Digital phone book becomes a booking platform
localsearch (Swisscom Directories AG) has further developed the digital telephone directory into Switzerland's largest booking platform. local.ch has not only appeared in a new look since April 4, 2023, but above all with numerous functional improvements.
Since 2006, local.ch has been an established player in the Swiss online market as the official digital telephone directory. Already in recent years, the portal has increasingly developed beyond the function of a directory into a marketplace through which services can be booked directly by SMEs. With a relaunch and a new brand promise, the transformation of local.ch from a digital telephone directory to the largest Swiss booking platform has now been officially completed.
Booking platform with additional benefits for SMEs
With around 1.7 million visitors and over 30 million page impressions per month, local.ch is one of the top ten Swiss online portals in terms of reach and is on a par with renowned media brands in terms of usage (Mediapulse Online Audience Data). More than 500,000 SMEs from all kinds of industries, including contact details, can be found on the booking platform. The categories range from "Food, Indulgence & Gastronomy" to "Medicine, Aesthetics & Wellness" and "Craft, Construction & Industry". But countless services in the categories "Leisure, Education & Sports", "Life, Housing & Environment" and "Security, Business & IT" are also part of local.ch's offering. The respective services of over 155,000 SMEs can even be booked directly online at the touch of a button.
The architect of the booking platform local.ch is localsearch (Swisscom Directories AG). "With the relaunch of local.ch, we are underlining our repositioning as the largest Swiss booking platform and consistently implementing the new brand promise: 'Simply book online,'" says Stefano Santinelli, CEO of localsearch. "The functionality as a phone book will of course remain, but this designation no longer does justice to local.ch's extensive offering today." Last year, the button for direct booking was already pressed around 1.5 million times for a wide variety of SME services.
Relaunch with "localbuddy", "Free Table Search" and search via interactive map
After two years of development, local.ch has been relaunched. Central components of the all-round renewal are expanded and new search and booking options, which lead to even better user-friendliness. This makes it even easier for users to find the service they want and to book it straight away. For this purpose, "localbuddy" is even available as a chatbot, which users can ask their questions not only in writing, but also verbally.
First find a restaurant and then in a second step clarify whether a table is free: For many the usual way to a table reservation, which often ends in disappointment when there is no room. The new local.ch offers a shortcut: With the "Free Table Search", you can directly find the restaurants in your area that still have a table free. And the reservation is then just another click away.
The new interactive map offers a different approach to the search. For example, anyone looking for a car garage near their location can get an overview directly via the map view and also make an appointment right away by clicking on the selected store.
Stefano Santinelli, CEO of localsearch: "All surveys and studies on online commerce in Switzerland show that consumers are booking and buying more and more online. I am convinced that with the new local.ch, we are making it even easier for users to find and book their desired service. And on the other hand, we are supporting SMEs even better in bringing customers from the digital world into their business. A win-win situation - or a match as we would say today."
Source: localsearch
