We do hope to see you there, so put the date in your diary!  Let’s try and raise even more money than we did last year.

We held our coffee morning in the communal area of our office building, inviting not only everyone that worked in the building but also members of the public, via the Macmillan website.  Everyone enjoyed a good chat, delicious pastries, freshly brewed coffee (our MD makes an excellent Macchiato), a choice of teas (including fruit and herbal) plus fresh juices.  It was fun but we want to do even better this year in the money raising stakes.

This year’s national event will be held on Friday 24th September and we want to get the word out as soon as possible.

We will keep you updated and will provide a form for you to register your interest in attending. However, for now, please put the date in your diary!

Solution:  We created a professional site that allowed Shiraz to promote each of their products.  The site is clean and easily navigable.  We have provided the facility to view video demonstrations of products when they are completed and view  resource materials for each product in pdf format.

Results: Shiraz Software now have a professional site that enables them to compete on a global level with other major large format printing companies.

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.

One interesting new innovation that could impact website owners is the Google Sidewiki. This new Google toolbar component allows anyone to add comments which can be viewed at the side of the webpage.

The idea is hardly a new one: we’ve seen many similar services launch – and sometimes fade – before. The difference may just be that Google’s ubiquity will show a much more substantial take-up, and hence the idea will finally find its time.

As a website owner, your main concern will be what kind of comments users may write for others to see. It seems that the Sidewiki is largely conceived as a public service utility; in the visual example given by Google, visitors to a tourism website add tips about the weather and things to see. Google’s algorithms will ensure that spammy, offensive, or less useful comments will be driven down by more popular or relevant content.

Naturally, there will be abuse of such a service. Presumably Google has measures in place to deal with this if needs be. You may also find that, if your website does get commented on at all, Sidewiki provides useful insight into what your users are thinking; what do they perceive not to be on your website that your other users might need, for example. As with most Google products, Sidewiki could work hard for you.. so long as you know how to use it.

We caught up with old friends as well as meeting quite a few new ones. But of course, there was a serious side to the event – raising money for a worthy cause.

With all the help and support received by so many, we raised the incredible sum of £214.84!

So a big THANK YOU to everyone involved.

To retweet (or ‘RT’ as it is called on Twitter, due to its defining character-limit) is simply the act of repeating someone else’s post. It implies a desire to spread news, admiration for, or appreciation of the original tweet.

It’s when a single tweet gets picked up and retweeted by thousands of users that you find why Twitter is regarded by some as the holy grail of marketing: word spreads, fast, and for free.

If proof were needed that business is sitting up and taking note of the power of Twitter, look no further than an in-depth analysis from Dan Zarella. A recent blog post from Fast Company scoured his report for just nine of the qualities most likely to get you retweeted – and pointed to his 22-page work on the same.

Who would have thought a mere 144 characters could be researched so thoroughly? Read these nine pieces of advice – and, if it gets your interest, the full report – and you’ll begin to understand why.

These are wise words indeed from Mahtma Ghandi:

A customer is the most important visitor on our premises, he is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.

It is certainly an ethos we believe wholeheartedly in and one we strive to maintain at Notting Hill Internet Services.

How can anyone not in these hard economic times?

Unfortunately, having had to make calls recently to some well-known service providers, I realised that there are some businesses out there who are sadly not familiar with Ghandi’s great words… shame.

The event is open to the public and will be taking place at our offices on Friday 25th September, starting at 8.30am and finishing at 12.30pm.  So why not pop in for a coffee before work?  Or take a break whilst shopping to get a reviving cup of tea?  We will also have a wonderful choice of pastries to tickle those taste buds – ignore the diet, this is for charity!

To let us know if you can join us, and receive more details, contact us today.

See you there!

Spiritual Capital Cardiff was the first website produced jointly by The Pollen shop and Notting Hill Internet Services. It was designed to meet the needs of public sector clients that require flexibility and affordability as well as high standards of accessibility.

Fari Peyman, Managing Director, said:

This partnership will build on our core strengths and enable us to offer great value to new and existing clients. Notting Hill Internet Services already has a proven track record in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Producing sites to a high standard of accessibility uses very similar processes. By combining both practices we will now be able to bring a new dimension to our managed Internet services.

If you are interested in discussing an accessible website, at an affordable price, contact us today.