Balingup, WA

The final post before we actually get on the road is all about my home town – Balingup. I was recently invited back to run a workshop for the local business people which brought a couple of things home to me.
· What an interesting and unusual place Balingup is, and
· No matter what the problem, communication Is generally a significant part of any solution.
Balingup is a small country town about three hours South of Perth, approximately an hour inland of the coast. It was originally built as a timber milling town and also provided services the the surrounding farming community.
Over time many of the traditional industries have been eroded, however it started to flourish again about 20-30 years ago. At that time a large number of ‘lifestyle’ people moved in, with several of the farming properties between split up into 5 – 15 acre lots. A decision was made to embrace this change and look at opportunities to leverage of it rather than fight against the change (this was not as easy a process as I think I have just made it seem).
Many of the local leaders banded together a created the Balingup Progress Association. One of the largest projects initiated within this organisation is the Balingup Small Farm Field Day. His field day was designed to meet the needs of the people living on these small holdings and now attracts over 7,000 people to Balingup annually. From this an understanding of the value of events was gained, with several diverse events now running in Balingup as a way of attracting visitors. A great place to find out more information is http://www.balinguptourism.com.au/.
Like many places, the feeling around Balingup at the time (and probably still given it wasn’t long ago) was that business was tougher than normal. This had led to a few discussions among some of the business owners and a bit of a disagreement between a couple of them. The workshop was intended to give all business people the opportunity to speak freely about the perceived issues facing them individually and collectively and by default the town as a whole.
Interestingly, when everything was boiled down, while some of the businesses were facing more difficult circumstances, this was by no means universal, with others having had just had their best year. This shows clearly the difference between perceptions and reality. It also highlights the fact that one person’s difficulty is quite often another person’s opportunity.
Many of the perceived issues around town revolved around ensuring that visitors to town had a satisfying experience across all facets of their stay, and the belief that this didn’t always happen. There was real concern from accommodation suppliers regarding the lack of availability of meals at some times, along with a wide spread belief that service standards were not always at the level they should be in a range of businesses.
The key outcome of these discussions was the availability of solutions that were for the most part already available, that were identified during the evening. In most cases the solutions, while not widely known, were readily available and the missing link was not necessarily the provision of services, but more the knowledge of the offer across the town.
When this lack of communication was explored further it was quickly identified that there was no business networking in town, meaning that as new businesses started up and new people bought existing businesses the communal knowledge throughout the business community was slowly eroded. An ongoing process of ensuring that all businesses were aware of the products and services offered by each other is a vital part of ensuring that a place the size of Balingup stays strong.
As part of the discussions I also agreed to look into pricing a ‘mystery shop’ process for the town as a whole instead of individual businesses as currently focussed on by most mystery shopper programs. It was agreed that Balingup, and other places of a similar size, rely on the experience of the whole place rather than the experience form any individual business. Therefore the ease of finding toilets, cleanliness of the town itself and ease of navigating the town can be as important, if not mor so, than the service levels at any individual business.
Although this process hasn’t yet been undertaken, it was surprising the relative inexpensiveness of undertaking this type of program; however an ongoing program needs to be put in place for it to have any real value.