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Customers often first encounter a trades firm on a phone. Five visible features can be checked without a questionnaire. I am studying them in a sample of 800 to 1,000 Czech trades micro-enterprises.
Customers often first encounter a trades firm on a phone. Five visible features can be checked without a questionnaire. I am studying them in a sample of 800 to 1,000 Czech trades micro-enterprises.
Questionnaires can be affected by self-selection, optimistic self-assessment and non-response. Firms with little digital presence may therefore be underrepresented. External observation provides another source of evidence: whether a website exists, works on a phone, provides a contact route, appears on maps and has reviews. The same checks can be repeated across firms without requiring an owner response.
D1 · A working website. The site exists and loads on a repeat attempt. D2 · Mobile usability. A customer can read and operate the site on a phone. D3 · A contact action. An enquiry form or clickable phone number lets a visitor contact the firm directly. D4 · A Google Business profile. The firm's location and service details can be checked in local search and maps. D5 · Reviews. Customer reviews provide one source of evidence for a visitor who does not know the firm.
A weighted index needs a defensible reason for each weight. This study instead uses an unweighted count of five observable dimensions. The European Commission's digital intensity index uses an unweighted count of twelve technologies, with four required for the basic level. The study follows the same counting principle, with a different scope. Results for each dimension remain important: the share of firms without a website is more specific than an average total score.
The Eurostat survey on ICT usage in enterprises is mandatory for firms with ten or more employees. Collection for the nought-to-nine band is optional for member states and only some do it. The digital intensity index behind the Digital Decade target is computed exclusively from enterprises with ten or more employees. Let us put it precisely, because it matters: I am not claiming Eurostat does not measure micro-enterprises. I am claiming they are not part of the mandatory, harmonised European data base — so their coverage is incomplete and not comparable across countries. Meanwhile the Digital Decade target expects more than ninety per cent of European SMEs to reach at least basic digital intensity by 2030. Policy is aimed at a segment whose largest part stays outside measurement.
The State of the Digital Decade 2025 report states that 70.81 per cent of Czech SMEs reached at least basic digital intensity in 2024, compared with an EU average of 72.91 per cent. The difference is about two percentage points. Comparisons need the same year and index definition; an earlier version led me to correct an initial interpretation. These figures cover enterprises with ten or more employees. They do not describe the smaller trades firms examined here.
Open your firm's site on a phone and check the five points above. Record each result separately and, if useful, count the number present. A Google Business profile and a clickable phone number can be set up without a service fee, though they take time to maintain. Data collection is underway for a stratified random sample of 800 to 1,000 firms in specialised construction activities from the Czech ARES register. Interviews examine owners' reasons for their digital choices. Findings will be published when this research is complete.
This article draws on a specific engagement. Client names and figures are omitted; the discussion focuses on lessons that may apply elsewhere.
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