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How did the project start?
The business had started a year earlier and approached website promotions at the time to develop a website for their new business concept, Serviced apartments for nightly rental. A website was built based on the assumptions of the target market and was used for approx. a year before the owners approached Website Promotions again with an enhanced set of requirements to take on board and build a new website accompanied by SEO and marketing. The new development was also enriched with feedback from customers that used the website and the owners' own feedback regarding their own requirements for the administration of the website. This coupled with web traffic statistics and trends helped paint a new picture where everything is very much user centred.
What options did you consider?
The new site would accommodate the needs of both users and staff, while being able to deliver a more robust version of the availability and booking system. Although such system was already in place it had repetitive errors generating a large error log which could have drastic effects on the hosting server. Therefore a full diagnosis was carried out to deal with such errors which were later fixed and the running system was updated.
The Look & feel of the website also had to be updated to match the now growing business in an effort to enhance the user's online experience and reflect the luxury offered at the apartments.
What help and expertise did you receive?
It was helpful to have access to previous users who would advise us on their online experience and opinions of the website. But the project was fully developed internally whilst making sure the website fits the precise needs of the business, their customers and the industry they are competing in.
Did you face and challenges or learn any lessons?
There were no challenging aspects on this project due to the familiarity of its systems and interface.
What are the outcomes and how has it improved your business?
The new website has raised the company's profile online and began to achieve more bookings and enquiries from customers. The updated system meant there were no errors being generated every time a user access the website either and the customer satisfaction was ultimately a great incentive for the team.
What are your plans for the future?
As the owner's business continues to grow the website has became much easier to accommodate such expansions. The Client has no plans to change the website though an SEO campaign is a potential new task in order to reach more customers.
