It isn’t quite a “deluxe apartment in the sky,” but Curvine has some new digs.  We’re happy to announce we’ve recently relocated to a new office in downtown Bellevue. After 5 years in Lincoln Center in Bellevue, we’ve moved to Bellevue Commercial Plaza right in the heart of downtown Bellevue. Our new office has several advantages:

- Right next to the Bellevue Transit center. Several of our staff members are now taking the bus to work, which makes our company greener. There’s also some great restaurants within easy walking distance from our new space.

- Conference room. Our new office has a small conference room that accommodates 6. That’s perfect for meetings with clients to show off new Web site designs, or to pitch a project to a potential client.

- Room for expansion. If we need more space, there are plenty of bigger offices in our new building for us to expand into, when the time is right.

We’re still unpacking, but we’ll be looking forward to having clients come to visit in the next few weeks.

I mostly focus on Web site development topics on this blog, but I’ll take a break from that this post so I can solicit some advice from the Internet community about an important business decision.

Our lease is up in December, and I’m considering whether to move offices. In case you’ve never been, we’re in an office just across the freeway from the core of downtown Bellevue.  The office is fine. It meets our needs, which narrowly defined, are a space to fit our staff (4 people, with room for two more should we need the space). It has two private offices so I and my project manager can speak on the phone without disturbing others. There’s a conference room, but it is in another building and impractical to use.

The building’s location is good — just off the freeway. Appearance wise, it doesn’t make the best impression. There is no elevator to our 2nd story office and the entrance is outside. We have clients by our office once or twice a month.

I’m looking at moving our office to a higher-rise building that makes a better first impression. I’m looking in downtown Bellevue. Rents are a lot more expensive, but perhaps the office’s location and appearance might attract more clients. What do you think? Should we stay or go?

I’m sitting on hold waiting for technical support for a client’s Web hosting company. We’re 7 minutes in to the call, and now they’re featuring Guns & Roses. I’m calling because we never heard back about a problem that was reported 4 days ago. The person I eventually will reach won’t be able to pronounce my name and won’t be terribly helpful in resolving my problem.

I have nothing against Guns & Roses or any of the musical selections I hear when I call these companies. I don’t really have a favorite one because I’d rather their not be any on-hold music. Wouldn’t it be nicer if Web design and hosting companies had people just answer the phone and had people who were competent and helpful?

It doesn’t have to be this way. When clients call Curvine, we don’t have hold music. We just pick up the phone.