Our world has changed overnight, thanks to the Coronavirus emergency. This post seeks to reassure our clients and set out what we intend to do to help them through the crisis.
Many businesses are under threat not just through the virus itself and lockdown measures, but also the resulting economic shock that is already happening.
While we have seen huge upswings in e-commerce sites and food-related businesses, others are adapting, and others have, sadly, seen their income cut off overnight.
We stand ready to help you inform your customers and adapt your business to cope with the new reality and cushion the financial blow as much as we can.
Moghill and the coronavirus
Firstly, we want to reassure everybody that we are going nowhere.
We are in a strong financial position and, since we no longer operate an office or employ staff, our overheads are low. We have worked from home for the past 4 years, and we continue to do so uninterrupted.
We have also sought – and received – assurances from our current key suppliers as to their resilience.
In short, if your website and email are with us, they are safe. We started Moghill with nothing in a recession, and we are ready for the next one.
What we’re doing for our clients
We understand that many of our clients are not able to operate in the current lockdown conditions, and perhaps even as things start to open up again – and we want to help wherever we can.
So we have come up with the following measures.
A free notification bar on your website
You may have noticed that we have what’s called a notification bar across the top of our website, which in our case links to this article.
Notification bars are ideal for getting a quick message across on your site, especially in an emergency like this. You can tell your customers quickly and easily whether or not you are able to trade, or if you are operating business as usual or a reduced service, and the bar can be quickly removed when the emergency has passed.
Right now, what you’re doing in the current crisis is the number 1 thing your customers need to know from you.
We are adding notification bars on client sites at no charge, with a short message explaining how your business is operating during the Coronavirus/Covid crisis and lockdown.
Other examples of how this works can also been seen on a couple of our sites, Hi-Style Salon, and Shropshire Door Canopies.
If you want a notification bar adding to your site then please open a support ticket, stating your website and the message you want on your notification bar.
A price freeze for 2020
Despite price increases from many suppliers in recent years, we have held down the cost of our website hosting and support service for more than 4 years, and our hourly rate for work has also remained unchanged.
We had intended to raise prices in 2020, but given the situation we have decided to hold them for this year.
Deferred payments at no cost for shuttered businesses
We have already been in contact with several businesses who have had to stop working as a result of lockdown and social distancing.
If this applies to you, the last thing you want is a bill for a website, but also, you don’t want to lose your website, because you’re going to need it when things open up again.
Therefore, if you are in serious difficulty as a result of the crisis, we can look at deferring payments due to us for an agreed period of time. Just contact us in the normal way and we can work something out.
The same applies if you wish to change your business, for example by setting up e-commerce instead of your bricks-and-mortar shop.
However, any deferred payment is discretionary and depends on your previous payment record.
The key is to contact us early. and we will do our best to help.
Let’s not forget what’s important
Most of us have never seen a crisis like this in our lives. The Coronavirus threatens all of us and our loved ones like never before.
But it is also bringing out the best in people and we hope we can all come through stronger, together and with a new resolve.
In the meantime, we wish you all the best, to look after yourselves and your families, and to stay safe.
Patrick and Fiona.
Moghill Web Services
Photo by FolsomNatural