Accurate data key to communication with Levy Payers
Since the outbreak of the corona virus and the crisis that followed, the Milngavie Town Centre BID Ltd have been in regular contact with our levy payers by email, using the MailChimp.com email platform.
This was considered the best and most direct way to circulate accurate and detailed information to all of our levy payers, underlining the importance of having a fully accurate dataset and active email address for them all.
The very high rate of views, clicks and shares of the emails we sent out since 15th March have received direct positive feedback from many levy payers to our BID Manager, Tony I’Anson.
As of this week (08/04/20) the grant payments have been appearing in the bank accounts of many of our levy payers, who have been getting in touch with us individually to say thanks for the help and support over the last few weeks.
In our view, the role we took on clearly demonstrates the true value of having a Business Improvement District (BID) for a town. There was a considerable amount of anxiety among many business owners and a lot of information being published on a daily basis. As their BID representatives, we became the main trusted source of accurate information and links to apply for emergency funding to help save their business.
The crisis is far from over and we are continuing to use our consumer digital platform, Milngavie.co.uk and our social media channels to circulate local information. We identified early on about the need to keep the public informed about those businesses who were still open for business (15/03/20) before the lock down. This was updated as businesses were forced to close (23/03/20) apart of those providing essential goods and services.
As an active BID, we have also applied for funds from the BID Resilience Fund in order to carry out worthwhile projects to help Milngavie businesses through this crisis and the whole of Milngavie once the pandemic is over.
We are working very closely with the local authority, Business Gateway, Community Groups, volunteers and all stakeholders to give Milngavie the best chance of recovery. We have also opened up the entire Milngavie.co.uk platform to all groups for free for the foreseeable future.