Successful Restaurant Websites

Restaurant website innovation often begins with pizza.    Google Maps enables the creation of customized maps based on a database of just about anything. Enter Pizzashare. Got Pizza? Be sure you’re represented!

From Pizzashare:

You type in the name and location of a pizza place you really like and think everybody should know about and then click the bubble then click share. The more people that share it the bigger the red dot gets therefore the more popular it is.

Why don’t I see any places in my area? We’ll no one has shared a place in that area so get you and friends and start sharing!! Then people in that area know what’s up.

Pizzashare

This article from the New York Daily News profiles several business whose success grew through using social networking to promote themselves.   While many restaurants may still shy away from this practice (or remain unaware) here’s what one New York restauranteur had to say after reluctantly beginning to promote her restaurant on Facebook:

The restaurant started with an “explosion,” but slowed drastically over the next few months. As it turns out, that was enough for a young employee to persuade Rotundo to try Facebook.

Business “could be a little better,” she said, but joining the site has helped. “not using social networking sites is stupid, for lack of a better term,” Rotundo said. “I can link our page to our Zagat reviews as well as to OpenTable,” the restaurant reservation site. “Word of mouth takes on a whole new meaning.”

Point, click and promote: More businesses tap social networking sites

Adam Platt, New York magazine resturant critic offers his perspective on user-generated restaurant review sites. It’s a good lesson in embracing the opportunities that these review sites afford for restaurant owners.  It’s also good education for restaurant goers in not taking these reviews too seriously.

I have been a restaurant operator for a few years. I would like to know how you really feel about restaurant review websites like Citysearch, MenuPages, and Yelp. The idea that someone who may be having their first experience in a restaurant that uses metal silverware and cloth napkins has the right to put, in writing, in a public forum, their completely uneducated opinion, blows my mind. What are your thoughts, as a restaurant critic, on the impact these forums have on our business?
I feel your pain, sir. But in a discerning market like New York, everyone’s a critic, and it’s been that way for a long time now. As an eater, I think the restaurant sites are valuable. They bring all the information together (address, menus, etc.) and put it at your fingertips. As a reviewer, I don’t pay much attention to them. Maybe it’s a restaurant PR person who put up the post. Maybe it’s someone whose waiter had a bad night. Or maybe the chef had a cold. The quality of a restaurant meal changes not just day to day, but hour to hour, and the only way you can get a good idea of how well a kitchen functions is to go back several times and dutifully chew your way through the entire menu. I’m biased, of course.

Ask Platt: On Amateur Reviewers, Struggling Restaurants, and Flavor Fatigue

Forbes takes things back-to-basics with a discussion on the importance of being searchable, as well as some great resources to bone up on improving your website’s searchability.

“Search is the second most common activity on the Internet after e-mail; 99.5% of Web users are searching. People are searching for things and will find your competitor. If I’m searching for pizza and your pizza parlor isn’t there, I’ll order from the other guy. Would you have a business without a sign out front? An unlisted number? A secret address?

But even without a Web site, your business can be found on the Internet. On the online Yellow Pages you can have a clear description of your business. You can have a map to your business. You can submit your business to relevant listing services. There are city guides and various directories–even without a Web site, you can make sure your business is included in all these vertical directories. Not having a Web site does not preclude an Internet presence. There are all kinds of ways of doing business on the Web without a domain name site–think of eBay.

But getting listed in the directories is contingent on search optimization because they all contain links and you want to maximize the search engine’s ability to find your business. Search engines follow those links, and you want your business to be listed and linked from as many of those links to increase the odds of the search engines finding you.”

How to get found online (Forbes)

With all the doom and gloom lately, we wanted to share an interesting restaurant innovation out of Spain.  The restaurant chain Wagaboo offers a reservation service that allows diners to select their seats in advance. Similar to the way in which you can select your seats for a flight, prospective diners can enter the number in their party, seating preferences and other criteria and view a restaurant map showing their table options.

“Diners can proceed with the reservation, or choose from any other available tables during that period suitable for their party size, which are marked with green dots. By taking a look at the restaurant maps online, diners can make sure they don’t get plunked down next to the hostess stand, bathroom r entrance to the kitchen; always dreaded restaurant placements, or choose whether they’d like to dine near the front, back, or in an area with fewer tables. This prevents unpleasant arguments between patrons and the restaurant management when they demand to be moved to a better table when all are full. A more pleasant dining experience is had by all when reservations are made through Wagaboo’s website and its own form of transparency tyranny.”

Revealing Websites Help You Get Better Seats, Tables and Hotel Rooms

More than ever, restaurants need to allocate their advertising dollars wisely.  Adweek brings up some interesting points about the decreasing popularity of banner ads and the increase in online video advertising.  Rather than waiting for users to visit your website through a banner ad, the flexibility of online video enables placement right where your target audiences spend time online, enabling you to reach these potential customers more effectively.  Why wait for them to come to you when you can go straight to them?

“Particularly in an economic downturn, it’s important for advertisers to leverage their existing assets such as short-form video ads and maximize consumer attention with ads that viewers will actually watch as they wait for their content to start.

Similarly, online video advertisers will get the most benefit from their investments when their content goes viral by tapping into the social graph on social-media sites. Ads will no longer have to wait for viewers to come to them; they’ll find them where they live online.”

Video Killed the Banner Ad Star (Adweek)

Often we find that businesses looking to implement online marketing strategies feel they need to take on every channel at once – social networks, blogs, YouTube, email campaigns and more.  This always proves overwhelming and sadly can mean failure at a significant expense for any one of the efforts.  This Forbes article suggests selecting only the online marketing venues that best suit your strategy and your customers.   If you’re trying to reach out to your existing customers and you find that they don’t watch YouTube videos, you probably shouldn’t focus your online efforts on creating YouTube videos.  Likewise, if your strengths are writing, you should opt for a marketing strategy that emphasizes written content, rather than video or podcasts.

You don’t have to embrace every marketing fad in the book to look au courant to your customers. Yes, electronic marketing tools are very powerful–but only if they’re kept up to date.

Blogging is a great example. Blogs are cheap to set up, but they take huge effort to update on a consistent basis. Manage a blog poorly, and you will disappoint your customers. If you are in the business of offering sage advice (say, on insurance, financial planning or accounting), a blog makes sense and could be your main marketing tool. If you are in manufacturing, more traditional forms of customer service may suffice to keep clients engaged and feeling valued.

Social networks are another increasingly popular tool. But these, too, require a fair amount of administration. Would those hours and dollars actually boost awareness and, ultimately, revenues? For many small companies, the answer is no.”

How To Assess Your Marketing Options (Forbes)

As we’ve discussed before, when customers order food on the Internet, they visit more often and spend more money. This has incentivized businesses such as Subway to introduce an online and mobile ordering system where customers can order sandwiches for pickup in their local store. They have accompanied this new service with a sizable online marketing effort and offering special offers to mobile customers.  While most of our readers don’t maintain the type of infrastructure for this scale of service, you’ll find principles that apply to smaller, independent restaurants.

“In an attempt to break into the world of online and text message ordering, Subway has partnered with Go Mobo to implement its Subway Now pilot, which began earlier this month in Manhattan. According to GoMobo’s Web site, Internet orders are on average of 15–20 percent larger than phone orders.”

Currently, this service is only available in New York City at www.subwaynow.com, but given its early success, it will likely expand to other areas.

Subway tests online, mobile-ordering program

Blogger That Pam Chick perfectly describes a situation restaurant visitors experience all too often.  A customer checks out a restaurant’s website before visiting.  She reviews the menu options, selects items she may want to order, emails your link to her dining partners, etc.  When she arrives at the restaurant, there is a significant discrepancy between the menu on a restaurant’s website and what is actually available in the restaurant.

With the number of customers who research restaurants online before visiting, it is more critical than ever for restaurants to keep their websites up to date.  When customers see inconsistencies between your website and your store, it’s a big turnoff.  If you have a menu that changes daily, or very frequently, we understand this might not be feasible.  However, you can still provide customers with an accurate overview of your current offerings without updating the site on a daily basis.  However, you must clearly communicate to customers that this menu that may not reflect all of today’s options.    You may also provide an option to call or email you for the latest menu.  However, in the time it takes for you to respond to their inquiry, you could have just updated your website!  The moral of the story is:  Diners look at your websites closely, oftentimes making menu selections before they visit.  If you don’t want to disappoint them, keep your online menu up to date.

“The waitress had no idea what was even on the website and I bet if I asked her what the domain was she would have to ask someone else. It is astonishing that companies still feel like once they put up a website they are done. Your website needs to be fully integrated into your everyday business and updated regularly. Especially if you have client-facing employees, they need to be well versed in what is on your website. You and your employees will look like idiots if a customer asks a question about something they saw on your website and the employee has no answer.”

The author goes on to mention that she will not be going back to this restaurant.

A side note, restaurants should keep menu prices up to date on their websites.  With customers more budget-conscious than ever, it’s disappointing and misleading when prices on a restaurant’s website don’t match those in the store.

Currant Restaurant.  What?  We Have a Website?