COVID-19 and the importance of being online.

Many families and businesses are struggling with the current coronavirus pandemic and are stuck navigating government advice, wondering whether to go into the workplace or to keep teams at work. There is no answer that won’t affect us all in some way.

The majority of small businesses in Northern Ireland don’t have a website or social media presence – vital tools in keeping customers engaged. Read on to find out how three business are keeping ahead in uncertain times.

An Ceathrú Póilí – The Bookshop.

The book shop had to close down due to the COVID-19 lockdown and to protect both the team and their customers. Having a strong mailing list, built through their website, A4P were able to appeal to their loyal customers to continue purchasing online.

With one team member in the shop each day, online orders could be fulfilled while a socially distant ‘click and collect’ feature was also added to the website. (you can buy a book here!)

Bia – The Restaurant.

Bia Restaurant has high footfall and a large kitchen and floor team. After closing under lockdown rules, Bia needed to keep patrons up to date and ensure that cashflow was as steady as possible.

We arranged for their website to accept orders online, while the owners renovated (no time lost!). (update: Bia has now re-opened)

Raya Design – us!

Having to work from home, we needed a way to accept business calls and and customer support requests to ensure we remained accessible to our clients. We chose Dialpad as our landline phone system which works across computers and mobile phones so that we wouldn’t miss a thing. For website updates and customer support requests, we introduced a new ticketing system that only requires our customers to send an email to our support email address. We are now more efficient than ever!

Websites are still very important to small businesses – whether the website is informational (promoting your service/work) or for selling (shops, music etc.).

If you have any thoughts, please don’t hesitate to get in touch – keep safe and keep busy.

If you or your company would like to create or build on your web presence – get in touch to find out how Raya Design can help.