It’s a great time to own a small business.
We know that small and medium-sized businesses enjoy some clear advantages over big businesses. The key advantage, is that small businesses can be extremely agile.
For example:
- Small business owners can get an idea in the morning, work on it that afternoon and have it in play, in days. Big businesses can take months, sometimes longer, to go from the idea stage to completion.
- Small business owners can provide a more personal level of customer service. The business owner and their staff have the freedom to treat each customer or client individually. With big businesses, there are often rigid policies and procedures that govern what can and can’t be done.
The best small businesses take full advantage of their agility. And when it’s done correctly, they can run rings around the multinationals.
The story is different online
I was speaking about this recently with my friend, Thomas Costello. Thomas works with 123-reg, the UK’s biggest provider of domain names. He told me that they recently did some research, which confirmed that in the offline world, 71% of adults believe that small businesses provide a more personal service than big businesses.
However, the story was very different online!
59% of adults surveyed [78% of young adults] said big business websites are generally better than small business websites. A key reason given for this, is that big businesses provide a more personal online shopping experience.
You can see the survey findings in full, here.
The good news, is that it’s pretty simple to make the shopping experience of your small business website way more personal, using software. Existing customers can be greeted by their name on arrival and their experience tailored around their interests.
Winning online
You already have some powerful advantages over the big guys offline. And I hope you’re maximizing them to their full potential. However, how does your business perform when it comes to offering a personal experience online? That’s a really important question, if you want to be as effective online as possible.
In short: The look of your website and its UX [User eXperience] are either building trust and making you money or eroding trust and losing you money. With more and more sales and client enquiries switching to online, it’s never been more important to offer a great experience.
IMPORTANT: If you want to make more sales, boost your profits and grow an amazing business, this will help you!