Embracing technology to optimize business processes.
BFLO Harbor Kayak is based in Buffalo, New York. Before working with White Giraffe, the company had a website that lacked rich content to provide value for SEO and they were not taking advantage of technology to help optimize business processes and customer communication automation.
BFLO Harbor Kayak is a seasonal kayak and paddle board rental that works right off of the Buffalo River in the Canalside area of Buffalo, NY. This area is a tourist attraction in the summer for people that live outside of the city. In recent years BFLO Harbor Kayak has been dealing with increased competition from other kayak rental businesses and other activities that can be done in that area.
White Giraffe started working with BFLO Harbor Kayak during the off season in preparation for the summer of 2020 season. They were looking to update their website. We proposed a new website with a simpler user interface and rich content to optimize the web pages for SEO. Additionally, it was critical to integrate analytics so that user data was being collected to leverage for future marketing campaigns and other strategic business decision making.
Discovering additional client needs.
To uncover and clarify client needs one of the steps White Giraffe utilizes is to take the information learned through the Research phase and to create a simple example of what the final result may be. We use this low fidelity wireframe to learn even more.
The result of this step is to apply the learning to a high fidelity prototype that will allow us to learn even more. We take small steps to “learn fast” and provide the greatest business value possible.
The power of inventory management.
BFLO Harbor Kayak did not just get a new website from this project, they also started utilizing an IMS (Inventory Management System). This system handles financial transactions along with maintaining a count of how many active services are available. This allows them to sell, not just on their company website, but on other OTA (Online Travel Agency) websites and to maintain one inventory accurately. The value of this system demonstrated its value when BFLO Harbor Kayak had to transition their business model to accepting reservations.
Additionally, a CMS (Customer Management System) has also been integrated to assist with lead collection to be utilized for future marketing campaigns and to automate messaging to customers.
Take an iterative approach to define automation initiatives.
For site launch a minimally viable product was defined that would give BFLO Harbor Kayak a tool that can collect analytics, be SEO friendly and be integrated with an IMS and CMS.
As time has passed and more feedback and questions come in from the BFLO Harbor Kayak client base, we have completed efforts to change and add new kayaking services and automate communication with customers.
Results.
After the first year, bfloharborkayak.com received a 65% increase in New User Traffic, 72% increase in Pageviews, which resulted in a 48% increase of annual revenue.
