Problem

When Terry and Patrick Shannon of Shannon Carpets, started thinking about a website for their busy carpet showroom, they found they didn’t have the time to progress their ideas. As both the Shannon brothers work full-time in their business, finding the spare time for this sort of project isn’t easy. Fortuitously, Shannon Carpet’s website plans coincided with a visit from Mukesh Shah of IRUN Harrow, who was marketing his services in the area. After a comprehensive meeting with Mukesh, the Shannon Carpet website progressed from being just a good idea into reality. Mukesh spent time finding out about Shannon’s market and the type of work the company undertook. From that information, a 7-page format for the website was agreed.

Solution

Terry Shannon had spent some time looking at carpet company websites and felt they were generally very dull and boring. He wanted their company website to be interesting and to encourage visitors. Because carpets and flooring are such visual products, it was important the site had good quality images to tempt the visitor. It had to be easy to navigate and the content had to be concise and informative.

Terry had originally intended to write his own copy for the website. However, having researched other sites, he felt they were obviously ‘home-spun’. He wanted their website to be different and written from the customer’s perspective. This influenced his decision to have the site professionally written. Mukesh arranged for Terry to be contacted by his copywriter, Joy McCarthy.

The brief for the Shannon Carpet website was taken over the phone with Joy asking questions and exploring all the relevant areas of the business. Terry said he felt this process was an efficient use of his time and would have taken considerably longer had it been a face to face meeting. Even through Joy had no specific industry knowledge, she asked the right questions and it was clear she also researched the market. Terry added, “I quite enjoyed the phone interview, it was better use of my time and I was very, very pleased with the end result”. With the copy written and all the images provided by Shannon Carpets, Mukesh was able to construct the site.

Result

Both the Shannon brothers are very pleased with their new website. They have had nothing but good feedback about it. Mukesh optimised the site and, within a couple of weeks, it had been indexed by Yahoo and was appearing high on the rankings. Indexing by Google followed, and the site now performs well on both these major search engines. No matter how good a website looks, it is important for it to generate results, and the Shannon Carpets site it doing just that.

Although it is early days, the site is generating business. Quite recently Shannon Carpets was asked to quote for the carpeting of 3 blocks of flats: an enquiry which was a direct result of the new website. The prospective customer had looked at several companies and commented positively on the Shannon Carpet website. Terry and Patrick Shannon are both pleased with the Shannon Carpet website. They feel it has been exceptional value, and is paying for itself by generating new business.