1st Easy Blog

[23.22] Some customers may have experienced an outage this evening from around 22.40 to 23.15, due to the failure of one of our core switches. Engineering on site have resolved the issue and all is now back to normal.

My apology for any disruption caused by this failure.

Regards

Steve Bell
Director, 1st Easy

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Pavements are being pounded, knees are being nursed, and large flights of steps are being surmounted: the 1st Easy running team training regime is now in full swing, as they get into shape for the Bupa Great Manchester Run in May.

The Children’s Adventure Farm Trust (CAFT) receive no government funding and rely totally on charitable donations to be able to carry on with the wonderful work they do: making memories and making a difference by providing holidays for terminally ill, sick and disadvantaged children.

If you would like to support our efforts in raising money for (CAFT) you can help us reach our target of £500 via our Just Giving page.

Tags: CAFT, manchester10k
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How much is a promise worth? Last September, we launched our annual customer survey so we could find out how well you thought we were keeping to the pledges in our Customer Promise.

We were really pleased with the results, which show we’re on the right track. We know, however, there are always things that can be done to improve the service we provide, and one area in which you gave us some really useful feedback (quite aptly!) is the level of convenience with which you can leave feedback for us.

So, (eyes right) we have now added a feedback button to each page of our website. Click the button and a feedback form will appear, which you can use without leaving the page you’re on.

In addition to this and our annual customer survey, we have started contacting our new customers after a settling in period, to make sure that expectations have been met, service levels are up to scratch, and to offer the opportunity to raise any concerns.

Thanks again for your feedback, and we hope you’ll carry on sharing your ideas, and helping us to improve the service we provide — keep the feedback loop going!

Tags: customer promise
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Christmas support hours

Our offices will be closed on the bank holidays Monday 26th December, Tuesday 27th December and Monday 2nd January.

As usual though, support for site and server-down situations will remain available as normal throughout the whole Christmas period, while colocation customers will have 24/7/365 emergency engineering cover and access to equipment via their established procedures.

Thank you

Thank you again for your continued custom and support throughout 2011, and on behalf of all the team here at 1st Easy, have a fantastic Christmas break and all the very best for a happy and successful New Year!

Kind regards,

Stephen Bell
Director

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Introducing the first of our guest expert blogs, from internet marketing strategists, Search and More.

Can we expect a double dip recession? Will Greece default on its debt, and trigger the collapse of the rest of Europe’s second-tier nations? Well, it’s possible, but the short answer is, we just don’t know. We’ve all got our views on the economy and its current state, but what we’re probably all in agreement on, is that money’s tight. And if you have to spend to stimulate your SME, then it pays to make sure the money you do spend is working hard for you.

This is particularly the case for internet and search engine marketing. No business wants to waste valuable resources on an advertising platform that just doesn’t deliver. Online advertising budgets have been squeezed to within an inch of their lives, so they need to be cost-effective, and they have to deliver. So, are there any steps your SME can take to ensure that it’s getting sufficient bang for its buck? Can you still run an efficient SEM programme and save a few bob at the same time?

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: analytics, Internet marketing, long-tail advertising networks, search engine marketing, SMEs
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When we publish our quarterly newsletter, apart from bringing you up to date with our latest company news, we aim to provide information and tips that we hope you’ll find interesting and useful. From looking at the stats that we get from our newsletters, we’ve found that a lot of the most popular links are related to SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing).

By rather cleverly putting two and two together, we’ve deduced that online marketing is perhaps an area where additional information would be useful. Because we’re not SEO experts (we concentrate on the hosting) we’ve asked internet marketing strategists Search and More to provide their informed insight for the first of our guest expert blogs. The article which Jason and his team have kindly contributed looks at how to get the most out of your online marketing budget with plenty of practical tips, which you can read here.

We hope that you find the article useful – let us know what you think!

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Tools were downed and monitors were switched off as another selection of 1st Easy volunteers emerged blinking into the sunlight to spend an afternoon at the Children’s Adventure Farm Trust (CAFT) in rural Cheshire.

Viv, Peter, Paul and our newest recruit Steve G helped out with lots of jobs that included BBQ building, bench staining, weeding and plenty of grass mowing. They were also lucky enough to meet the resident alpacas, who appeared to be equally curious in meeting our keen volunteers!

The five alpacas (all brothers) make up a popular and important part of visits for the children and young people that visit CAFT, where they have the chance to feed, stroke and talk to the alpacas, creating a new friendship with a special animal that is rarely seen in the UK.

To learn more about CAFT and the work it does to give fun holidays to disadvantaged and disabled children and respite to their carers, you can visit their website here.

Tags: CAFT, Childrens Adventure Farm Trust
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After a lot of hard work, today sees the launch our new branding and website. It’s our first major re-brand since 1st Easy launched, and with it, we wanted to better communicate the values and personality of our company and people, and show exactly why we’re different from a lot of other hosting companies.

In particular, we feel that our new tag line “Let’s talk hosting” sums up our approach to business perfectly: we’re always open and easy to contact, whether that’s at the start of a business relationship when you’re finding out what you need and maybe looking for advice, or later on as a customer if you require technical support for your hosting solution.

And as the phrase goes, “people want to work with people”, so we felt that it was about time that we stepped out from behind the scenes to show that your website is indeed “hosted by humans“!

There may be one or two instances of the old branding remaining in place as we continue to roll out our new look across our range of websites, but all of these will be addressed in the next week or so.

We’ll write more about the website, new content and developments in the coming weeks, but for now, please do take a look around and as usual, your feedback is very welcome (and if you spot any missing/bad links, James would like to know!)

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We recently dispatched a crack team of painters to lend a hand at the Children’s Adventure Farm Trust. The (unexpected!) April sunshine meant that it was no problem rounding up some eager volunteers, who went on to spend a busy afternoon painting the farm’s fantastic new outdoor barbecue area.

1st Easy team members Steve, Dan and James were joined by our good friend Zoe from Hive Marketing, who completed their mission with just enough time to spare for a much needed ice cream (thanks Alistair!).

Based in the beautiful Cheshire countryside, the Trust provides residential holidays and activities for sick, disabled and disadvantaged children from all over the Northwest of England. With running costs of over £800,000 per year, they rely totally on charitable donations to be able to fund their work and continue to offer such a valuable and much needed service.

If you would like to learn more about the Trust, you can visit their website or contact Alistair Laing on 01565 830 053.

The afternoon’s action in pictures…

(Click an image to enlarge)

Tags: CAFT, Childrens Adventure Farm Trust
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Support for site and server-down situations will remain available as normal throughout the Easter period. Colocation customers will continue to have 24/7/365 emergency engineering cover and access to equipment via their established procedures.

Enjoy the long weekend!

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