Lyric’s mobile website makes it easy to view the restaurant’s details on your smartphone. With one-click precision you can view the menu, get directions or view their hours. You can even use their reservation button to make an online reservation right from your smartphone.

If you are fortunate to visit Cape Cod this summer, be sure to stop by and visit the Lyric Restaurant in Yarmouth Port. Click here to view the mobile version of their website.

Contact us at 877-825-5282, or email us at thriveinfo@thrivespot.com to get started on creating your mobile website today!

Visit our Facebook page to see examples of other restaurants that have created mobile websites with ThriveSpot.

Google

• If you don’t currently have a mobile website for your restaurant, why not?
• You can’t help but notice that more and more people are carrying smart phones.
• It’s easy to see now more than ever people are on the go and that they demand instant access to information while they are on the move.
• With over 50% of people in the U.S. now owning Smartphones, it’s critical to business success to have a mobile website.

Watch this short video to see how easy it is to create a mobile website for your restaurant using the ThriveSpot platform in five easy steps.

ThriveSpot provides free mobile websites to all restaurants, bars and nightclubs with no ads and free hosting.

With smartphone adoption rates at over 50% in the US, businesses need a mobile version of their website. According to Pew Internet, nearly half of all smartphone owners say they have used their phone in the past 30 days to decide whether to visit a business, such as a restaurant. Sterling Brands and SmithGeiger did a study which concluded that 61 percent of consumers said they’ll take their attentions—and their wallets—elsewhere if a business website isn’t mobile friendly.

 As a business owner, specifically a restaurant, why wouldn’t want to provide your customers with the ability to locate information quickly? Next time you have some free time, checkout your restaurants website on your smartphone to see how quickly you can find information. If it takes more than 20-30 sec. to locate and view key information you’ve probably lost the sale to another competing restaurant!

If you are a restaurant, bar or nightclub, ThriveSpot provides free mobile websites and hosting. Visit our website to sign up or send us an email to thriveinfo@thrivespot.com and we will help you get setup with a mobile website and mobile version of your menus.

Google

Although the big chains in the industry rose to the top of this study because of sheer number of units, we are excited to share this study with our audience because you don’t have to be one of the big guys to jump on or benefit from the Instagram bandwagon.  Why do we like Instagram (for restaurants in particular) so much?  The two main reasons are that it is free and your customers do the work for you!  And if that isn’t appealing enough, it also gives you a direct line of communication to your customers. You see who they are, what they like (or don’t like) and you can directly engage with them.  Isn’t that a beautiful thing?

This kind of real-time visual story-telling by your customers does what no other kind of advertising or promotion can do.  And it’s free!  Read the full Instagram study for tips on how to maximize Instagram for your restaurant.

Do you have any Instagram tips to share?

Are you interested in seeing what your sales, covers and average check were yesterday from any location? Do you want to find out how your restaurant performed compared to other similar restaurants in your city? Stop by booth #3437 at the New England Food Show this Monday or Tuesday to speak with a representative and get a demonstration of our RS Mobile app.

Stop by the booth and learn about our NEFS show special – a free mobile website to all restaurant attendees.

Sincerely,
The ThriveSpot Team
www.thrivespot.com

Since the opening of Caffe Dolce Vita in 1992, the Marrocco Group has created some of Rhode Island’s most successful venues for dining, nightlife and lodging. The Marrocco Group consists of Mediterraneo Caffe, Caffe Dolce Vita, Amici Bar and Grille, Wise Guys Deli, Smoke Lounge, Skarr Hookah Bar and Hotel Dolce Villa. We are happy to have them as a ThriveSpot mobile website customer; moreover, we are impressed with how this restaurant markets their brands, which is evident everywhere—from the aesthetics and ambience of each restaurant to how their mobile websites are set up. Let’s take a look at the mobile website for Caffe Dolce Vita as an example:

What’s good? Well, they have a mobile website, period. And sadly that’s more than a lot of restaurants can say. The Marrocco group won’t be losing any business because mobile users on the go can’t find them. As far as features, they have the basics well-covered like menu’s, click to call, hours of operation and integrated google maps. It’s all simply laid out and easy to navigate too.

What’s great? Here is where this restaurant group shines! Need to make a reservation? No problem. In just a few clicks customers can reserve a table with the link that takes you straight to their reservation system, Ureserve. Want to check out their Facebook page? No problem. Become a fan from the easy-to-find link on their mobile website home page. Prefer Twitter? No problem. See what they have been posting on Twitter, also right from the main page of their mobile website.

Caffe Dolce Vita, we like your style! What’s great about the mobile websites of restaurants you love?

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.

According to the National Restaurant Association, the most popular day of the year for dining out is Mother’s Day, when 38% of survey respondents eating out.  But for upscale restaurants and those known for their romantic atmosphere, an even busier day is Valentine’s Day.  Overall the National Restaurant Association classifies this as the second most popular day for dining out.

Most Talked About?

Interestingly, as reported by Urbanspoon, they see more people using their site on Valentine’s Day than on any other.  They surmise that the reason behind this are that while Mother’s Day is more popular overall, the demographics for Valentine’s Day dining skew younger, with 18-34 year-olds much more likely to dine out than older groups. These are the same segment of the population using online review sites.  The take-away for restaurants…people are going to talk about their Valentine’s Day experience online and that will affect your business throughout the year.  And it is likely to heavily influence the choice of your restaurant for next year’s most romantic dinner.

What Matters Most?

Another validation of this point comes from a recent survey that OpenTable undertook with its customers on their choice of a restaurant for Valentine’s Day.  The bottom line is that positive reviews and ambience matter most.

 “Respondents indicated that the top three factors in selecting a restaurant for Valentine’s Day are positive reviews (34%), romantic ambience (27 %), and service (16%).”

A few weeks back we wrote a blog with tips on optimizing online reviews…we can’t stress how critical they are to attracting diners in today’s online world.

Most Desirable Menu?

Another interesting takeaway from Open Table’s survey is their customer’s choice for traditional menus.  Keep this in mind as you plan for one of the busiest days of the year, if not the busiest, for your restaurant.

“ When presented with menu options, diners said they prefer a la carte (67%) over prix fixe (33%) menus. Traditional menus came out on top, with the majority of diners (56%) saying they would select a classic three-course meal (starter, entrée, and dessert).”

Full text of Open Table’s survey.

The infographic has some great statistics about smartphone usage overall, but the tidbits for a restaurant operator to hone in on are in the third and last data nuggets in the image.  The third factoid states that over half of all adults use their smartphone to go online and that 17% of cell phone users ONLY access the internet from their phones!   The last point made by the infographic shows how people have used their phone over the last 30 days and “Decide whether to visit a business, such as a restaurant” was one of the top 3.   Wow!  What more could be more compelling as an immediate call to action to restaurant operators to go mobile?  Don’t let those mobille users pass over your business because you aren’t in their arena!

What do you suspect keeps a restaurant from going mobile, especially when there are free options?

Which menu do you think your restaurant customers would like to view on their smartphone – the PDF on the left or the easy to read mobile menu on the right?

Hopefully the owner read this recent article in Small Business Trends titled The Top 5 Mistakes Restaurant Websites Make. In the article, the author points out that, “If website visitors can’t see a restaurant and get the information they want, via mobile, they will choose a different restaurant they can see online.” This is a point that has been quantified in a study sponsored by Google and conducted by Sterling Brands and Smith Geiger and written about in countless articles by food critics and technologists over the past couple of years.

This story has a happy ending. Our team reached out to the restaurant owner and offered to create a free mobile website for his restaurant.