If you think that your potential customers will find your restaurant in the Yellow Pages, think again.
First watch this video, and then keep on reading...
Did you get it? People, (and not only young people, this also includes your potential customers) go online to look for places to eat. No more browsing in the paper ads or opening the thick yellow book. No Sire.
The Web not only provides them with information regarding the offers around them, but also gives them a map with the location, photos of the place, directions to get there and the most important, opinions from other people about the restaurants.
You can spend fortunes in marketing printing ads in newspapers and magazines, buying half pages (or whole pages) in the Yellow Pages, advertising on the radio, etc. but nobody really cares. Your customers are not looking there, they are looking online. They use the Web to search for the best places to eat.
So what can you do to attract them to your restaurant? Simple; have a great website with lots of useful information, but more important, have great reviews from anybody who goes to eat at your place.
And how do you do that? The answer is simple in words and difficult in execution: Make everybody who goes to eat at your place very happy. Exceed their expectations. Deal with any potential issue generously and never, never argue with a client, even if they are wrong. You will regret it later on because they will let the whole world how bad your place is.
And guess what all these people who are looking for restaurants online will read? Exactly, how bad your place is.
Don't make that mistake. Think about any complementary food that you need to give away as a marketing expense. Just make everybody happy and don't give them any room for complains. This is the only way to have great online reviews, this is your advertising and all your marketing should revolve around this idea.
Jose L Riesco
© Riesco Consulting Inc.
www.twitter.com/jlriesco
http://www.myrestaurantmarketing.com
Monday, January 12, 2009
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Backing up your advice, there is a fantastic statistic from a report by American Express Hospitality Monitor 2007 (2008/9 not published yet). It stated that 62% of customers go online to look for a restaurant before they go out to eat. I suspect that this is much higher now.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to the importance of good, up-to-date menus etc and reviews on your restaurant's website, it is of course incredibly important that customers are reminded at every possible opportunity to make a booking.
There are many companies that offer online booking technology free of charge, enabling customers to make online bookings 24/7. One such company is www.livebookings.co.uk / .net
Check it out!