Small businesses losing potential sales through outdated digital info

May 12, 2015, Ottawa – Eighty per cent of Canadians have been unable to connect with local businesses due to inaccurate or outdated information in online or mobile searches at some point in the past 12 months, says a surveyed commissioned by Yellow Pages.

The survey suggests Canada’s small businesses are losing potential clients due to their inability to keep their basic business information updated across the current digital ecosystem of websites, mobile apps and social media platforms.

The same poll revealed that on a yearly basis, over 285 million digital searches for Canadian businesses result in incorrect information. As a result, over 15 million Canadians affirm that their plans or purchase intentions were negatively impacted, in the past 12 months due to inaccurate information turning up in their searches.

To help small businesses bridge this digital gap, Yellow Pages has developed and launched a new digital offer, dubbed PresencePro, designed to help them keep their contact information and business details standardized and up to date across all relevant websites and mobile applications.

“Consumer traffic continues to fragment in the digital space. The number of websites and apps that now drive local business information to various audiences grows every minute,” said Nicolas Gaudreau, senior vice-president and chief marketing officer of Yellow Pages. “A 2013 poll of our customer base showed over 90% of our clients were concerned about their ability to keep their business contact information standardized and up to date across all relevant digital properties. Small businesses have neither the time nor the resources to manually ensure they are present everywhere in the digital space or even determine their starting points for each individual website or app. As a result, their business information remains incorrect or outdated and may be causing them to miss opportunities to acquire new customers.”

PresencePro is an automated listing information syndication service built by Yellow Pages specifically for small businesses. It provides a single-point of entry designed for businesses to update their business information, opening hours, contact info as well as rich content such as photos and videos. Once this is submitted, PresencePro will automatically syndicate the content to the Yellow Pages PresencePro network of digital properties and partners.

“PresencePro was created in direct response to small business needs and is another solution Yellow Pages can offer to help bridge the existing digital divide between Canadians and Canadian small businesses,” Gaudreau said.

Canadian digital usage remains the fastest growing in the world, yet Canadian small businesses struggle to keep pace. According to Statistics Canada’s 2013 Survey of Household Spending, the average Canadian household spends $58,592 on goods and services each year, or $161 each day. If consumers cannot find or contact businesses which can fulfill their purchase needs, then that spend will be directed to those they can locate. Accurate and updated business information at all potential customer points of entry is a crucial element to attracting customers and growing business. According to the Yellow Pages omnibus poll, 97% of Canadians feel the responsibility rests with the business to ensure their business information is kept updated and current.

The top three business information elements most often found to be outdated were hours of operation, address and phone number, followed closely by outdated descriptions of the businesses products or services.