The NSS Mystery Surfer trawls the internet to find the latest website developments by companies involved in the stone indstry. This month he visited the new website of Trade Price Stone at www.tradepricestoneltd.co.uk.

If you want to see how customer-focused a website can be, visit tradepricestone.co.uk.

Trade Price Stone in Hilton, Derbyshire, sells Brazilian slate in a variety of forms for interiors and exteriors, Portuguese and Egyptian limestone and granite tiles, as well as products needed for fixing and sealing them.

It is an attractive range of products in all manner of finishes and sizes.

The first thing a customer notices on the home page is the sensible organisation of the variety of products on offer, so looking at them and then identifying them is easy.

Trade Price Stone wants to attract a variety of customers and have made it absolutely clear who those customers are on the home page with tabs across the top labelled ‘Home’, ‘Retailer’, ‘Architects’, ‘Interior designers’, ‘Builders’ and ‘Tilers’.

Anyone can enter each section, but the text specifically addresses the problems that Trade Price Stone solves for that group of customers. For example, open the ‘Retailers’ section and you get the message: “Struggling for storage space? Lines of stock that aren't moving? Why not take the hassle out of stocking your own Brazilian slate and let us do it for you. At Trade Price Stone Ltd we have around 30,000m2 of slate, limestone and granite in stock. We hold a variety of sizes to try and meet your every need, all at great prices that are hard to beat.”

In a few sentences the main concerns of most retailers have been addressed.

For tilers comes the message: “We can brand all samples with your logo and send direct to the customer…” What a great way of helping the trade.

There is more own-branding of ready-made marketing on the site as well.

Trade customers have to log in, which might put some people off, but it is not an unreasonable request for the information that becomes available – such as trade prices, delivery charges and slip resistance test results (using the inclined ramp method rather than the weighted pendulum method) all downloaded as PDFs when you click on the icon.

Another great idea is ready-made generic point of sale material that can be downloaded as a PDF and printed on a normal desktop inkjet printer. It automatically adds the contact details that you have entered in order to register with the site.

The message covers the essential points that most people want to make – “I’m your local tiler specialising in stone wall and floor tiles” – has simple, attractive graphics, straight forward bullet points of what a tiler does and a contact point. It could just as easily be sent to a local newspaper or magazine and used as an ad.

And if you don’t like the way your contact information is presented, it is simple to change it just by clicking on the ‘Update your details’ icon.

There are currently five of the promotional posters to choose from but more are promised, as well as other promotional material such as press releases. For the small company or one-man-band, these are such a good idea because even if you could do them yourself it all takes time that is never easy to find. And if you give it to a printer or designer to do, it adds to the cost.

In the trade area you can also view and track your orders, so you and your customers know their status.

There is even today’s date displayed in the top right-hand corner of every page, giving you confidence that the site is up-to-the-minute and active.

There are one or two idiosyncracies, such as the message that: “We stock such a wide variety of sizes in slate that you can effectively let your mind wonder on each bespoke project.” What does it mean? But even mentioning them is pendantic.

This is an exceptionally well conceived, focused and built site. It is simple, to the point bright, welcoming and thoroughly customer friendly.

And it is not too difficult to find. There is a lot of competition for tile queries on search engines and Trade Price Stone does not make it on to early pages of search engines with most of them. But the company does specialise mostly in Brazilian slate and if you enter either ‘Brazilian slate’ or ‘Brazilian tiles’ you will find their website on the first page of Google.