By By KATHIE HEMPEL / Niles Daily Star
NILES – These days business, especially small business, needs all the help it can get.
How do you reach new customers? How do you let them know what you have to offer?
Enter the Four Flags Area Chamber of Commerce with yet another boost to its members businesses.
The new Chamber Website -www.nileschamber.com – is a boon to every business the chamber represents.
Every business can be online with its own webpage. Each owner now has the ability to change its information, picture or add a coupon at will.
"This is the second edition of our Website. Over the last five years all Chamber members have had their listing. They could call us and we could change and add information for them, but now we are so excited about all the features our new site offers members and at no additional cost," said Ron Sather, the Chamber's President and CEO.
Chamber executive assistant Karla Pierce designed the new home page.
Sather said he is proud of how the local Chamber continues to add not only members but also services for those members.
He refers to the mission of the Chamber: "To provide a positive leadership role in our community and using Chamber resources to promote our member businesses while developing new business growth."
With the new Website members can reach new customers with a click of a mouse. Their listings now feature a map icon leading the consumer to a map showing the business' exact location.
"Before it was not possible for a member to do changes on their individual pages. Now they can have a coupon with an expiration date the consumer can print out or members can change the picture whenever they want to. It is secured with their own identification and password," Sather said.
The new Website went live May 15. Last week the Chamber sent outletters to all its members encouraging them to call and get their personal ID and password.
"In this manner the consumer gets instant savings. The business has a way of tracking and building Web traffic with something like a coupon. It's a great effectiveness measure," Sather said.
Another way for businesses to check the effectiveness of their Webpage is through the online statistics. Each business will be able to login to see how many visits have been made to their page and other information pertinent to their own page.
"No other Chamber, I know of, in the State of Michigan offers what we offer our members. Forty-two percent of Chamber members would have no Internet presence at all were it not for this Website. Not being online today is missing a real opportunity to build business. Any business most of these get from their Webpage will be a customer they might otherwise not ever meet," he said.
The Web presence offers endless possibilities. Businesses can be listed under any number of categories.
Business owners with a current Website can have a link from the Chamber's Website and their page there, to their own Website, thus doubling the exposure and the time they keep a potential customer's attention.
"Some people say to me that they don't shop online. However, the fact is that more and more of their customers do. People new to the community will search the site, even before they move here to find out what our businesses have to offer. They look for services as well as doing more traditional online shopping. In the final analysis, even one new customer is one they didn't have before," Sather said.
The Website offers homepage coverage for special events, easy links to business with the Chamber itself and is an unsurpassed referral system leading customers directly to Niles' business' front door.