Next month Apt Design will be celebrating it’s 3rd birthday. As part of that celebration and in keeping with my core value of Communication I’m going to be sending a customer survey to all of my past and present clients. I’ve talked about getting feedback on this blog before, because I think it is extremely important for every business. With my survey I hope to gather plenty of thoughts about what Apt is doing right and what it could be doing better.
I’m actually pretty excited to get to hear anonymous thoughts from people I’ve worked with and use that feedback to help Apt Design respond to customer needs better and provide better services. I’ve already written out many of the things I want to ask, including questions like:
- How was your overall experience with Apt Design? Rate 1-10.
- What’s one thing that could have made your experience with Apt Design better?
(More great questions in this article – Top Ten Client Feedback Questions)
But I wanted to get your input on this process as well. If you had the chance to ask your customers/clients/patients how it was working with you or buying from you – what questions would you ask them?
Let me know in the comments or tweet me your ideas at @aptdesign
Just a note to let you know that I have some upcoming times when I’ll be unavailable.
My whole family is coming into town this year for Christmas (drawn to what I wonder?) and like many of you I’ll be taking off work to spend time with family. For that I’ll be unavailable from December 24th – January 1st.
I’ll then jump right back in and be happy to help you finish up some projects and make sure everything is running smoothly. I will then be taking another break to recharge, work on some personal projects, look at my business over the past 2.5 years, and plan for times ahead. For that I will be unavailable from January 14th – 20th.
After that I look forward to providing you with more great design service that connects you to your clients!
I hope you have a relaxing and restful holiday break as well. (Don’t ignore it – You Need a Break)
If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.
Mark Twain
Honesty solves a lot of problems by never letting them show up in the first place. And its just as important in business as it is in your personal life. Here are a few places to think about your honesty:
Be Honest with your Employees
To a large extent you need to let your employees know what’s going on with your company. Finding and keeping good employees can be difficult for any business, and if you want quality employees that will last you need to let them be invested in the company and feel like a part of the team. Nothing breaks that down faster than them knowing that there is something going on and not being able to ask you what it is.
I’m not saying you should open your accounting files and let anyone scroll through, but the more involved an employee is along the way the more important and satisfied they will feel. Ideally they can help brainstorm solutions with you and may help you solve issues.
Be Honest with your Potential Clients
With some businesses there can be a lot of smoke and mirrors before the sale. Cut that out and let them see why they should work with you – without all of the fine print. Be upfront in your sales discussions about your costs (you should be able to back up your prices anyways). Read More »
Remember when i said that people notice when you’re bad? But that people notice when you’re good too?
Well, some people have been noticing Apt’s new websites are pretty good. The new site I finished up for Leavenworth Summer Theater has been featured on some showcases of great web design, including:
And the new E3 website I created showed up here:
Read More »
I spent a day earlier this week training Neff Co on how to update and edit the website Apt Design just finished building for them. Well, didn’t actually spend a day. The training only took about 10 minutes. At the end they said, “Wow. That was easy, wasn’t it?”
Yes, it was. Yes, it is. If you are looking for an intuitive, easy-to-use, scalable, powerful blogging platform and/or Content Management System (yes, it can do both), WordPress is our preference. The community around WordPress is huge, and I’ve found themes, plugins, and widgets so easy to work with.
Simple + powerful = WordPress.
Things are going swell here at Apt Design. With a beautiful cool spring we’ve been working outside a lot lately. We’re finishing up some great projects – websites for Gill Diamond Hospitality, new logos, and helping some companies build their identity from the ground up. Its exciting to help create a cohesive brand for a company or program that will allow their visual materials to be a dynamic presentation of who they are. Along the way we’re getting to work with some really great people.
We are also excited about a brand new project that is currently in the works. Can’t give out too much information yet, but we’re building something that will be a lot of fun, look good, and help people share a little about themselves. We’ll let you know when we go live with the soft opening, and you can be an early part of the project!
the filmmakers over at howell at the moon are putting their finishing touches on the follow up to their northwest emmy-nominated documentary, broken limbs. if you live in wenatchee (or anywhere close) you can go to the free premiere of their new documentary on tuesday, december 4th at 7pm at wenatchee valley college’s van tassell center.
gee whiz: the story of grady auvil is the story of local fruit innovator grady auvil. from the movie cover:
Guru, pioneer, saint, sage and pain in the rear – Grady Auvil has been called them all. Filmmakers Jamie Howell and Jeff Ostenson undertake an exploration into the life of the late, legendary fruit grower who brought the Granny Smith apple, the Fuji apple and the Rainier cherry, among others, into their own in the United States and around the world.
apt design has been working closely with howell at the moon during the project. we provided them with a design style to integrate throughout the video and across promotional materials. you can see some of that work in the portfolio.
apt design has recently completed and launched two new websites. one is a new site for the local band fathappy and includes music videos, latest news, and upcoming gigs. the other launch is for write on the river, a writers’ conference for north central washington. the conference is only in its third year, but has sold out every year so far and is attracting well-known authors as speakers.
check the sites out at:
www.fathappy.com
www.writeontheriver.org
