Successful Restaurant Websites

Back to School! Successful Restaurant Websites e-Course

We are delighted to announce our upcoming eCourse titled Successful Restaurant Websites: The Basics.  This will be an 8-week course combining independent learning from reading and exercises with one-on-one telephone consultations with Sara Hohn, Successful Restaurant Websites founder.  The course is the only one of its kind, and will help you more strategically create, upgrade and enhance your restaurant’s online presence. 

We are currently putting the finishing touches on the curriculum materials.  Registration will open at the end of August and the course will commence in September.  Check back regularly as we will be posting details and deadlines in the coming weeks.  Enrollment will be limited so be sure to register early!

Restaurant Website Success Is Hot!

Stories like this just warm our hearts.  Despite describing himself as “technologically handicapped,” Tucson restauranteur Bob McMahon discusses his successful website efforts that drive business to his restaurants in a truly customer-centric way.

“I am just amazed at how many people go on there each month,” he said. “So many people are on there checking out the menus or making reservations – especially at McMahons (his namesake prime steakhouse). And I know people are reading it because if I don’t keep the menus on the websites up to date, I hear about it.”

“There is not a day that goes by that we don’t have gift card purchases on the Internet.” McMahon said. “In December, we will sell 15 to 20 per day.”

“My philosophy is, if you are going to take the time to sign up to be a member on our site, I will send you something that is good enough to consider,” McMahon said. “Some offers for a free drink, or free appetizer, people will just pass up right away. But if I offer a free entrée with the purchase of another entrée, that’s worth considering. “

New Challenges Met Head On By Metro Restaurants  (AZBiz.com)

Capturing Feedback

One of the best ways of determining what information to display on your website is to listen to what your customers are asking for, both online and off.  To do this, review any feedback cards, customer service calls, emails, surveys or other sources of customer insights you receive.  If you monitor your website traffic with an analytics program such as Google Analytics, keep track of the most-viewed pages.  These things reveal a lot about the types of information people are looking for. Finally, brainstorm with your staff for additional customer comments routinely heard in the front of the house. 

Next, identify the top five concerns you hear over and over again from guests.  For example, you may find that customers routinely encounter parking difficulties around your restaurant and often want to know if there is a nearby lot available.  Understanding this ongoing concern, you may decide to update the map page on your website to include information about parking.  In providing visitors with the information they need more quickly and easily, you have begun to adopt a customer-centric approach to website design.  And, you’ll be far ahead of most restaurants online today.

The Deepwood Restaurant Blog Created a Buzz

One excellent way to utilize a blog is when a restaurant is being developed.  Owners or managers can create an online journal of their restaurant’s creation and development.  On it, they can share photos, menu ideas and sneak peeks with curious diners, which helps to create a buzz before a restaurant even opens. DeepWood Restaurant in Columbus, Ohio did just that. Congratulations!

The accompanying article gives some great insights about the place of restaurants on the Web, and blogs in particular.

“I wasn’t convinced that restaurants had a place on the Web” until meeting Shirer, said Carolyn Delp, Mitchell’s vice president for marketing. “But it can really and truly become our most important marketing tool.”

“Shirer and Delp both noted that the Internet has greatly expanded the ways diners and proprietors can interact.”

“Most owners view the Web as this thing that sits out there,” Shirer said. “The thing that’s scary about it is its speed. The feedback loop (from customer to owner and back) used to take days, and now it might take only minutes.”

Owners Market Via Blogs Before First Dinner is Served (The Columbus Dispatch)

Vindalho Restaurant Website

It is a rare occasion indeed that I come across a successful restaurant email newsletter.  We liked the Portland, Oregon-based Vindalho’s straightforward, informative and sometimes funny (”Love me Tandoor”) email newsletter that they have managed to publish seasonally over the past couple of years.  Every issue contains information about holiday specials, cooking classes, new cocktails and their Jazz series, not to mention some recent great press from Gourmet Magazine!  With such valuable information packaged clearly and simply, Vindalho’s newsletter stands to appeal to both existing and potential customers.  In addition, the newsletter link is prominently displayed in the main website navigation.  We approve!

Vindalho

Larkspur Restaurant Website

I came across this nice site while planning a trip to Colorado. The importance of having a clear, direct and informative website is potentially even more important for those restaurants in high traffic tourist destinations.  Out of town web visitors, researching local restaurants for their trip, may be coming across lots of information, including dozens of restaurants in your area, with little way of distinguishing them.  Your restaurant needs to stand out from your competitors in a meaningful way, but also create a clear, informative experience in the shortest amount of time possible.  What makes one restaurant more appealing than another to a new visitor when both have lovely decor, great reviews, solid menus and a great location?  It’s a restaurant that makes enough of an impact that a user adds it to their list of places to check out on a trip.   Having never visited this restaurant, the website visitor will assume that a tastefully-branded, intuitive and special website will naturally extend to their experience at the restaurant.

The Larkspur website has an elegant design while providing the visitor with all key information up front, as well as a gift certificate promotion and a link to a Today Show appearance!   The main image, which helps extend the feel of the restaurant’s interior into the website, is unique and memorable. 

Larkspur

Restauranteurs Join Yelp

The NRA’s SmartBrief Newsletter alerted us to this very interesting article about how restaurants are responding to reviews on Yelp.com.  It discusses how restauranteurs have stepped into the fray of online discussions to specifically address reviewers’ comments on their establishment. Some have gone so far as to invite Yelpers for a meal or special event at their restaurant, occasionally generating a swell of positive reviews.  (But sometimes backfiring). While many restaurants once lived in fear of the expanding universe of review sites, many are realizing that it is a mass of voices that can no longer be ignored.

“Nevertheless, plenty of restaurateurs say that Yelps have helped them improve their operations. Whether that leads to more business remains to be seen.”

“It’s a way to take the pulse of what locals are thinking about you, and also hear what non-critics have to say,” said Todd Stillman, general manager of Fifth Floor. “I think this is the next generation. We want to be part of it instead of sitting on the sidelines and saying we don’t like it.”

Restaurants Learn To Yelp