Web Design Guru, Ollie Brooke from Cloud Concepts, Points Out the No 1 Reason Why Brick-and-Mortar Businesses Need to be Online

Web Design Guru Points Out the No 1 Reason Why Brick-and-Mortar Businesses Need to be Online

New South Wales, October 2018: Tech speaker, business owner, and website designer, [Ollie Brooke](https://cloudconcepts.com.au/about.html) has been developing websites since the nineties. He says that one of the biggest mistake smaller businesses make is in thinking they dont need to have a website.

He often hears it. Business owners with an established business and client base in a good location often dont understand the need for a website, but Brooke says that these businesses could be missing the point.

Your Website Isnt for You

According to Brooke, thinking a website is for the business owner is a mistake that a great many businesses make. Your website isnt for you, its for your clients convenience, he says. Yes, your clients like buying from you, but if they arent sure if you have the stock they need or offer the service they want, they probably wont drive to your store to find out. This slightly different perspective can have a major impact on how useful a website can be.

Nowadays, people want information at their fingertips. They wont visit your store to ask a question to which the answer could be: No, sorry, we dont have that. Theyll take their mobile phones, and theyll make their enquiries online. If you dont have the answers, you dont get the business.

Even corporates often make the mistake of being too inward-focused in their website design. Its as if they think its all about image-building, says Brooke. Im going to be brutal here. Your customers like a good image, but they like useful information better. Theyre not interested in you; theyre interested in what they can get from you. Once they know that you have something they want, theyll look at your businesss image to see if it looks professional.

A Phone Call Away Might as Well be a World Away

Today, Generation X is dominating the workplace. Its the generation with the most money to spend, and its [not a generation that likes to talk](https://www.forbes.com/sites/larryalton/2017/05/11/how-do-millennials-prefer-to-communicate/#665189036d6f). Those who joke about young people sitting side-by-side texting each other might not be far off the mark.

A lot of the information available appears to be anecdotal, but survey after survey seems to indicate a preference for text over voice calls, ATMs over tellers and apps over physical stores. If that assumption is accurate, expecting people to call a business for information might lose that business a substantial volume of its potential sales.

Just about everyone has a smartphone these days, says Brooke, and its the first thing they reach for when they want information – but theyre not making calls. Theyre browsing. If were to assume that a call or even an email are the second option for those seeking a business to buy from, then the first option is the internet. If you arent there with conveniently presented information and someone else is, you just lost the sale.

Give the People What They Want

Brooke is confident that the customer journey begins online. If theres one reason why you need a website, thats it, he says Its the place they go when theyre looking for your business or one like it. But youd better be sure your website is giving your customers what they want too. What they want is convenient access to information, and without that, theres no real point in having a website at all.

Ollie Brooke is director of a full-service website design company, Cloud Concepts. He applies his philosophy of putting customer convenience first to the websites he designs. If youd like to contact Ollie Brooke about website design or learn more about [Great Websites For Small Businesses](https://cloudconcepts.com.au/) visit his website. After all, its the best place to begin.

Written & Syndicated by [Baxton Media](https://baxtonmedia.me/).

Posted by Publisher on 14. October 2018. Filed under Computer & Software. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry