New Website for Beloved Local Bakery, LuluBelle's
Here at Border7, we believe a website should not only look good, but also make life easier. When done well, a website should make your business easier to understand, easier to find, and, ideally, easier to run.
This was the thinking behind our recent website project for LuluBelle’s Coffee House & Bakery, a beloved neighborhood coffee shop and bakery here in the San Bernardino Mountains.
LuluBelle’s already had something you can’t build with a website alone, which is a loyal community, a welcoming atmosphere, and a menu full of delicious coffee, pastries, breakfast and lunch favorites.
What they needed was a website that could support the business they had already built, and help them grow without creating more work for the people running it.
Starting With the Business Problem, Not the Website
When we begin a website project, we don't start by asking, “What should the homepage look like?”
We start with: What is happening in the business now and how can a website help?
For LuluBelle’s, one of the biggest opportunities was their pastry and food orders.
Their team was spending valuable time answering questions, coordinating requests, and managing orders manually.
That takes time away from the things that will have a big impact, serving customers, baking, running the coffee shop, and being part of their community.
So, instead of simply creating a website that listed their menu, we looked for ways the website could become a tool for the business.
Our Five Questions
At Border7, we have a simple framework we use when planning websites:
What do you do?
Who is it for?
Why do they need it?
Why should they trust you?
What should they do next?
These questions sound simple, but they're incredibly useful.
They keep a website from becoming a collection of random sections that a business owner thinks they “should” have, and for LuluBelle’s, the answers to these questions became the foundation for the entire site.
What do you do?
LuluBelle’s is a local coffee house and bakery in the San Bernardino mountains that offers coffee, pastries, breakfast, lunch and special food orders. But, that's only part of the story...
Who is it for?
It's for the people who live in and visit the mountain communities around Running Springs. That's the regular who has their usual order, the family stopping in after a morning outdoors exploring the mountain, someone looking for pastries and the person who wants a welcoming local place to grab a coffee and spend a little time.
Why do they need it?
The website needs to make it easy for people to figure out what's available, when they're open, where they're located, and how to order ahead.
It should answer those questions before someone has to pick up the phone or send a message.
Why should they trust LuluBelle's?
Because the business is deeply connected to its community. Its story, the customers, events and relationships are a huge part of what makes it special.
So, we made room for that story and community focus instead of treating the website like a generic restaurant template.
What should they do next?
Now this is where the website becomes truly useful.
Instead of leaving visitors wondering what to do, the site gives them clear next steps, whether that's viewing the menu, ordering ahead, learning about the business, getting involved in the community, or getting in touch.
Building a Website That Gives Time Back
One of our favorite parts of this project was looking at the website through the lens of time.
A website shouldn't create more administrative work, instead, it should take some of it away.
For LuluBelle's, that meant creating a clearer path for customers who wanted to place pastry and food orders.
Instead of every request requiring a conversation from start to finish, the website can gather the information the team needs upfront. That means fewer back-and-forth messages, repetitive questions, interruptions, and more time for the people behind the business to focus on running it.
That's the kind of website functionality we love, technology that makes someone's actual workday better.
The Website Is Part of the Customer Experience
A website is often the first interaction someone has with a business.
But, it's also part of what happens after someone becomes a customer.
For LuluBelle's, the website isn't meant to replace the warm, personal experience customers get when they walk through the door. It's meant to support it.
Someone can discover the business online, check the menu, learn the story, place an order, find the location, and then walk into the coffee shop already knowing what they want.
The website handles some of the information-sharing so the people can focus on the relationship.
And that's, pun intended for a bakery, the sweet spot.
We Also Made Room for the Story
One of the easiest mistakes to make when building a business website is focusing so heavily on the transaction that you forget the personality behind the business.
LuluBelle's isn't just a place that sells coffee and pastries. It's a community gathering place, the regular customers, the stories, the events, and, it's Michelle and Mike.
It's the people who have made the business part of their lives, and the people who continue to walk through the door every day. It was important to us that the new website to reflect that.
That's why the site includes space for the business's story, community involvement, events and ongoing content. Because those things aren't “extra." They're part of why someone chooses LuluBelle's instead of somewhere else.
Good Web Design Isn't Just About Design
We love beautiful websites, but beauty isn't enough.
A website can have gorgeous photography, beautiful typography and a perfect color palette, and still fail the business it's supposed to support.
A good business website needs to answer questions, guide people, and make the next steps obvious.
And, whenever possible, it should make the business owner's life a little easier. That's what we were aiming for with LuluBelle's.
Not simply a new website, but a better business tool.
Your Website Should Enhance Your Business, Not Become Another Job
This is something we talk about a lot at Border7: your website should fit into your business. It shouldn't become a second job.
If you're constantly answering questions that your website could answer, manually collecting information that a form could gather, or sending people the same information over and over again, there may be an opportunity to make your website work harder for you.
And that doesn't necessarily mean adding more technology.
Sometimes, it means simplifying, reorganizing your content, making one button more obvious, creating an optimized order form.
The goal isn't to build the biggest website possible.
Instead, it's to build the right website for the business you actually have.
That's exactly what we set out to do for LuluBelle's Coffee House & Bakery, and it's the approach we bring to every website project we take on.
Because your website should support the life of your business, and not consume it.
To see LuluBelle's Coffee House & Bakery's new website for yourself, click here!
