Speaking of Gen-Y, let us share some stories from the people working behind the scenes at 1.my. Customer satisfaction may be an organisation’s primary focus, but at 1.my, we don’t just focus on this; we also ensure that our clients are clear on what we’re doing behind the computer, and put our best efforts in sharing our know-how. We also look forward to learning things from our clients. In other words, we treat each client like a friend. Pin, the founder of this company, is known for attending to his clients/friends attentively and promptly.

Adrian and David - The Project Managers

Adrian and David, the Project Managers who form the core that drives 1.my’s website maintenance, not only do so at lighting speed, but are so dedicated they’re in cyberspace 24 hours a day.

Adrian works from almost everywhere

As an example of our fast response time, allow us to take one of our most prominent clients, Yinson Holding Berhad as an example. FYI, Yinson provides a comprehensive range of transportation and logistical services, as well as general warehousing facilities. Being a listed company, it is essential for them to update their company announcement system, and a few months back, we installed a Content Management System (CMS) for them to enable announcements by their employees. After making more than 10 announcements, they realised that there wasn’t a link to previous announcements. When they came to us with this issue, we solved the problem within an hour, and now it works perfectly, displaying all the relevant Bursa announcements.

In another success story, one of newest clients, Mr Shamaan, Managing Director of OGP Nova Sdn. Bhd., subscribed to our 99.9% uptime web hosting service. After we set up his corporate website, we quickly created three temporary pages with content from one of his power point presentations. After some time, Mr Shamaan wondered why he was unable to search for his website on search engines, although it was perfectly set up. We explained to him that newly created websites will be not be automatically indexed by search engines. To help in this issue, the web developer would have to set up meta tags for description and keywords, and submit the website URL to search engines. We did all this for him in an hour, and the team’s effort was rewarded with a thumb’s up from Mr Shamaan.

Other than our quick response time, we’re quite proud of the fact that we’re not like other web developers who are content with being passive. We’re proactive. Take our meeting with Maslow Trainers & Consultants, who are based in Kota Kemuning, Shah Alam.
They wanted us to meet up with their senior staff to discuss the development of a Human Resources (HR) Touch System.

Although we didn’t charge them for consultation, we shared a great deal with them at the meeting, including our goals, how the system will be set up, and we even discussed the benefits of online marketing. We believe that defining clear goals before trying out something new is vital to securing future ventures, while maintaining a hold on current businesses. Of course, in return, we learned a great deal from them too on how to manage human resources efficiently and effectively.

Another of our strengths is post-sales support, or after-sales support. For this, allow us to use our client, e-Suria from Petaling Jaya as an example. After we successfully set up the company’s blog using WordPress, we customised the theme to suit their corporate identity, and we also provided them with a tutorial on how to manage their blog with WordPress CMS.

At 1.my, we’re always there for our clients, so if you’re looking for tech support you can depend on, you know who to call.

I’m happy to say that we’ve recently gotten more positive feedback from our customers, and a particularly encouraging comment came from King You, one of our most prominent email clients. He says, “I find that it is a totally different and great experience working with you. It is a “Gen-Y” working model that we’re trying to adopt.” His use of the term “Gen-Y” really caught our attention, and I figured we should share our thoughts on the phenomenon. According to Wikipedia, Generation Y, also known as “Gen-Y,” or the Net Generation, describes a technically-literate and technologically-savvy demographic.

Born somewhere from the late 1970s to late 1990s, the people that make up Gen-Y are sensation driven, on-the-go in nature and innovative. Being part of the Information Age, they also have a knack of carrying tech trends or fads to their peers. I think there must be some truth in this, because otherwise, would Facebooking, Blackberries and iPhones be such big hits?

From Right: David, Adrian and Pin, in a meeting with Friends!

So how do we, at 1.my, see ourselves as being part of Malaysia’s Gen-Y? One of our writers, Adline A. Ghani speaks to 1.my’s founder, Pin, to get some answers:

1. Why do you sign off your emails using your nickname “Pin” rather than a more official system -generated template or no-name reply?

We want our customers to feel like they’re dealing with a person, a real human being. We’re customers too, and we hate writing to a company, say Air Asia, and getting a generic response from “Customer Support”. It’s impersonal. We like interacting directly with our customers. Using one’s real name or nickname is often the first step in breaking the ice. So far, people have responded well to this approach, so we’ve never looked back.

2. Your team only works 4 days a week; how do you cater to customer support during your off days?

We may not have customer support department, but what we have is an entire team that’s dedicated to dealing with customer support. Our response time is shown in real time, which motivates everyone to respond quickly to every ticket submitted by a customer. Then, our team is allowed access to our support system using their mobile phone or the web, and this allows us to deal with it anytime, everywhere. We also have an SMS alert system that informs us when a ticket has not been processed for more than 15 minutes. We could be singing karaoke, throwing a BBQ or rock climbing, but you can be sure we’ll answer to your needs right away.

3. You don’t have an office phone number, how do your customers contact you?

Oatmeal will tell you why he hates to call a support

We used to think that every office must have a phone, but why? In my experience, trying to get help from customer support over the phone can be frustrating. In fact, some people would rather be punched in the testicles than calling for support. Thankfully, I’ve never had to resort to that, but it’s truly maddening when you have to spell your name out when it’s just “Pin,” like mine. “P for Penang, I for Ireland and N for Norway,” is that really necessary? I hate that, so without a phone number, our customers can simply fill up a support form on our website and things go very well indeed.

4. You spent months cycling around Europe, what happened to work?

Cycling in the Spring

I had my Dell Mini notebook with me, but I had some problems getting free Internet access there (we Malaysians are lucky to have free WIFI in most public places). I considered myself lucky whenever I got free WIFI access provided by The Cloud in McDonalds. The rest of the time, I worked from – the home of my CouchSurf host, guesthouse, homestay, etc. Skype is really useful, I must say.. It allows me to call customers directly at much lower costs. But, no matter how smart the technology is, the one and only challenge was the different time zones. I usually wake up to tonnes of unread emails in my inbox.

5. Your invoices don’t carry signatures and official stamps, what happens if a customer insists?

Many service providers generate invoices and assume that everyone will continue to use their services. We don’t, our customers decide what services they’d like to subscribe to and renew, and therefore they are free to generate their own invoices. Of course we have come across a few companies that have insisted on an official stamp on the invoice, to make our official invoice even more “official”. In those cases, we usually send them our stamps and they do the stamping themselves :)

6. Why is your website a blog?

Some of our friends laugh at us because we have a super plain website that doesn’t look like much of a website, particularly one that runs an email hosting business. Yet, we are proud of being able to update our website more frequently than everyone else, especially since we don’t have to spend time fiddling around with things like design.

7. You don’t have an office, so where do you guys work?

Bank + Old Town + Office

Believe it or not, we operate from Old Town Coffee and Starbucks. But frankly speaking, after a year-long trial of working from a SOHO, we’ve decided to open our own office very soon. It’ll be an incubator where we’ll host at least 6 more startup companies.

8. How does working with Gen-Yers like yourselves benefit customers?

Well, we asked ourselves questions like, “Why do we need to work 5 days a week?” and “Why do we need a stamp on the invoice?” Frankly, we’re not keen on office wear and filling up leave forms that have to be approved by bosses. Our working culture may be unconventional, but we’re consummate professionals and we get you results. We hope this inspires our customers, and together, we can affect change.

9. What sort of reading materials and movies do you guys like?

The team’s preferred reading is diverse and includes books like Small is the New Big, Googled, Harry Potter and Twilight, to graphic novels and tech magazines. We like movies like Avatar, Wall E, Lord of the Rings and lots more. Basically, all the geeky stuff out on the market.

10. What is the biggest hurdle for a company that wants o switch from being conventional to the Gen-Y mode?

The Gen-Y mode sounds free and easy, but I’d say the biggest challenge is – yourself. It took us years to switch modes to what we’re doing now. Imagine this, you can cut your phone line at anytime, but then you, your customers and team members will need to adapt to the change. You don’t do something like this overnight.

So there it is; our two cents worth on being a Gen-Yer. I must say that working with King You and his team has been great for us too, they’re very knowledgeable, and we truly appreciate all the support they’ve given us throughout 2009. Thank you for the inspiring us to talk about being part of Gen-Y King You! Here’s to us Echo boomers!

Our customers have long enjoyed exclusive updates from us via email, but we wish to share our know-how with even more people, especially those who deal with email facilities, domain names, websites and online businesses, in short – people like you!

Here’s a taste of the kind of information we hope to share with you when you subscribe to our newsletter:
1. Email Health Check the Layman Way
2. Slow Internet Connection Causes Email Problem
3. Pin’s Free Email Guide
4. Do You Need a Shopping Cart?

Who should subscribe?
1. People who work in an IT department
2. People who manage a website
3. Online business owners

Why should you subscribe? Our newsletter is:
1. Fun!
2. Not hard-selling
3. About sharing
4. Personalised
5. Not Spam!

To subscribe, simply send an empty email to subscribe@1.com.my

If you ever wish to unsubscribe, it’s as simple as sending an email to unsubscribe@1.com.my

If you’re a web developer or web design freelancer, you should also check this out:
A Friend of Web Developers

The biggest myth about 1.com.my is perhaps that we provide web design services, when we don’t.

No doubt we started our business by creating websites for our customers, but we couldn’t stop thinking about how we could do more for our customers and provide added value. That’s what has driven our company to be what we are now.

We’re also very fortunate to be able to work with a large group of web developers and web design freelancers without any conflict of interest. Here are a few examples of how we’ve worked with them:

1) Web developers hate pitching and making free mock ups, yet, it seems to be the only way to get a big project. It’s strange really, why is there always a limited budget for web design, but a huge one for billboards that stand next to a highway for only 6 months? There isn’t even a measurable or proven conversion for them.

2) The market often demands a total solution, which means a web developer needs to be the project manager, designer and programmer.

3) Many web developers have found that providing web hosting services for customers isn’t very profitable, that’s because web, email and domain name hosting is another speciliaised area.

4) Developers can best accumulate their values by building their own online business, but what about funding, marketing issues etc.

Jamie’s approach to web design is definitely off of the beaten path. Not only does she use her own name as her website address (jamiesoon.com), but she always replies to your emails in a short but sweet fashion that makes you feel like you’re working with a friend, rather than a company. She’s definitely someone you can trust, and gives you peace of mind.

Jamie has been designing websites since 2001

On her website, you’ll find her impressive portfolio and also interesting travel photos of the places she has explored. You can tell by looking at these that she’s a very passionate person and it definitely makes you feel like you want to work with her. She has also posted some interesting articles such as: ‘Getting the right colours for your design‘, ‘Why making changes is a good thing‘, and ‘Getting a website without spending money‘ – I think people may not understand the joke.

Camping in Gunung Nuang

We’re proud to say that she’s now one of our hosting referrals. We’ve worked with her on many successful migrations, transferring her customers to our new hosting servers. Here’s what she has to say about our services:

“I am glad that I finally found an affordable hosting plan at 1.com.my. The hosting package is perfect for installing a blog and the price makes it more affordable for my clients who are starting small businesses or want to start a personal or non-profit site. It’s cheaper than other hosting plans because the email hosting is a separate package, but it’s no problem because my clients can use their Yahoo or Gmail email accounts. Not only is the price great, I’m impressed with the friendly service, fast response to my enquiries and the effort put in to get the new hosting is up as fast as possible. I highly recommend Pin and his team at 1.com.my!”

Thanks Jamie! It’s been a pleasure working with you too! So, if you’re on the lookout for a web designer/developer, do check out jamiesoon.com.

What’s the difference between your corporate website and Blogs?

Our corporate website is supposed to tell ‘good thing about us’. Our Blogs are generic, they are telling you how to choose a good web developer instead.

But, your corporate website looks like a Blog too?

Yes, it is built with WordPress, where you can find a place to leave your comment and find Posts sorted by categories in a plainest theme. It’s a Blog indeed, and it’s a website too :)

I tried to search for your company’s background and portfolio, and most importantly- your services. I can’t find it easily though. I clicked on online business, I clicked on website design. I still can’t find the info I want. Is it intentional? What are your rationale?

Put it this way, assuming you are looking for roses for your loved one. Most online florists will tell you what roses they have, prices, promotions- to convert you. Whereby, we’re selling flower too, but we want to share with you more about flower arrangement, what is flower food?, why you should remove those guard pedal?…

But web development is far more than just buying a gift. It’s a business, an online business. It is not something (I wish to), visitor can order online and get it up and running tomorrow. It’s not presenting you a Mockup to get your business. Your website must be remarkable- No, no website should be similar to yours. That is why, we have removed portfolios from our website while others are not :)

How much will you cost? (Ok, unfair question, skip this)

Hint, check out How much is eBay?

What’s next? I can’t find a phone number to call!

Help yourself, Download this Free Guide- Please bear with it. It is yet to be compiled nicely and proofreaded. Going to publish it soon when the author is not too busy with the cycling!

Forget about those boring school-text-book stuff, we have handpicked some interesting posts :)

1.my, after 6 years of waiting
Our Kumomo Cambodia Trip
A day in a4trip
Pin’s Jungle Book
Memorable experience
Ten Years Out: Website

…

We love web design, that is what we have been doing for the past 10 years. Customers asked us why we have a very plain corporate website? See, we are never enough trying new things, new design and creating new values for our customers. We are a growing company, through you will be surprised that you don’t find any phone number of our website, so as the office address. We are constantly changing, to serve you better and enjoy what we are doing.

This picture is real :)

It’s official! After months of improvising process flows and reducing operation workloads, we are finally ready to start the 4-Day Work Week trial.

Yes, it’s going to mean that all employees at 1.com.my will only report to work 4 days in a week, Monday to Thursday. And there’s no requirement to “work from home” during the new 3-day long weekend. All other public holidays will still apply.

I’m not sure how many companies out there are already practicing this, but in light of the rising fuel price, this is one way we hope to reduce the toll on our staff. Besides, whoever said performance was related to the number of hours clocked in a week?

Also, starting 14th July, all enquiries should be forwarded directly via our 24/7 Online Enquiry Form. That would also mean that our telephone operators will no longer be operational. No fret though, the good old fax machine will still be on stand-by 24/7.

Why 4 Days?