I bet we all have tried to find out information about a business or eatery online at one point or other. Sometimes we need to get contact details or general information about the business to prepare for events or make recommendations but many times all we find is third party information. As potential customers we may lose interest and this obviously results to loss of business to competitors who have an online presence.
In this day and age, any entrepreneur who hopes to be successful (and I believe they all do) has to ensure that their business has an online presence. Some businesses may be featured by third party websites or have their customers leave reviews on sites like foursquare when they log in but many times that information is not conclusive. Sometimes the reviews may be negative and though the state of affairs may have changed for the better over time, potential customers may only rely on the negative information available.
I believe that any business, school or institution should actively engage in activities to sell its ideas or provide information to the public online. This would be in the form of a website, blog, Wikipedia page or any other means through which valid information can be provided. The sites should be updated as often as possible and the contact details (especially phone numbers and emails) should be active. It beats logic to have 5 alternative phone numbers and only one or two are active. The response duration for emails should be as short as possible. Some major businesses and banks have even established a live chat feature on their websites where customers get to chat with a member of staff to make inquiries and problems are sorted out on the spot.
We live in a competitive world and we require to work hard or to work smart in order to survive. I believe that businesses with an online presence usually have chosen to work smart. It is a way of having money work for you since you make it easy for customers to approach you as opposed to you physically reaching them. If you tell me about your business and I like your ideas, I may most definitely want to find out more online. So, can I find you online?