Business case studies
Roseland House Garden
Charlie and Liz Pridham run their successful garden and nursery business in Chacewater village specialising in climbing and conservatory plants.
Charlie Pridham says “We have turned an exposed and barren sloped garden into a secret wonderland of our favourite climbers and plants such as clematis and rose - so much so, you often forget this garden isn’t hidden away but actually in the centre of Chacewater village!”
A key factor influencing Charlie’s decision to upgrade to superfast from his regular broadband package was that their son often exceeded their monthly data allowance due to his use of BBC iplayer!
Charlie was delighted with how straightforward the installation of superfast was. He says: “The BT Openreach engineer took less than 15 minutes to change the wall socket and hub. The computer picked up the new hub, all the settings were automatically found and used, nothing had to be changed and all is working fine. We are now getting 38 Mbps which is fantastic.”
Exciting new ways of using the internet
Having upgraded to superfast broadband, Charlie is discovering exciting new ways of using the internet to help build the business.
Charlie says: “With regular broadband we often had buffering issues whilst watching internet clips or movies and often had to wait whilst trying to load imagery on our business website. Now we can download movies in seconds and watch them without any glitches. And uploading images to our website is so much faster, we can hardly believe it! It used to take me twenty minutes to upload one image, now it takes no time at all.
“We are excited about the new ways in we might exploit the full potential of superfast broadband, such as using video online. There are just so many benefits that superfast can offer our business as well as improving our home entertainment.
“One of the challenges we face with growing very rare plants is that we have a restricted market. The website has proved and invaluable aid to selling unusual or rare plants as people search for plant names and we will often be first to come up on Google. One customer from Holland came all the way here to buy one particular plant which we find too delicate to do by mail order and for which we are the only source in Europe."
Reaching out to new customers worldwide
“Superfast broadband will make it easier for us to upload the latest information to the website, so that we can really make the most of reaching out to these kinds of new customers worldwide through the internet.
“I join discussions on various plant forums and post up pictures on forums. This is so much faster now! This is a great way for us to build awareness and with superfast broadband, it takes up far less of our time to exploit this important route to our market.
“Another way in which superfast is transforming the way we run our business is online sourcing of supplies. We buy all the nursery supplies online and cross check for information on any new plants we may introduce using Google. With superfast, the time savings are enormous, so we are able to carry out these tasks in a fraction of the time, freeing us up to spend our time productively in the garden."
Endless opportunities
“Now I am considering making some "How To" videos to help customers grow our plants, and possibly a "Garden Tour" type video to help promote the garden and attract more visitors.
“Most of the magazine and newspaper coverage we get is due initially to the website and quite often I get to sell pictures off the back of the thumbnails on the web site too. So the more we are able to add new features such as video to the website, and the easier it is to keep updating our images, the more the business is likely to benefit."
Charlie adds: “In the future, we plan to look into new applications such as Skype, and perhaps the use of live webcams around the nursery. The opportunities are endless!”
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