Introduction
I have noticed a number of local businesses using their Facebook page as a website link. Here is my own personal use case of this scenario and why a website provides better user experience.
Story
I live in Melbourne and we are in a “level 4” lockdown due to covid-19, this means all local businesses are shut apart from essential services e.g. The Supermarket.
Unfortunately my cleanly cut fade has decimated! I am desperate for a haircut and thankfully the Victorian premier has announced a roadmap out of level 4 lockdown. I walk past a local barber and “google” it, this comes up as a google map result. My primary goals was to find out the price of a haircut. My eye is drawn to the number of positive google reviews, this is awesome to see. But I need the price.
I see a link to their website and it redirects me to a facebook page. I can see a number of posts, but alarmingly the last post was July 8th and it is now September 14th. This makes me wonder if they are still open or going to open and I cannot find the price anywhere, nothing in about, posts and pics. Meh, I close the session and move on.
Here are the valuable lessons learned here:
- Facebook is a social media platform it is primarily designed on engagement. Posts are the primary form of engagement. For a customer to find key information a website serves this purpose.
- This experience led to more questions than answers. You don’t want to confuse your customers, answer those questions right away with a website.
- Basic info matters, do not underestimate location, prices and opening times.
- Local businesses having a physical presence is not enough, people in this present time use their mobiles to do further research before making a decision. Make this experience easy.
I will have to get a haircut and this barber is the closest one, I could not get the pricing so I will need to call. While this is an easy thing to do, it’s not how everyone likes to communicate. Some people hate calling! but as a business you will have to pick up the phone, taking one barber out of action for a couple minutes answering the same questions.
Conclusion
By thinking about the customer experience and using a website to provide direct information over a social media platform, which primarily focuses on new content (posts), a business will eliminate the time it takes to make a decision or the staff member having to answer the same questions all day.
It is so important to provide a digital home for your business, but how you do it can be missed. Which is costly.