A well-run webpage is many things to a small, fledgling business: advertising billboard, suggestion box, sales page, direction beacon, and more. If you’re just starting your business in the thriving tourist city of York, here’s how you can ensure that customers find your excellent products among the vast plethora of goods and services on offer in the mediaeval city.
Online Presence
Today, every business, no matter how small, needs to have an online presence. The reason for this is simple: potential customers seldom take a chance on finding what they need by aimlessly walking around town any more – not even in a picturesque city like York, which positively encourages pedestrian exploration! Make sure one of the first things you do is to set up a webpage which details your products and services, makes it easy for customers to make a purchase or ask a question (and, of course, you should respond promptly to such questions!), and details exactly where they can find your premises. If your business is a popular one, you might find that your ideal website name has already been snapped up, but you should be able to find a suitable alternative if you search for something like: your preferred domain names with the addition of some unique keywords that will help customers pinpoint your business on your favourite web host’s listings. For example, a Greek restaurant would obviously want something like ‘Greek Restaurant, York’ to be their main selling point, but might add: ‘fresh,’ ‘made in-house’ and ‘locally sourced’ to encourage customers to try their delicious sustainable dishes. Adding in a name: ‘Zack’s Greek-York restaurant’, adds a personal touch. This exercise will quickly help you to find a good name that is unique enough to stand out, while being explicit about what it is you can do for customers, so they click on your name rather than any other.
Stay in Touch
The days of customers walking into a shop, making a single purchase and then leaving again, never to come back are almost over. In general, people like to stick with shops and businesses that they know and trust. And increasingly, businesses are fostering this trend by offering things like newsletters detailing all the latest industry news, any offers or promotions, and, frequently, including discount coupons. You can also offer loyalty cards, providing a small discount or special price to regulars in exchange for a little of their date – an exchange often willingly made these days, as long as you guarantee not to let those details pass into the hands of third-party ‘hard-sell’ operators.
Good Service or Products
The best way to lose customers is to disappoint them. As a rule of thumb, a perfectly satisfied customer will tell one person how happy they are with the service they received. A disappointed customer will tell ten people, on average, giving details about why they were so unhappy with you. Frustratingly, this can sometimes even be due to things out of your control: bad weather, an overcrowded car park, or another customer taking too long with their business! There is nothing you can do about these happenstances, but you can mitigate them by ensuring that as many customers as possible are actively happy with your offer – hopefully they will tell more than just one other person!
If you have a great product and are enthusiastic about making your name in York, you already have what you need to get started in business. With luck and some of the above good business practices, you will soon be the owner of a thriving and well-known York fixture!
