Sankey’s is very much part of the fabric of Tunbridge Wells and has earned a well-deserved excellent reputation for its seafood restaurants and fishmonger. It is a family business, which is now owned by Matthew Sankey and his wife Amy.
Matthew has known Rob from Target Ink since they were ‘kids’ and says that this made the firm an obvious ‘go to’ when Sankey’s needed a new website. Prior to this, Target Ink had already supported Sankey’s with some design work, including creating a digitised logo based around Matthew’s father’s signature.
Matthew adds: “We also like to work with local businesses wherever we can.”
He explains that having design and website support within one firm makes sense.
“It’s really obvious that some businesses use separate design and web teams as their website doesn’t reflect the design across the rest of the business,” Matthew says. “With Sankey’s our brand is consistent wherever you see it and this is thanks Target Ink.”
Matthew’s father went on to buy a property on Mount Ephraim in Tunbridge Wells and launched a seafood restaurant; Matthew took over the business in 2008. Today, alongside Sankey’s Seafood Kitchen and Bar, the business also includes a Champagne and seafood bar ‘The Old Fishmarket’ on The Pantiles and Sankey’s The Fishmongers on Vale Road in the town.
“Our website is an absolutely vital part of our business,” says Matthew. “It’s our shop window and it’s often the first interaction somebody has with our business. For this reason, it has to be right.”
These last few months have been incredibly challenging for the UK’s hospitality sector and how Sankey’s has been able to operate has changed a number of times, often with little warning.
“Target Ink has been so supportive through this time, following-up on changes we’ve needed made to our website incredibly quickly,” says Matthew. “Customers have an expectation that our website will be updated as soon as there’s been a Government announcement and Target Ink has made sure that this happens as soon as possible.”
He adds: “Their online maintenance system for adding content is quite simply awesome. Everything is logged and recorded and there’s immediate peace of mind that it will be actioned. We’ve sent some pretty tricky requests to the team and they’ve never come back and said ‘no’ to us, they always come up with a solution. I’d say they ‘nail it’ every single time.”
“Target Ink built this for us a while ago – people could already buy our fish online for example – but it’s been absolutely vital to us recently,” says Matthew.
He adds that Target Ink is very ‘upfront’ with what costs will be.
“We’ll send in a request and they usually come back to say that it’s included with our monthly retainer but, if it isn’t, they make it very clear what the cost will be,” Matthew explains. “That said, I do think of the website as another member of our team and it’s often the first contact somebody might have with Sankey’s. We invest in training our team, so why won’t we invest in our website?”
Matthew adds that he also has the peace of mind that Target Ink is looking after the website’s SEO and receives regular updates.
This year new pages have been added to the site including online ordering for takeaways and information about ‘hot desks’ available to rent in the upstairs function room. Sankey’s will now only accept table bookings through the website and, since the pandemic, customers now order their meals and drinks online from their tables. While this uses dedicated technology, Matthew says that Target Ink has made sure it is are ‘seamlessly embedded’ in the website.
Target Ink is currently working on a new website for Sankey’s, which is currently in the design phase, with the goal of launching it during the first quarter of 2021.
“I would always recommend Target Ink for their mix of technical skills, design, flexibility and ongoing service and support - they really are the ‘full package’,” says Matthew.
