You may have seen Subbytech featured in my Tech Gift Guide previously or maybe in my Twitter and Instagram posts. My brilliant Subbytech charger has been a life saver, for all those annoying times my phone decides to drain to 1%.
Want to know why these portable chargers are storming the market? Or how their packaging is environmentally friendly?
Read on to see just why and find out how you could WIN your very own Subbytech portable charger!
Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Paul and I’m the Managing Director of Subbytech. We also have my daughter Eva (customer service) and my wife Carla (shipping) helping out too.
Why are you in business?
I felt that the market for power bank chargers, was good with functionality, but poor with aesthetics. After a serious neck injury left me unable to move much, I needed a power bank to keep my phone and other gadgets powered up until my wife came home to help me. I got one from another supplier and although it worked fine, it looked clunky and very industrial. I thought I could get something better….and here we are with the Subbytech power bank chargers. A bespoke design not available anywhere in the UK or Ireland, just via our website Subbytech.com
Can you provide me with a description of your business?
The best way to describe Subbytech? That’s actually a tough one. I’d have to say we provide the cure to that fear of running out of battery, hence our favoured advert carries the “Uh oh!” tag and the #neverrunoutofbatteryagain hashtag. There’s not too many people have never looked down at their phone with the battery at 4% and not though to themselves….Uh oh!
What can your power bank chargers….charge?
There are loads of things that you can charge with our chargers. Because you can charge two things at the same time, it means you don’t have to charge one thing then have to wait around for another device to be charged afterwards.
Phones, tablets, Kindles, torches, sat navs, photo boxes, e-cigarettes, MP3 players, game console controllers, digital cameras, etc We’ve also recently found out from a user of our power bank chargers, that the chargers can also charge up some medical devices too. Basically if it is charged via USB cable, there’s a good chance our chargers can help. Of course the larger gadgets like iPad Pro and more demanding devices are not going to get the charger to work. They simply draw more battery charge than our power bank chargers can give out.
How do you market your business? How are people aware of your business?
That’s a good question. For us we mostly use Twitter and Facebook. Not paid for advertising but regular tweeting and interaction with others. Facebook we’re part of a number of local selling groups that we post offers to plus we have a dedicated Facebook page, as well as the main Subbytech.com website. Organically growing our followers with fun posts and informative posts too. You can’t always be shouting about your products in every post. People would get bored and will soon stop following you. For every post we do about our own products, we’ll probably do 4 or 5 about other businesses and people. As for people being aware of our business, 50+ five star ratings in a row is a good start too. When people see that we have amazing reviews, it instills confidence in our products and service.
Why do your customers select you over your competitors?
We have great products, even if I say so myself! Mix in our products, with our well known excellent customer service (at this point I’ll give Eva @ Subbytech a shout out as she’s a big factor in the great feedback we get when we help a customer with a question or a query) and the willingness to help others, you get a brilliant blend of things together to make for a great experience for the customer. Honestly, I’d say that customer service and the overall customer experience, is the key to Subbytechs growing reputation. As we often say…customer service is an attitude, not a department! If you put your customers first, above everything, they will become friends to your business and they can then confidently recommend you to others.
Lets talk Ethics and Environment. Does Subbytech have any processes or goals on those fronts?
We do actually yes. Ethics wise first. It was important to me when setting up the business, to have on board, in the manufacturing side of things, partners who treated their employees fairly. Who provide their staff with good working conditions and pay them a fair wage. We’ve all heard of the horror stories of sweat shops in the east, I wasn’t prepared to have any of that carry on. In fact it was the third manufacturer that I spoke to that finally allayed my concerns and showed me how they worked. We could have went with the cheap option and gone with less scrupulous manufacturers, but we didn’t. I don’t mind paying more for a great product, if it also means that people can go home after their work and feed their families. You can go buy a £1 power bank charger in the pound shop or you can buy one of our chargers, which cost more to buy yes I know, but you get better performance AND you have helped someone have better working conditions. That’s important to me.
As for the Environment part of the question. I was so fed up ordering something, for example from Amazon and it coming in a massive box, filled with packaging which all had to be disposed of. I mean some specialised PC parts which can fit in one hand, came in a box that was over 1 foot long! Seriously, why? What a waste of money and hassle to have to dispose of all that packaging, for something so small. This spurred me into action at Subbytech.
For example, if you order one of our strong nylon braided charging leads, here’s what you get. You’ll get a 100% recycled secure shipping envelope…and the cable. No fancy packaging to be paid for up front by us, which means we can then pass on the savings to our customers, with lower prices.
What is the future for this type of business?
With more and more people using multiple gadgets now, it’s a fantastic opportunity for us to develop other lines of products for our customers. The most exciting one is a new wireless charger that we’re getting ready. Fitness watches, phones, headsets, ear bud speakers, etc, we are going to be able to offer a one stop solution to charging multiple devices at the same time, including wireless charging through QI technology. Sign up for our newsletter at Subbytech.com and we’ll be able to bring you more information about this new product in the new year! It’s going to be really cool, I promise!
If you could give any advice to a startup business, what would it be?
Ignore the logo, spend more time listening to your customers and interacting with them, a logo can be done in 10 mins. Also don’t be scared of falling down in business, a worm is the only thing that can’t fall down. It’s getting up and trying again that’ll make you grow!
Massive thank you to Paul for giving us this fabulous insight into a digital life saver!
NOW WIN YOUR VERY OWN SUBBYTECH CHARGER!
Thanks to Paul, you’ve got the chance to win your own fabulous charger, and never run out of battery again!
Head over to my pinned tweet on Twitter you can easily enter in a few simple steps! Ends 12/11 at 9pm.
