Great piece on a Telnames customer from London Love Business
Telnames customer Phil Murray (http://philmurray.tel) is profiled in this piece on LondonLovesBusiness - there’s an offer too running until July 2012 so others can take advantage of getting your business up and mobile in 15 minutes for less than £10!
***UPDATE: We got hold of the full Q&A with Phil Murray, so here it is below****
Why did you feel it was important to have a mobile-friendly web presence?
Prior to going to Telnames, I had tried to get a normal website, but it proved really difficult, even with help. But recently, whenever I’ve been travelling to work on the train, I’m noticing people more and more using smartphones, at bus stops, everywhere basically. They’re using this time to watch videos or do something productive like searching on the web for presents. So as I didn’t have a traditional website, I thought I’d better get something that worked on both PCs and on mobile phones.
How did you go about getting one?
To be honest, I’d seen adverts on the television for ‘easy’ websites but honestly it was all too confusing and I had no idea how much it would cost to keep going. So I was chatting with some people in the pub one day who mentioned this new service that was very easy and low-cost and so I thought, why not try it out given it’s so low-risk.
What was the process like?
Well, I did get someone to register my .tel name for me on the Telnames site (pretty much to make sure I spelt my name properly!), but then we sat down and I filled it in and it was nearly instantaneous appearing on the web, it was amazing! It was really a simple case of filling in a form with the information I wanted to show, uploading some pictures that my partner had scanned in for me and putting in a link to a video, and then it was all done automatically. I couldn’t believe how easy and quick it was.
What were the key bits of information you wanted to display, and why?
It’s really basically how people can reach me and some pictures and information about what I do and how they can get in touch to make an appointment. With jewellery, you really have to see it or have a face-to-face discussion when it comes to knowing what you want made or what you want to buy. At the moment I’m not on any social networks so I just put information so that people can get in touch. I know social networking is probably the way to go but if and when I do it, I’ll update my .tel so people can get in touch that way if they need or want to.
What benefits have you seen since? (Eg. in terms of customers, web traffic, etc)
Well, it’s a bit early to tell to be honest as I’ve only had it a couple of weeks but now, if you search for my name and the location I’m in – Phil Murray Hatton Garden – whereas before you’d never find anything to do with me, now my .tel name is first in the list out of over 21 million results! So now I can tell people to search for me and they can find me, which is a huge positive, both on PCs and on mobile devices.
I’ve also just got my first customer from my .tel name, which is fantastic! I think my .tel name has paid for itself many times over already and I’ve only had it a couple of weeks.
Any advice to other small businesses who haven’t yet got a mobile-friendly web presence?
Even for someone like me who doesn’t know one end of a computer cable from another, it’s really easy to get something that at least gets you found online and on mobiles. Smart phones are the future, it’s easy to see, and even though we wouldn’t know how to work them, you can still easily get your business to be ready for them, and for a lot less than you’d expect.
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