Location, location, location – As important in website design as succeeding as a restaurateur March 24, 2011

Beautiful beaches, swanky shopping and a celebrity-energized nightlife are three of the leading reasons people visit Miami Beach, but the amazing selection of international food shouldn’t be undersold. Miami Beach offers cuisines from Cuban and Haitian to Peruvian, Indian, Thai and Japanese. I don’t consider myself a “foodie,” but appreciate great cuisine and Miami Beach serves it up with panache.

During my last Miami food adventure, it was immediately obvious that only a handful of restaurants attract the majority of culinary enthusiasts. Is it because they truly offer better food, prices or dining experience? My opinion is “probably not.” If Miami Beach restaurants set up their shops on a very large ship, organized proportionate to current geographic location, the ship would sink faster than the Titanic, led by the Ocean Avenue. Yes, it’s all about location. Every year, throngs of promising restaurateurs fail because they open their doors on the wrong street.

How does the importance of location translate to website design? Another way to think of location is “access,” which originates from the formal approach to customer-focused marketing known as SIVA (solution, information, value and access). The more well-known demand/customer-centric alternative to the SIVA model is the 4Ps of marketing management: product, price, placement and promotion.

Whether you like to think of this aspect of the marketing mix as location, access or placement, getting your customers or subscribers on board with your most vital programs means expert positioning, and your website design is one of the most important considerations to arrive at this end.

If your focus is Customer Care, don’t miss Chartwell’s Web and Mobile Customer Interaction Summit, held April 28-29 in Phoenix. The agenda features presentations that include the latest and greatest Web initiatives including:

• Creating and Implementing a Web and Mobile Roadmap, Stu Goldfarb, Senior Business Manager, Call Centers, Marketing & Corporate Communications, Xcel Energy.
• Delivering Smart Meter Data via Web-based Channels, Chris Rohrer, Manager, Business Applications and Projects, Salt River Project.
• Online Services & Commercial Customers: A Conversation Starter, Yuki Sakai, Contact Center Manager, EPCOR Utilities

The Summit will no doubt include discussion of usability and placement of interactive utility service offerings, such as sign up for service, pay the bill and get your usage data.  Additionally, check out Chartwell analyst Doris Yon’s recent blog post, More utilities recognizing the value of usability with their websites for other compelling insights on this topic.

At Chartwell, we believe so strongly in the importance of website design that we are undergoing a major website overhaul of our own. Scheduled for launch during the summer of 2011, our new site will offer an improved look and feel, navigation, search engine and more. Stay tuned; we’re pretty darn excited.

In the meantime, don’t be like the Thai restaurant, way off the beaten path, that was completely empty until I convinced my husband to stop in for lunch on our last day in Miami, solely because I am plagued with a ridiculous bleeding heart. Seek out the best possible Web placement for your products, programs and services and the results likely will follow.