Business Contact Details
| Name: | Stephen Comeau |
| Title: | Director of PillarProjects |
| Business Name: | PillarProjects |
| Website: | pillarprojects.ie |
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Business BIO: |
Web Development with business acumen |
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
| Q: | What are you doing now? |
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Let's start off on the lighter side ... Doing the Mouse Over! |
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| Q: | What’s your typical work day? |
| I start at o'dark thirty ... prioritise my day, work though my deliverables and try to get home for dinner | |
| Q: | What’s your favourite aspect of work? |
| My day is never the same ... it ranges from IT research & delivery, meeting our customer's business objectives and strategizing with my business partner (John). | |
| Q: | What is your background? |
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Growing up in |
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| Q: | What’s the best thing that happened in the last year? |
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Our business is on an upward trend and my daughter is going to school for the first time! |
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| Q: | What is your best source of new business/ new members? |
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Mostly our business has been from referrals, but new customers have also come from avenues such as networking and "blind dates" (tendering). |
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| Q: | How do you cope with change? |
| Interesting question, I will answer from a "work" perspective: I like and manage change well. I learned early in my career that people are unsure what they want / need when it comes to IT. I found that time spent up front preparing for the change, (because it will happen), allowed me to adapt to requests quickly and to ensure people are meeting their objectives without "starting over from scratch", thus saving them money. (Also, I stop pulling my hair out!) |
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| Q: | How do you communicate with your customers? |
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This has been a struggling point for me over the years and I am constantly trying to improve. My customers' experiences vary in range in relation to IT and this can make it challenging to ensure that the message I am delivering is clear and concise to the audience at hand… an even harder one to communicate with is my 8 year old son - try mentioning to him that he cannot do something! |
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| Q: | What does customer service mean to you? |
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I worked as a teen in a grocery store and found that helping the customer getting what they needed was satisfying and on the upside I had progressed from Box Boy to Checkout Clerk ... So the lesson learned from here for me was that if you take care of your customers your business will grow. |
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| Q: | What form of business planning do you use? |
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An abridged version of the Prince 2 methodology for managing projects ... Build a Business Case and then decide if "it holds mustard". |
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| Q: | Do you manage your work/life balance? |
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Not easily and it is not in balance, yet! |
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| Q: | Any low brow vices? Jedward? Coronation Street? McDonalds? |
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Not really low brow, but a bad habit is that I do spend too much time listening to the baseball games ... 162 games in a year and I hear nearly all of them! |
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| Q: | What does innovation mean to you? |
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“Change” with a monetary upside. |
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| Q: | How do you handle negative feedback from customers? |
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Another interesting question ... my answer is "thankfully", even though it may not be easy. My biggest fear is that a customer does not tell you. Personally, where services were unacceptable and I did not feel the business would be receptive to feedback, I have not told the business concerned ... nor have I returned. Now the handling side of it ... If a customer was not satisfied the best thing I can do is listen, address the immediate concern points to the best of my ability, then put measures in place to prevent "it" from occurring in the future. |
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| Q: | Is business networking, either online and / or offline, of benefit to you? |
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Yes ... I believe meeting people face to face is best for our business. The on-line tools, (from email to facebook), strengthen that relationship |
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| Q: | How does technology affect your business? |
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Hmmm ... Keeps me busy identifying the weak and strong tech choices ... but the principles of putting it together don't really change ... follow a structured process that is consistent to the budget and risk. |
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| Q: | Best time management tip? |
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Try to close an action as soon as possible, otherwise you need to manage it, and this becomes time consuming. Also it’s ok not to address every action immediately ... but "forgetting" one can be costly! |
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| Q: | Best business accessory? |
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Pencil and paper ... my best thoughts come away from the computer. |
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| Q: | Is there anything that defeats you? |
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Not enough time in the day. |
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| Q: | What is your view of business for the next year? |
| Optimistic! | |
| Q: | What’s next? |
| Two Pints (Beers). |
