Searching for an answer

Chatting online tonight to an ex-colleague who knows a bit[1] about web marketing. So I now have an entry on Google Local Listings (or at least I will within 24 hours).

Now I need to change all the titles of my pages, insert some metadata, and look at Google Analytics before running my site through websitegrader.com. Apparently.

And here was me thinking all my marketing would be through word of mouth from people down the pub. I guess I'd better go and find out what metadata is. Wonder if anyone down the pub knows...


[1] This may well be an understatement

Email - now there's a thing

Another reason to note down the customer email address is in case they would like it backed up. Of course, if they just want to clear Windows off and replace it, then they need to understand that ISP-downloaded emails could be treated the same as other data such as music, photos, documents, and lost for ever.

Just about to hop over to the website to remove some of the weirder design elements left in place by my *cough* web designer.

Good customer bad customer

Had an interesting discussion last night with S.O. about whether a customer with no computer knowledge at all, is a good or a bad thing. I took a call from one of mine, he couldn't get into his email. When I asked how he used to get into email on Windows, he said he had no idea:

Customer: "I just used to click it and it would open"
Me: "Click what?"
Customer: "My email"
Me: "Was it in your browser?"
Customer: "I don't know"
etc. etc.

I think that having customers like these at the start of the business is probably a good thing. I get so used to just making assumptions about people's computer literacy that I need a customer to keep me in check. This is also perhaps something for the checklist - find out what email address they use so that I can determine how they collect mail when I hand their machine back. It would also be useful to match the email address to the customer record anyway.

S.O. thought customers like these were bad for business, because they will be ringing me up every ten minutes whenever anything goes wrong that's vaguely computer related. Whilst this could be an issue in the future, I don't really mind so much at the start of the business, if it makes me more aware of the issues people will face in the future.

The jury's still out, and probably will be for a few months yet

Funny strip

This kind of sums up what I'm all about. Don't know who Howard Dean is though: xkcd

My office

Popped out to my local office to return a laptop to a customer today, but he didn't have a bag or payment. He said he'd give me a ring tomorrow to collect it in the afternoon. Trouble is, my local office is the pub, and before I could leave the landlord had poured me a pint. This could turn out to be an expensive business if I have to have a pint every time I have a "meeting".

Still, the customer went outside for a cigarette with his mate, and by the time I'd finished my pint, customer had persuaded his mate to use my services too, so I gave him my number and he will be in touch next week. Has to be a record for the quickest word of mouth recommendation.

My flat is beginning to look like a computer repair shop, but I guess that's because it is one.

Powerful Pierre

Picked up a laptop from a customer this afternoon (my first one since becoming self-employed, mini-yay). But he didn't have the power lead! Wouldn't be a problem with a desktop as I have kettle leads coming out of my ears, but laptop supplies are a little more specific.

Luckily he had one in his bag for his *own* laptop which happened to work, so I'm using that one now. Just doing the virus scan and report.

Need to amend my pre-sales questionnaire to ask about power supplies for laptops.

Marketing

Having a few ideas about marketing today:

1. Maybe a "local business startup" feature in the local newspaper - best give that idea a month or so to build up some customer base
2. Double-sided fliers - BSODs on one side with various text, link to ZeroDanger on the reverse with a few of the taglines from the website
3. Need something that works on one side, for sticking up in sandwich shops, pubs, local businesses etc.
4. Business cards - need to think about design of these. Double sided would be good

Big Day!

Went live today with the website for ZeroDanger. I'm not expecting it to generate a great deal of business itself, but it's nice to have a presence to refer to in my other marketing endeavours. It should have been live this morning but unfortunately the web designer misunderstood my requirements and so I've spent most of the day "gedit"ing HTML files. Learning curve steep much?

Also rang the revenue and told them that I'm officially self-employed from today. Now all I need is some paying customers!

Support call

Took a support call from a customer yesterday. Not sure what he had done, but he was having difficulty printing a document. I popped round and ran "lpq" in terminal... the same job was queued up 46 times. I think he had a paper jam but didn't realise, so kept re-clicking and resubmitting. Cleared the print queue down with a "cancel -u " and all was well again. Gave customer some Zen advice about patience, before leaving.

Generated two more leads though, nice.

out of hours...

Had an idea - wondering if there is any demand for an out-of-hours data recovery service. I've certainly performed this kind of thing before, maybe there is a need for it if someone loses their work the day before a deadline etc.

Get ready for the launch!

Hoping to launch the website next week. Once it's live then I can use the design to create some flyers, business cards and other promotional materials. Hopefully, these will then generate more traffic to the site, and more business.

Meanwhile: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe-yhsV-UbA