Why Most Restaurant Websites Are So Bad?

I've just read a great article in Slate (http://www.slate.com/id/2301228/pagenum/all/#p2) that talks about how bad (in general) restaurant websites are.

Basically, there are two kings of restaurant webistes:

1. The amateurish ones made, for free or for a meal by the cousin or a friend of the owner with some basic knowledge of HTML and zero skills with design. You know the ones that I mean, when you open the site, they look terrible and they are seldom if ever updated.

1. The super-expensive ones, made by a "Web master" full of Flash animation and created to self-please the webmaster or the restaurant owner or Chef but not to provide with useful information to the potential customers.

When users to go to a restaurant website, they are looking for an easy way to navigate and find one or more of the following information items:

* Menus (with the following elements):
- Descriptions
- Prices
- Photos to see what they are going to get
* Wine list with prices
* A way to make a reservation (online, phone number, etc.)
* Contact Information (email, phone, etc.)
* Address and directions to the restaurant
* Some photos of the restaurant so that they know how the place looks before they step into the restaurant
* A form to leave comments or feedback (instead of going straight to Yelp, Restaurants.com or CitySearch
* Events or specials (updated, please)

The rest (flash animations, annoying music, photos of the SuperChef with a big smile… are superfluous, annoying and self-congratulatory exercises in futility. Customers hate them (I know I do!), restaurateurs pay extra for frills that they don't need, and web masters get to practice their Flash skills and charge their customers high fees.

I would recommend that you read my free article: Ten Basic Rules to Have An Effective Restaurant Website. It contains a lot of good information to have a useful and practical website.

Good luck!
Jose L Riesco

The Power of Restaurant Customers

I’ve just read an interesting article in BusinessWeek about the Yelp Elite reviewers and their power to make or break a restaurant. It is kind of scary to think that these people, mysteriously selected by Yelp (they don’t say the criteria) have so much power and feel entitled to review a restaurant based on their experience of one visit. If one waiter has a bad day, tough luck, the restaurant will go down in infamy because of the review of the Yelp Elite Member.

You can read the complete article here: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_24/b4232083260194.htm

Although this seems like a very unfair practice (and it is), you have always to remember everything that I told you: your main marketing expenses should be always focused on your existing customers. It is useless to spend money trying to bring new customers to your restaurant (at least that you just opened it) while neglecting the ones that you already have sitting at your table.

In the past, there were a few prestigious food critics. Only big newspapers and magazines could afford to have foodies in their staff eating at fashionable places and writing a review about them. Because of the scarcity of the critics, 90% of the restaurants never got reviewed and therefore could afford to keep on doing business as usual, even if business as usual meant getting several customers unhappy or even blatantly angry. After all, the maximum damage that they could do is to tell their friends and family, a relatively reduced crowd.

In these days of the Internet and Social Media, everything has changed. All the sudden, the critics could be anyone and their opinions are read by hundreds if not thousands of potential customers. If you already know the place, you make your own opinions based on your own experience, but if you don’t, you probably go online (I know I do) and read the opinions of other people who had eaten there.

With all the restaurant offerings guess which one people will choose? The one with high ratings and reviews or the one with low ratings and nasty comments?

The fact that the opinions can be read by so many people means that each customer counts. Never underestimate the lonely customer that you sit in the crappiest table because you think that s/he will spend little money. S/he could be an Elite member of Yelp or just some foodie blogger with influence over hundreds or even thousands (depending where your place is located) potential customers.

Just that one meal could cost you dearly in future revenues.

If you always follow the model that I preach: bend backwards to please your customers and think that your clients are your number one priority, you will be heads and shoulders above your competitors who think short term profits versus lifelong clients.

Of course, I am partial, but if you haven’t done so, I would recommend that you buy my Restaurant Marketing Strategies book or ebook (just click on the link for more info, it is a VERY inexpensive marketing investment that can bring you thousands in revenue). Read very carefully chapter one and try to apply the learnings to your business.

Your customers will be grateful that you did and your business will get great online reviews.

Happy customers,
Jose L Riesco

Using Twitter for Marketing and PR

Hello,

I've just stumbled upon an interesting site called: How to Use Twitter for Marketing and PR. You can find it here: http://www.howtousetwitterformarketingandpr.com/

So did you go and got the nice message? Yes, I was also surprised when I saw it. I was actually looking for more content...

In any case, I can sympathize with the message. Many people abuse Twitter to just get followers without caring if they are relevant or even reading their follower's tweets at all.

Did you get any of these emails:

• How to Go Viral with Twitter,
• Get Thousands of Twitter Followers in 10 days,
• etc.?
• I am getting them all the time. Some people are using these techniques to get followers like crazy without any concern for the quality of their followers. They just want quantity. Of course, these are not in my list of people whom I follow.

Accumulating thousands (or tens of thousands) of followers on Twitter might look impressive initially, but the real measure of success is to see how engaged your followers are.

If you are using Twitter to promote your restaurant, how many people come to your restaurant because of a promotion that you've tweeted? How many people RT (re-Tweet) your posts or offers to other people, and comment directly back to you with @ replies? This is how you measure the success of your tweets and followers.

Twitter could be a great marketing tool if used with common sense and moderation. Yes, you can successfully use it to promote your business, despite the message in how to use twitter for marketing and PR. Use Twitter to post interesting and relevant information and offers for your followers, and not only they will come to your restaurant, but also they will be following your posts.

On the other hand, if you use Twitter to promote your own agenda, or to just accumulate thousands of irrelevant followers who will follow about anybody in autopilot, your Tweets will get diluted in the noise of Tweet-land and nobody will care. It is better to have a few devoted followers than thousands of irrelevant and uninterested people. Just remember to offer your followers valuable information each time you tweet, and soon you will be rewarded with relevant and happy followers who will be reading and following your posts with interest.

Happy tweeting,

Jose L Riesco
©Riesco Consulting Inc.
www.myrestaurantmarketing.com
http://twitter.com/jlriesco