Interview with Kyra Williams of TheGoodDeal.co.uk about Classified Ads
December 18, 2014 by Dr. Letitia Wright
Filed under Featured Articles, Front Page
Interview with Kyra Williams of TheGoodDeal.co.uk about Classified Ads
Online classified ads are very popular nowadays. Everybody uses them to look for a flat to rent, to sell a second-hand car or to find a new job. They might all look the same, but they are not!
How can a classifieds website be different? We talked about this with Kyra Williams of www.thegooddeal.co.uk , the new classified ads website powered by the Padawan Group, an international company with over 20 similar sites all over the world.
Kyra, Tell us the story behind your classified ads site.
The creation of the Padawan classifieds sites was brought to life after the CEO’s Alexandre and Mathias online hunt to find the rarest Star Wars figurines, to add to their noteworthy collection proved to be getting more and more difficult. Throughout the years the dynamic duo, had managed to locate and secure their prized possessions, but as you can imagine, after years of collecting they soon exhausted all of their usual connections.
Turning to online classified seemed like the next best thing, however the online hunt proved to be more frustrating than anything as most of the sites they frequented had the items incorrectly categorized or not categorized at all. Just when they would find something that piqued their interest from one seller, they would quickly be let down as there was no way to view or filter all of the seller’s items at once.
The simple lack of organisation and accessibility seemed to be a trend on classified sites, one which Alexandre and Mathias both decided needed to be changed. With that notion in mind, the revolution of the classified market begun. To this very day Alexandre and Mathias along with the rest of the Padawan Family are still dedicated to providing a high quality, innovative customer-centric solution platform that continues to stand out in the crowded market place.
How do you promote this customer-centric platform to new users?
In order for us to effectively promote our platform, we like to think like a consumer. Every step we take is carried out with our users in mind. So the most important factor for us is having something worthwhile to promote. After all, actions speak louder than words. We have really started embracing the power behind social media to gain exposure. Social media has become a valuable time investment for us as it allows us maintain a direct channel with our customers. We also blog regularly, upload multimedia to YouTube and we never hesitate to publish a press release once we reach a milestone. Lastly, we invest a lot of resources to SEO activities.
What sets you apart from other popular classified sites?
One word: Passion. We’re extremely passionate about putting our customers at all the heart of our activities. When it comes down to it, they are as much of Padawan as we are. Without them there is no us. We’ve designed our online propositions with their needs in mind so we can improve their online shopping experiences.
There have been lots of reports of online scammers, using platforms like this. How do you prevent online scams?
First and foremost, we do not take online security lightly. All of our ads are manually reviewed before they are published. If somehow a suspicious ad manages to slip through the cracks, we have the option for users to flag the ad, which will then bring it to our attention so we can then make an informed decision to remove the ad or not. We also post safety tips on both our website and blog site. We can’t stress enough that users need to remain vigilant when online and should never complete a transaction outside of our website and under no circumstance should users give out their personal details. We also encourage users to use our social media integration, which allows users to share their ads with their own networks of friends and family. It’s generally easier and safer to sell to people that you already know.
What are your future plans for 2015 and beyond?
For the foreseeable future we plan to continue growing and expanding our Padawan family. We are want to become a household name and will continue working towards achieving that goal. We really are here to shake up the market and would love for you to join us on this journey. The more the merrier!