Advertising
PC firm jump-starts its advertising
By Rodd Cayton
From The Lincoln Journal Star on July 13, 2004.
Help!
My PC won't work!
Several companies in Southeast Nebraska could help by rebuilding the desktop, retrieving erased information or removing a few dozen viruses.
But that exclamation of exasperation has been turned into a slogan by one of them, Lincoln-based Quick Connect Computer Services.
Owner Kristan J. Yoder has grown the business thus far through traditional means: Yellow Pages advertising and word-of-mouth references.
Now, he's kicking it up a notch with "QCTV," a show that will run twice weekly on Time Warner Cable.
Yoder said the show, produced by Chicago's plain label pictures, features interviews with Quick Connect customers and informational segments on such topics as wireless and data backup. The pilot episode is scheduled to run July 20.
Yoder said the show is meant to strengthen Quick Connect's relationships with existing customers and expose the firm to new business.
Quick Connect has added new services periodically since its 1996 start; the company has expanded from computer and computer-accessory repair to Web site development to putting out its own brand of made-to-order computers.
Chris McNulty-Miller, owner of The Goldworks, is the "guest star" of the first episode. McNulty-Miller said she's been doing business with Quick Connect since the latter's inception.
Quick Connect has helped The Goldworks with several projects, most recently the addition of a new jewelry design program, featured on "QCTV."
McNulty-Miller said she agreed to be on "QCTV" because she likes what she calls the educational focus of the show.
"He'll do good for the computer industry as well as for his own business," she predicted. "I commend him for his sharing of knowledge."
Yoder hopes to parlay "QCTV" into a series of training DVDs.
Quick Connect's main business is still healing sick computers. Yoder said the problems that affect computers change as often as teens' favorite music.
"For the last year or year and a half, it's been viruses and spyware," he said. "If you'd asked me two years ago, it would have been general protection faults - the blue screen of death."
He said time frames also have changed since the business started. In 1996, computers were still somewhat of a luxury to some users, Yoder said, who'd tell him he could fix their machines at his convenience.
Now, he said, "when somebody's computer breaks down, it needs to be fixed right away."
Reach Rodd Cayton at 473-7107 or rcayton@journalstar.com.
Lincoln, NE 402-434-2828 || Omaha 402-778-4692