Networking the Nation

Jill and Rob Gardner

Jill and Rob Gardner operate fine wool and beef operation at Cavendish, in the shadow of the famous Grampians mountain range. Eighteen years ago they renovated a disused blue stone cottage as self contained farm stay accommodation. After the wool price crisis of the early 1990’s, Jill and Rob decided to become more serious about the farm stay business to increase income. A second cottage was renovated and they began actively promoting “South Mokanger Farm Cottages”.

The Gardner’s connected to the internet in 1998 and soon after, Jill saw the potential in advertising on the internet and decided she would promote the farm stay in cyberspace. After carefully researching other farm stay websites and gathering suitable photographs, Jill basically drafted up her own website concept. With some technical help from a web designer the site went on line in April 2001at www.smfarmcottages.com.au .

“It just seemed a logical step to get on-line” says Jill “People make decisions on the spur of the moment these days about holidays and you’ve got to have the information easily available. I would get 6 –10 emails a week re accommodation”.

Initially, it cost $500 to have the website designed and prepared to go on-line. It took about 10 full days of Jill’s time to manage and have direct input to the process of constructing the website.

“I pay my ISP $30 per month to host my website and I pay fees to have a presence on associated larger websites such as www.visitvictoria.com.au and the Farm and Country Tourism site www.factv.com and these provide a link back to my own website, these fees would currently total about $500 per year”.

“Our ISP provides a service where I can go in and check at anytime how many visits I am getting to the site, and loads of other data such as the date, time and source of the enquiry. The South Mokanger Farm Cottages website is currently receiving an average of around 180 genuine visits a month. This information and analysis tells me if these industry sites I am affiliated with are providing referrals. I intend to use this information to reduce my affiliations back to two or three key industry sites. Paper advertising has to be maintained as well so I can’t spend the budget on the internet alone.”

THE BENEFIT

The most important impact of the internet has been on the advertising for the cottages.

A very noticeable benefit of the website has been an increase in international enquiries and bookings, from Singapore and Hong Kong particularly. It is also useful to be able direct people to the website reducing the need for mail. “Mailing has reduced dramatically” says Jill. “I used to send out about 10 – 15 brochures a week now I can refer a lot of those enquiries to the website. I also used to have send out directions and now they can just print the map off the website”.

“Another benefit of the website is that people can really see what they are coming to and can make a decision. There is a lot more information on my web page then in my brochure, such as a promotion of attractions in the region, not just the cottages. I also have pricing information on the website”.

“There is a direct link to my email address on the site with an enquiry form attached. This generates about 5 email enquiries per week”.

“It is difficult to say what impact the website has had on bookings but our occupancy has stepped up considerably in the last 12 months. There have been other factors like the September 11 terrorist attacks which saw a trend for more people to take local holidays”.

“We are busy all year round now. I now employ two women casually to help with cleaning. You do have to be able to answer the phone too because people do not want to leave a message, they want someone to talk to or they go somewhere else”.

“I don’t think that the internet has really started in the tourism industry in terms of volume. It is going to change the parameters like company AGM’s being broadcast on the web. I can see that visual impact will improve more and more so that you will get multi dimensional and 360 degree views etc” concludes Jill.

OTHER USES OF THE INTERNET

The Gardners are registered on NAB On-line banking and pay their employees by Electronic Funds Transfer. Jill has found that their book keeping software is not very internet friendly and she is currently assessing the other packages on the market to find something more suitable.

Regular wool price and marketing e-mail updates are received from a wool marketing consultant.

“I have found the consumer information site at www.choice.com.au useful in researching household items”says Jill.

Jill is comfortable with the speed and technical support she gets from their current Internet Service Provider and hasn’t felt the need to move to a broadband service.

The Gardner’s recently relied heavily on the internet to research and price the purchase of a new car. The internet has also been used to research for specific information relating to health and illnesses.

FARM500 – E-BUSINESS WORKSHOPS

Jill has completed a couple of short courses on using email/internet and attended two Farm500 / Networking the Nation e-business workshops, “The workshops did open up to me what was possible with the internet and provided the motivation to explore more”.

Farm Management 500 is supported by: