The same business details updated in many places
Change the hours once. Then change them everywhere else.
Opening hours, services, and contact details appear in many places online, and each one is updated by hand.
Not every business has this problem, and some should leave it alone.
Most of these can be handled better. Whether it's worth doing is a separate question. What follows is one common form of the problem, described in general terms, because your version will differ. These are possible challenges, not a description of your business, and some should be left exactly as they are. If it sounds like your week, that's worth a conversation.
Sound familiar?
- Holiday hours are right on one listing and wrong on another.
- Nobody knows every place the business is listed.
- A customer showed up to an old address.
- The logins for some listings are lost.
What it looks like
A business's hours, phone number, services, and address appear on its website, on map and directory listings, on social pages, and in industry directories. When something changes, somebody logs in to each one and updates it.
Some get updated. Some get forgotten. A few nobody remembers creating.
What it costs
Customers find wrong details. And act on them.
Each change is repeated. A simple update has to be made once per listing.
Old listings linger. Nobody knows they exist, so nobody fixes them.
Where it goes wrong
- There is no list of listings. Where the business appears is not written down.
- Logins are scattered. Held by whoever set each one up.
- Changes are not scheduled. Holiday hours go up late, or not at all.
- Nobody checks. A wrong listing is found by a customer.
What a better version looks like
One list records every place the business appears, with who has access. The master details live in one place. When they change, each listing on the list is updated and ticked off. A quick check each season catches anything that drifted.
What still needs a person
A person decides what the business says about itself, and where it wants to appear. A person handles anything a listing's owner will not change.
Questions worth asking about your own operation
- Where does your business appear online?
- Who has the logins for each?
- When your hours last changed, how many places were updated?
- Has a customer ever acted on old details?
If this sounds familiar
Bring me the version you actually have. I'll learn how the process really works before I suggest anything. If it isn't worth changing, or isn't a fit for me, I'll say so. Talk through a problem