Location detection issues...

bigdave

Well-Known Member
I've been asked to work on a site for a national b2b company with multiple offices around the UK. Information and pricing varies depending on which location they're operating in and so they'd like to make it as simple as possible for potential customers to get the correct information.

One option was for the browser to automatically detect where the user was and direct them to the relevant sub-domain, however, that might cause an issue with other national operators who are based in one location but want to order services for another (for example, a company in London wanting order services for a project in Newcastle would get the London prices by default, which is not really ideal).

Another option was for a pop-up either on the home page or the services page, requiring the user to select the location they wish to order services for. The problem with this is that if a user follows a link from elsewhere they might bypass the option to select a location and end up with incorrect information.

The final option (one that doesn't appeal to the customer) is to have a drop down sub-menu listing the office locations for the user to select from.

Can anyone see a suitable compromise of the above or even know a better way of working this? The client has no issue with customers having access to the information for other regions, they just don't want them receiving the wrong information for their specific region.
 
Another option was for a pop-up either on the home page or the services page, requiring the user to select the location they wish to order services for. The problem with this is that if a user follows a link from elsewhere they might bypass the option to select a location and end up with incorrect information.

Would this work if the user accesses the page based on a php session being created, so it 'bounces' them back to the location selection page if they haven't completed that action?
 
I've been asked to work on a site for a national b2b company with multiple offices around the UK. Information and pricing varies depending on which location they're operating in and so they'd like to make it as simple as possible for potential customers to get the correct information.

One option was for the browser to automatically detect where the user was and direct them to the relevant sub-domain, however, that might cause an issue with other national operators who are based in one location but want to order services for another (for example, a company in London wanting order services for a project in Newcastle would get the London prices by default, which is not really ideal).

Another option was for a pop-up either on the home page or the services page, requiring the user to select the location they wish to order services for. The problem with this is that if a user follows a link from elsewhere they might bypass the option to select a location and end up with incorrect information.

The final option (one that doesn't appeal to the customer) is to have a drop down sub-menu listing the office locations for the user to select from.

Can anyone see a suitable compromise of the above or even know a better way of working this? The client has no issue with customers having access to the information for other regions, they just don't want them receiving the wrong information for their specific region.

If in doubt, always think "What Would The BBC Do?"

They auto select a default location (via Geo) but give you the option to change it.

They even give the options to create a list of "Your Locations" so the user can find locations that they frequent.
 
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