How you can use your website to nurture customers when things change quickly

Who hasn’t experienced an emergency or a sudden upset that has destroyed plans for the coming work week? Sick kids, flooding rains or a death in the family - they all affect our ability to open a brick-and-mortar store, answer phones and interact with customers.

Having a website that allows you to make updates with ease means you can communicate directly with your customers when things change on the fly. I want to give you 3 of my client examples where this was hugely beneficial in retaining customers when the unexpected happens.

A brick-and-mortar florist

Coming into Mothers Day, we were creating a series of notices around the site about order cut off times, etc. to manage expectations and optimise customer satisfaction. Then suddenly, one of the team had to attend a funeral the WEEK OF MOTHERS DAY and the shop had to close. But, rather than losing a day's trade, they were able to add notices around the website letting their customers know what was happening and still encouraging them to submit their orders online. This allowed the business to keep generating income (especially coming into a key event) whilst still being able to attend an event and go through that complex process.

A regional MP

In the weeks following devastating floods in our region, they were able to use the website to keep the community updated with Flood Assistance Grants, support, funding, etc. They were able to provide links to key websites for applications and phone numbers for support services. This also positioned this MP as truly dedicated to the community and responsive in meeting their needs.

A newly-opened restaurant

This client took some massive pivots during COVID. They took on a Restaurant premises just beforehand, and were suddenly having to communicate changes to their customers daily, as well as facilitate pickups, online orders, making their new menu available online, etc. Because they had access to their website, there were no obstacles standing in the way of them passing on the most up-to-date info to their customers.

I ask you to take a good look at your website and how you understand it. If you were unable to open your shop front tomorrow, would you be able to make the necessary changes required to keep your customers up-to-date and supported?

These guys were also the final nudge I needed to make coaching more readily available to small business owners - because I was being pulled in 20 different directions during COVID making these changes for most of my customers.

Thankfully Squarespace is easy to use so this wasn't as time consuming as it could have been, but in reality these changes were ones that my clients themselves could have been making, which brings me to an exciting opportunity.

You may have heard me talking about the relaunch of my Weekly Website Workshop coming up this year. This is a group coaching program that allows me to walk a small group of business owners through the process of building a website, but also empowering them to have complete access & confidence in using it once complete.

The doors will be open soon however if you'd like early bird access , jump on the waitlist today.