comprehensive search engine optimisation programme to boost the visibility of the website as well as providing a full webmaster service to ensure all products were continually updated.

Results: TheBackShop.co.uk has grown beyond their expectations. It is ranked highly on search engines such as Google for keywords such as ‘Back Care Solutions’. They are also ranked in the top three for nearly all of their products. As a result, the number of visitors to the site has steadily increased. The Back Shop now receives a good proportion of its business from online enquiries.

It is the lot of a small business person, unfortunately, that one never has time to concentrate on absolutely everything. Something always has to give while you deal with, well, the realities of life: customers, tax returns, stock control…

Which is why it might be tempting to sort out the basics for your website and leave it at that. Most business owners these days understand the importance of SEO, and how it can be a valuable tool in bringing you more customers – but many will draw a line there. Social media? That sounds like a step too far, a lot of faff and a sharp learning curve.

Well, the time may have come that SEO and social media are merging. Google is said to be in talks with Twitter over the inclusion of ‘tweets’ in their search results. For Google, it’s a relatively quick and easy way to ensure that their Search product is practically in ‘real time’. For you, and your business, it’s a move that means you really can no longer afford to ignore social media.

This has been the week in which we have seen journalist Jan Moir castigated by thousands via Twitter, when a story she filed happened to light the incendiary rage of Twitter users. Now imagine that, instead of her name, a complaint about your company ‘goes viral’ on Twitter – and that, as a result, the top Google result for your company name is not your own website, but a representative sample of tweets criticising you.

If that sounds like a nightmare, be aware that the flip side of the coin is not only a happier one, but a more likely scenario, too. The chances are that the mundane daily tweets mentioning your business are, at worst, tangential, and at best, offering praise. Even the former could boost your trade (”Just got a coffee from Jenson’s” can have a knock-on effect. People are very suggestible).

If you haven’t had the time yet, now would be a good moment to search Twitter and see what your customers are actually saying about you. If you don’t like what you see, it’s looking like you have a short period of grace to put it right before Google and Twitter seal their deal. And if you’re too busy with customers, tax returns and stock control, come to Notting Hill Internet Services, where we’ll happily turn things around for you.

Got your website looking just the way you like it? Great news – but has it ever occurred to you that not every visitor might be seeing it the same way you do?

I’m not talking about human visitors (although that’s a whole issue in itself, when you consider they may be viewing on a variety of screen resolutions, operating systems and browser combinations). I’m talking about the bots.

They may sound like characters from some science fiction dystopia, but bots are simply the name given to the automated ‘crawlers’ that visit your website every now and again in order to index it for the search engines.

They will ’see’ your site very differently to your human visitors, caring only about the prominence given to various words and phrases, internal and outbound links, and your site structure. It might surprise you to see which keywords, seen through the ‘eyes’ of a bot, are given prominence.

Now you can, indeed, do just that. Google recently launched a Fetch as Googlebot application for webmasters, where you type in your url, and can see just how your page appears to Google.

With Fetch as Googlebot, you might finally get the data you need to fully understand just why your site doesn’t rank well for your desired keywords. But if it all seems a bit complicated, we at Notting Hill Internet Services would be happy to take a look for you.

Case: Pictorum Illustration was the brainchild of Paul Robinson, a professional artist and commercial illustrator. He had amassed a large number of illustrations that he felt should be put to work by either advertising his services or being offered for use as second rights or licence agreements to the advertising and publishing sectors. Paul also wanted to offer other artists a platform to showcase their services too. This would be an ongoing process and Paul needed a website with flexibility to allow for growth as well as the ability for self-management.

Solution: As an artist, Paul had very definite ideas regarding the design of the website he wanted. Paul worked in conjunction with our designers to produce a website that visually matched his specification. We provided a full content management system, which is very simple to use and easy to understand, so that Paul has complete control over the content of PictorumIllustration.co.uk. New artists can therefore be added, new categories and galleries created, as well as website text amended. Since the website went live, we have provided new additions to the content management system to meet Paul’s needs as they have arisen.

Results: PictorumIllustration.co.uk is a great showcase for artistic talent for the publishing and advertising sectors. It provides visitors with the ability to search and display graphic images in an instant and recall them at differing sizes. The website can be easily updated and amended by Paul in an instant, giving him freedom of control over the artistic content.

We were approached by Blanka – who impressed us so much, we employed her! – and asked how she could showcase her photography and art. Our solution was a simple, yet professional website that displayed her images in an attractive and uncomplicated way.  The result was InfinityImages.co.uk.

Case:  Blanka Sadilkova had amassed a large number of images and needed an online presence to showcase her work. 

Solution:  As a local person, struggling to start-up her photography service, we provided a free website.  The website needed to be artistic yet simple enough for the images to be viewed on their own merit.

Results:  InfinityImages.co.uk is now providing Blanka with an online presence allowing her to promote the photography service – which has grown so much we expanded the website to accommodate various galleries.

While we are on the subject of surveys (see our post on how few small businesses in the UK have websites), how about this one?

A recent Citibank/GfK Roper survey in the USA found that 76% of small businesses are not using social media to promote themselves. As before, we’d wager that the figure is larger here in the UK.

When social media is an effectively free way of getting new and loyal customers, what are the reasons for this? We think they’re clear:

• There is still little understanding and a great deal of mistrust of what is a relatively new phenomenon. Those who don’t use social media in their own, well, social life, are understandably reluctant to make the leap.
• Businesses, however small, need resources to keep up a proper social media presence. Monitoring what is being said about your company online, and responding to users; as well as putting out marketing messages, special offers and announcements, can take up an awful lot of someone’s time.
• Small businesses may be afraid of what they will find being said about them in an uncontrolled environment. Ignorance is sometimes bliss (although, in this case, we’d suggest you take a deep breath and see what your customers are saying, before working out what you can best do to fix any negative press).

We think the answer is simple. If you don’t understand social media, are wary of it, or can’t dedicate the time to it, the solution is to outsource – and that is something that we at Notting Hill Internet Services would be very happy to discuss with you.

Case: Vincent House is a residential house based in west London, providing medium and long term accommodation. Their website was functional, yet very basic and they required a site that would allow them to expand and enhance the marketing and communication possibilities. The style and design of the website required updating to provide a more contemporary look reflecting the unique, friendly and ‘club style’ character of Vincent House, whilst also being simple, accessible and informative. The website did not offer an e-mail link so any one interested in obtaining further information had to make a follow up telephone call. Whilst Vincent House is currently in the privileged position of not having to promote itself to potential new customers, it was important that the site was up to date, appearing professional and providing accurate information.

Solution: Vincent House approached us to redesign their website, based upon their current branding and logo design. We implemented a sympathetic theme to match the look and design of the house, which is a beautiful Art Moderne building with many original features. Following a detailed brief we worked closely with Vincent House to achieve their goal of producing a much more accessible and professional looking website without losing the ‘friendly’ feel of the House. A new contact form and detailed application form has been developed to cut down time spent on the phone and to assist the front of house staff with bookings and scheduling.

Results:  Notting Hill Internet Services is now producing a Content Management System so that Vincent House can manage the updating of information on a regular basis as well as acting as web master for the creative changes needed to keep the website fresh. A blog is to be introduced for both staff and residents and there are now discussions to develop an intranet for the House management.