Restaurant Marketing

Archive for the ‘Restaurant Marketing’ Category

Restaurant mobile websites: 42% of visits from mobile devices

February 15th, 2013

Over the past year, we have been collecting data using Google Analytics for a small multi-concept restaurant chain. We ran an *Audience Mobile Overview report, which provides a breakdown of visitors by whether or not their visit was from a mobile device.

According to Google Analytics, the restaurant locations received combined visits of 389,034 for all of 2012. Of the total visits for 2012, 42% came from mobile and tablet devices. For one location, mobile traffic (see chart below) accounted for over 47% of traffic to their desktop website in 2012. These are astounding percentages when you consider that the iPhone was first released in the U.S. just 5 ½ years ago.

Yet despite the mobile adoption rate and supporting search statistics from Google & Bing, independent restaurants in the U.S. have been slow to create a mobile friendly experience for their customers. Our own internal study from last year found that 1 in 20 independent restaurants have a mobile version of their website. So why wouldn’t a restaurant have a mobile version of their website? There are a number of reasons that may explain why restaurants haven’t embraced having a mobile version.

Too costly to develop and maintain
Lack of understanding of the differences between an app (application) and a mobile website
Not sure how customers locate a mobile version of a website
Don’t see the benefits
Not enough time

We can address the first 4 bullet points:

There are many low-cost or free mobile website providers today that have online platforms where you can quickly and easily create a mobile version of your website.
An app is piece of software that requires a developer to write. An app must be downloaded from iTunes or Google Play to a smartphone or tablet to run.
A mobile website is a miniature version of your desktop website hosted by an online service provider which is formatted specifically for smartphones.
A tiny snippet of code placed within the HTML your desktop website detects if a visitor is using a smartphone and then redirects them to the mobile website.
Benefits:
- Restaurants that have a mobile website with an online reservation link have reported a 28% increase in online reservations.
- Having a mobile website helps ensure that smartphone visitors don’t click away when they can’t quickly find the information they’re looking for such as your location, phone number and menus

You decide. Which version of the restaurant website below would entice potential customers to browse the menu and make a reservation?

If you have questions about mobile website best practices for restaurants please email us at thriveinfo@thrivespot.com.

* Understanding mobile traffic to your desktop website can give insight into whether you need to develop a separate mobile website.

Google

Posted in Mobile Websites, Restaurant Marketing | 1 Comment »

‘Hey Big Spender’ Study says Scotch Drinkers Best Tippers

January 14th, 2013

Earlier this week, Restaurant Sciences, our parent company, released the nation’s first-ever study of beer, wine and spirits gratuity. Ask any server and they will tell you they would love to know who the big tippers are, right? We analyzed more than 4 million guest checks at US family, casual, upscale and fine dining establishments, as well as nightclubs and hotel bars from February-November 2012. Our research, dubbed the “Hey Big Spender Survey”, determined that on average, beer, wine and spirits drinkers tipped slightly more than 20 percent. The study analyzed checks with only beer or wine or spirits. Checks with multiple drink types were not included in the study.

While spirits-only drinkers were a bit more generous, patrons who ordered wine-only had much higher check averages than spirits or beer-only checks. The average check for wine drinkers was $69.05, with beer drinkers’ average check at $38.74 and spirits’ average check at $55.19. Despite the fact that wine drinkers were the least generous averaging 20.32 percent tip per check, servers generally made more per check when patrons ordered wine.

The most generous tippers were drinkers of bourbon (22.69%); blended whiskey (22.67%); cider (22.20%); gin (21.67%), and vodka (21.27%). The least generous tippers were those who ordered cordials/liqueurs (19.66%); rum (19.81%), and scotch (20.12%). However, patrons who ordered scotch had the highest check totals at $69.14. While drinkers of bourbon tipped a bit more, wait staff serving scotch drinkers received a much higher average tip — $9.60 compared to $13.91 respectively.

Check out the article about the study published by The Boston Globe.

Which one of these groups would you prefer to wait on tonight?

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Restaurant Marketing: Engage Online Every Day

December 16th, 2012

Last week we spoke of the importance of monitoring online review sites to see what customers are saying about your restaurant. This is an opportunity to get direct feedback from your customers on the experience of your food and service. As part of your day, take 10 minutes to login into the review sites and into social media and monitor what your customers are saying about your restaurant. Some days it may take a little longer than 10 minutes if there is an issue you need to respond to, but it will be well worth your effort. The last thing you want is a customer sharing negative feedback with the world online, without you being aware of it or being able to respond.

Responding to Negative Feedback

So what happens if someone gives your restaurant a negative review or comment? Be proactive! Use this feedback and fix the problem as soon as you can. Don’t be defensive and always begin by thanking the reviewer for bringing the issue to your attention. Acknowledge the problem and communicate online what you are doing to address it, or at least communicate that you will be addressing it. If you have a customer who is angry and continuing to vent online then send them a direct message and try to take the conversation offline. Most people can be appeased once they understand that you have heard them and are working on the problem. As a restaurateur you are used to handling customer’s issues. The only change here is that you are doing your initial response publicly. Be cautious about apologizing or about giving away things too freely. Use your best judgement and respond appropriately as the situation warrants. In summary, to address a negative comment acknowledge the problem and take the communication offline quickly, keeping negative comments from spreading.

Responding to Positive Feedback

So what if you see positive comments? Hopefully that will be the majority of the case. Again use this as an opportunity to communication with your customers. If someone liked your special, thank them for the comment, and take the opportunity to tell them about next week’s special.

Communication with your customers outside your restaurant is just as important as doing it within your four walls. Remember it is an ongoing conversation. Review what people are saying after they have left your restaurant and have a conversation with them…both negative and positive comments can be an opportunity to engage.

P.S. In addition to online review sites, at least once a day you should also check your Facebook site and login into Twitter and do a search for your restaurant name .. And in case you haven’t heard, on Monday the Vatican announced that the Pope is now tweeting…yes, his own tweets. That is surely a sign that Twitter is here to stay!

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Ignoring Online Restaurant Review Sites = A Big Mistake!

December 7th, 2012

Like it or not, customer review sites are here to stay. Customer review sites are basically local directories that allow consumers to express their opinions about businesses in the directory. Which ones matter? They ALL do! Yelp, Trip Advisor, and Urban Spoon are the ones most frequently viewed by potential restaurant customers but other sites such as CitySearch and Google Places are also likely to have review information about your business. Since review sites aren’t going anywhere, here are some tips on how to make the most of them for your restaurant business.

First off, getting your attitude about online review sites squared-away is a key to success. We suggest you look at them like a public suggestion box filled by the most important people to your business – customers. Clearly the big difference is that you don’t get to read what is left behind privately; the posts are viewable by anyone with access to the internet, which is why your participation is necessary. Ignoring online reviews can be damaging to a restaurant operator. It’s also important to understand you can’t remove negative reviews, even if you are a site member. It used to be that a customer who had a good experience told 1-2 people and a person who had a bad experience told 7-10 people. With online review sites the reach is now much further for both good and bad reviews. Spam and deceitful false negative posting practices do occur, which is even more reason why these posts need your attention.

So what do you do…aside from keeping your focus on delivering great service, providing an appealing environment, serving tasty food, and offering a good value AND doing so consistently?

Claim your listings

Create accounts and/or claim the listing on all of the aforementioned sites where you are listed. Make sure the information is correct and take the time to add your logo, photos, menus or anything else that is allowed that could tell the customer more about your business. You can also take things a step further and link your desktop and mobile websites to your online review accounts to encourage guest feedback.

Make use of the feedback

When someone posts a bad review (or a good one for that matter) take it as an opportunity to learn and ask yourself if there is a legitimate problem that needs to be addressed. Regardless of the demeanor of the person who wrote the review it is important not to dismiss the message.

Monitor your profiles continuously

It’s imperative that you read every review so you can engage with customers who have a negative opinion or thank those who had a positive review. There are numerous ways to monitor postings. A simple method is to bookmark your profiles and look at them weekly. Another easy way to monitor reviews is to get the RSS feed for your profile and set it up as a Google Alert so you get notices when something changes. There are also services you can subscribe to that will help you if monitoring each one manually seems too time consuming. Just google “monitoring online reviews” and you’ll see a ton of options.

Ask happy customers for positive reviews

More reviews often means higher rankings on each site so be sure to ask happy customers for a positive review. You can ask regulars in person, or even make the request via a guest check presenter, a sign in your restaurant, and/or by asking on your website.

Responding to online reviews requires a graceful approach that is worthy of an entire blog, so be sure to check back next week when we share with you how to respond to online reviews.

What sites are your customers using the most for online reviews?

Posted in Restaurant Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »

Clever Restaurant Marketing: Instagram Visual Menu

November 30th, 2012

What if you are a brand new restaurant in a hopping area like Manhattan’s SoHo and you observe tons of your guests taking pictures of food from their mobile phones? If you are a clever marketer engaged in social media like the Latin-American restaurant, Comodo, you use Instagram to engage both customers dining in your restaurant as well as potential customers looking at your pictures from their mobile phones.

When you are out and about how often do you notice people taking pictures of their food to post on social media sites like Facebook? Or when you are viewing your own Facebook feed, do many of your friends post pictures of tasty food or tempting libations? It’s pretty popular, so Comodo figured out a way to make it more fun by encouraging diners to post their pictures on Instagram. They placed a small message that said, ”#ComodoMenu on Instagram” on the bottom of their menu and people began posting their own pictures of Comodo food into the album.

Waiters encourage new diners to snap and post their own pictures and they even direct unsure diners to search for the hashtag via the Instagram app on their phone to help make dining decisions based on the pictures. Take a look at the below video to see this marketing brilliance in action!

Do you have any clever restaurant marketing ideas focused on mobile or social media that you would like to share?

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Consumers Expect Mobile Websites on Mobile Phones according to Google Study

October 26th, 2012

A new study sponsored by Google and conducted by Sterling Brands and Smith Geiger, was reported on this week by Tim Peterson at AdWeek.

Seventy-six percent of respondents expect that a business’ site should fit the mobile screen, but the biggest takeaway in this article is that “If the site isn’t mobile-friendly, 61 percent said they’ll take their attentions—and their wallets—elsewhere”.

It isn’t just aesthetically smart to have a mobile website. Those businesses that don’t have one will increasingly lose business to those companies who have a mobile site. We have said it before but will say it again…don’t be left behind.

The good news is that the requirements for a mobile site are exactly what you can create in 20 minutes with a ThriveSpot mobile website designed especially for restaurants.

According to the study here is what your customers are looking for:

Seventy-six percent of consumers said they want to be able to find a company’s location or operating hours.
Sixty-one percent said they’d like to click a button to call a company.
Fifty-four percent would like the ability to send an email.

And as a restaurant, your customers have a special requirement of wanting easy access to your menu. It is all easy to do. What are you waiting for? Go here to get started!

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ThriveSpot Mobile Websites Featured at RIHA Hospitality Marketing Summit

October 12th, 2012

If you’re in the Rhode Island area we invite you to visit us at the Rhode Island Hospitality Association (RIHA) event on Monday, October 29. The event is their Hospitality Marketing Summit with ‘Profit Potential through Technology’ as the theme. Our President, Chuck Ellis, will be there talking about mobile marketing and how to reach more customers with a mobile website.

The summit will feature industry experts sharing insights on how individuals and businesses can profit through current day technology. Some of the engaging topics include creating a fan page on Facebook, posting updates on Twitter, writing content for your blog, sending email blasts, responding to online reviews and creating a mobile website.

We really enjoy attending events like this that put us face-to-face with restaurant operators because most of the ThriveSpot team have been in the restaurant industry. We look forward to sharing our knowledge of technology and marketing with restaurant operators to further their goal of greater profits.

Details

Monday, October 29, 2012

Hospitality Marketing Summit: Profit Potential through Technology
New England Institute of Technology
East Greenwich, Rhode Island
8:00Am-4:30PM
Members: $99.00; Non-Members: $149.00; Early Bird pricing is available.

Must register by 10/15 Register here!

This educational event is just a little over 2 weeks away so be sure to put in on your calendar and stop by to say hello!

Posted in Mobile Websites, Restaurant Marketing | No Comments »

Are Small Businesses (Like Restaurants) Ready for Mobile?

September 21st, 2012

Last week we blogged about our fondness for Infographics and we obviously have an affinity for Mobile. Given our appreciation of those two things what could be much better than an Infographic that examines the question, “Are small businesses ready for mobile?” Web.com conducted a survey of 500 small business owners, each with under 100 employees, to find out how small businesses are leveraging the mobile channel. They created a fantastic and revealing Infographic based on their findings that was recently published on NetworkSolutions.com.

The small businesses interviewed seem to understand that the top 2 reasons to invest in a mobile presence are to 1) provide better service to existing customers and 2) to attract more new customers so it is a little disheartening that only 14% of those surveyed have a mobile specific website. On the brighter side of things, it’s good to know that 84% of those that had a dedicated mobile website said they could see an increase in new business as a result of their mobile efforts.

Of those surveyed, the top two obstacles to going mobile were time/resources and budget. While we can’t help everyone, we are proud to focus on helping our restaurant friends. Even if you are a one person marketing department with zero budget as the Infographic suggests, we can help! Our sites are free for restaurants and you can literally have a mobile website up within 15 minutes. Go here to get started!

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Report from MoFuse: State of the Mobile Web

September 7th, 2012

MoFuse, a global leader in mobile web content management, just released its State of the Mobile Web Report. The report reviews mobile browsing activity across many different types of mobile sites, with a focus on mobile web audiences for small-and-medium size businesses (SMBs). The report is an effort to help organizations understand how, and when, to best reach their customers via mobile.

One of the major findings in the report highlights that the number of pages viewed per visit is highly dependent on the type of site. Mobile users spend the most time on sites for certain industries, including government, television, and publishing, where site page visits average well above ten pages per visit. They visit the fewest pages on small or local business sites, at an average of three pages.

“The fact that mobile web users go to an average of only three pages per visit to small or local business sites further reinforces the need to optimize content,” said Annette Tonti, CEO of MoFuse. “Small businesses can’t just take their desktop content and make it accessible via mobile, but rather need to think through what content mobile users need and make it visible within three taps.”

The report also found that a whopping 80 percent of small business mobile sites utilize click-to-call functionality to create an immediate call-to-action.

Other highlights in the report include:

Average page views per visit to a mobile website have increased slightly in the past year to four.
People spend the most time browsing the mobile web from 5-8 p.m., with steady traffic from 12 p.m.-12 a.m.
Weekday traffic outpaces weekends during the most popular dayparts of 12-5 p.m., 5-8 p.m., and 8 p.m.-12 a.m. However, people spend more time on the mobile web on weekends from 8 a.m.-12 p.m. and 12 a.m.-4 a.m.
Restaurant traffic spikes from 5-8 p.m. and retail is busiest from 12-8 p.m.

To view the full report, visit the MoFuse website.

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Mobile Website Customer Spotlight: Sandwich Works

August 30th, 2012

Sandwich Works has been a local Newton Center, MA icon for over 20 years. They offer a delectable breakfast and lunch selection featuring specialty grilled sandwiches with names like Reubenette, The Village Sandwich and Westboro. Visit their mobile website on your smartphone to view their entire selection of items.

Sandwich Works took full advantage of the integrated menu solution offered through ThriveSpot. This integrated menu solution collects existing menu content from your main website and transports it into a turnkey platform. The beauty of a centralized menu platform is that you can easily integrate it into your main website and Facebook page in addition to your mobile website, which means you only need to make updates in one location. Any additions or updates to your menus automatically get pushed out to your mobile website, Facebook page or main website. And you can logon to this “easy to use” menu platform 24×7.

To learn more about this centralized menu platform for restaurants, or mobile websites for restaurants, email us at AccountManagement@thrivespot.com, or call us at 877-825-5282.

by Jon Rock

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Archive for the ‘Restaurant Marketing’ Category

Restaurant mobile websites: 42% of visits from mobile devices

‘Hey Big Spender’ Study says Scotch Drinkers Best Tippers

Restaurant Marketing: Engage Online Every Day

Clever Restaurant Marketing: Instagram Visual Menu

Consumers Expect Mobile Websites on Mobile Phones according to Google Study

ThriveSpot Mobile Websites Featured at RIHA Hospitality Marketing Summit

Are Small Businesses (Like Restaurants) Ready for Mobile?

Report from MoFuse: State of the Mobile Web

Mobile Website Customer Spotlight: Sandwich Works

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