The Untold Secret Of Google’s New App For Restaurant Food Safety

Food safety is always a concern for restaurant operators. Simply put, you won’t be getting any repeat business if your customers are contracting salmonella or E. coli—food-borne diseases—after eating in your restaurant.

It might hurt your business, but consumer safety is what Google hopes to achieve with its latest project.

How does Google, a search engine company, plan to accomplish this?

It’s easy. Google has already launched a similar application called Flu Trends. Flu Trends works by tracking relevant search queries like “flu medication” or “flu symptoms” and identifies them by geographical area. Nowadays people search the internet first before going to the doctor. Google hopes this new trend would help cement the significance of its new application by identifying outbreaks even before local hospitals could report them.

The new project for restaurants is similar to Flu Trends. But instead of flu-related searches, the new project will look for food illnesses-related searches.

Google is confident their new project could identify food poisoning outbreaks 7 to 10 days faster than CDC’s (or Center for Disease Control) current system. I’m amazed at what search engine technology could do these days.

But as a restaurant owner, you ought to be a little hesitant to praise this new development. I personally see it as a double-edged sword.

Sure, we all want what’s best for our customers. But what if Google, with this overwhelming amount of data in their hands, starts naming names and points out restaurants whose customers are getting sick all of a sudden? Knowing Google’s popularity, those restaurants would be six feet under in a mere couple days. Seven or ten days later CDC’s official statement would come out, freeing the restaurant of any responsibility for the outbreak, but it is simply too late.

An ambitious project like Google’s could make or break someone’s good prospects. It’s useful, but something’s only truly useful if we make good use of it.

I hate to end an article on a sad note. The project is still in the works though, and I’m interested to see how it will start affecting local restaurants in the months to come.

What Is Simon’s Secret: How A Regular Pizza Store Owner Improved Sales By Blogging On His Website

I was reading emails the other night when I came across this article. I thought it showed a good example of efficient internet marketing and decided to blog about it here.

Simon Pickles is a proud owner of a Domino’s Pizza franchise in the UK. Located at St. Helen’s, his strong pizza parlor business isn’t the only thing he should be happy about. Simon also runs a very successful restaurant blog, which he keeps to maintain a healthy talking relationship with his fans.

It seems Simon’s quite popular around town – thanks to his delicious pizza.

Simon’s blog is one of the few restaurant websites I’ve seen that actually does the job of promoting a restaurant – for free. The internet’s been out a few years. But sadly, only a couple of restaurant owners advertising online actually “gets it”. The rest is fodder.

What is Simon’s secret? He fills his website with useful information.

For example, Simon announces competition winners on his website, he keeps track of local sports teams and writes about their progress, he promotes local fund-raising programs, posts food and health-related videos from YouTube, and addresses his customer concerns and inquiries whenever he’s got the time.

The result?

Simon says around 32%, just about, of his deliveries come from the internet. This is interesting when the national average is only 17%.

Another good that comes out of it is that his staff is no longer tied up on the phone. Less people sitting idle means faster operations, which in turn leads to better profits in the long run. All this comes from blogging – for free – on the internet, and doing it right.

The old newspaper theory goes, “If you want your paper to sell, fill it with meaningful news and photos that people want to read,” or something like that. Simon understands this theory and has applied it to his online restaurant marketing strategy.

Take a long good look at your website. Is it like Simon’s, or is it like fodder?

Respond to this post by leaving a comment below.

Four Practical Ways To Establish Your Restaurant On Twitter

For restaurants, Twitter is the king of social media. You should know how much faith I have in it if you’re reading this article from my blog.

But Twitter won’t solve your problems if you don’t know how to “catch” an audience. You need to gain their trust, and make it clear that your tweets are an honest attempt at communicating, not just to sell.

If you want to advertise your restaurant on Twitter, you need to attract a following. To attract a following, you need to follow these four practical tips.

1.    Inject humor into your tweets
The corporate world is a dull and boring place, and Tweeter is where mundane life could be more fun.

Practical rule no. 1 is to inject humor into your posts. This reminds followers that not only is there a real person behind your account, but it also help them relax a little towards you and your brand.

2.    Ask questions followers could respond to
Communication is a two-way street. If all your tweets end at that period, guess who’d feel left out?

Practical rule no. 2 is to encourage customer interaction by asking questions they could relate and respond to. It is also a good opportunity to conduct a survey of your menu and services.

3.    Timing is key to effective promotion
I mentioned earlier that Twitter is where most people look to read interesting stuff about their friends and followers, and this is where proper timing comes in.

Practical rule no. 3 is to limit your promotional tweets to only a couple times per day. Don’t bombard your followers with endless service or product advertisements—that is, unless you want to push them away and follow someone else.

4.    Be human
I can’t stress this enough. This is perhaps the most important piece of advice I could share to you about Twitter.

Practical rule no. 4 is to be human. Don’t make your tweets sound like a bored call center agent who couldn’t wait to put in his eight hours for the day. Show them you’re human and that you are interested in what they have to say. When customers realize they’re being heard, they tend to patronize that product or service—in this case, your restaurant—even more.

Being practical doesn’t end in four simple steps. Post a comment below and tell me your methods on attracting a solid following on Twitter.

The Truth About Yelp And How It Helps (Or Hurts) Your Restaurant

I’ve been talking about social media—Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.—as means of establishing presence on the internet. Do you own a small restaurant business? There’s no better way to spread that piece of good news than to create a fan page on Facebook or get fans to follow you on Twitter.

I’ve also worked with a few clients whom I asked the question, “So what’s your take on Yelp?” only to get this look on their face as response.

If you don’t know Yelp by now, then you need some catching up to do.

To make a long story short, Yelp is an online review website for bars, restaurants, retail stores and other commercial establishments. Customers sign in and post reviews and tell this and that thing about your restaurant.

In other words, Yelp could be helping or hurting your business right this minute, and the scary thing is you just found out about it.

Here is the thing. Yelp’s review system makes it possible for your competitors to put out a bad word about you by posting “fake” reviews of your restaurant. You can suppress these bad reviews by “sponsoring” Yelp at $150 a month minimum, which is another way of saying “corporate blackmail.”

This “sponsorship” system is Yelp’s primary source of income. But even so, more or less only 1% of businesses on Yelp became site sponsors, which has more to do, I believe, with the owners being unaware of Yelp as a review website than not wanting to shell out the money.

Look at eBay, Amazon, Epinions.com. Online reviews are here and they could burn your restaurant right down to its foundations if you continue to pretend they won’t affect you and your business. As a restaurant owner, it’s important to know what’s being said about your establishment online, and address these praises, issues and complaints appropriately.

Why not conduct an in-house survey? Ask customers if Yelp had anything to do with their being in your restaurant. If it turns out the majority found you on Yelp, then maybe you should consider sponsoring the website.

The younger your target market niche, the more likely they found out about you first on Yelp.

So what’s your take on Yelp? Tell me your experiences with Yelp by leaving a comment below.

Why Aren’t You Interacting With Your Loyal Restaurant Patrons Online?

I’m sure it’s been made clear that not every single restaurant needs to be on social media.

For example, Morrisville Cafe is owned by Ms. Jenkins, a small diner located along Chapel Hill Road and has been in operation for more than 30 years. Here’s the kicker: Morrisville Cafe doesn’t have a website. I doubt Ms. Jenkins even knows what a website is.

For the rest of us who needs to be on social media, we could learn a thing or two from Ms. Jenkins. Morrisville Cafe was able to keep going without much advertising thanks to a combination of good food and a sense of warm accommodation. This is very important.

A friend of mine once told me how this restaurant owner personally thanked him for writing a good review of his place in an online restaurant blog. The restaurant owner even offered a free dessert on his next visit.

The same friend told me a story of how he made an error on one of his published reviews. The next day the owner sent him an email kindly pointing out the discrepancies. Everything went smoothly thanks to the owner being cool-headed and my friend more than happy to rectify his mistakes.

He told me he’d come back to dine in both restaurants more than twice already. “I’m a regular there now,” he tells me.

The lesson here is simple: entertain, and take the initiative to respond to critics and say Thank You to your fans.

Listen to what they’re saying, and adjust accordingly. If you can’t do that out of budget constraints, address it either by sending them an email or replying to their post in your blog or website. It’s a huge thing for a customer to know he is being heard and his suggestions are being considered.

At a time when big name restaurants can’t be bothered to take a breather and listen to what clients have to say about them, taking the first step to reach out to customers is something that’s going to be unique and memorable about your restaurant.

What steps do you take to reach out to your online audience? Leave a comment below.

Here Is A Method That Is Helping Small Restaurant Owners To Compete With Big Name Businesses

Let’s talk about online restaurant marketing.

I have friends who had made a good start with their businesses and are now enjoying a steady flow of transactions from both old and new clients.

Their line of services falls under different industries, not just foodservice. But they all did one thing in common, which I suggested to them on their very first day—that is, to make friends online and hopefully turn leads into regular customers.

This is called internet marketing, and as a restaurant owner you ought to call yourself lucky for being “just in time” to take advantage of it.

The one thing I like about online restaurant marketing—or online marketing of any commercial service—is that it levels out the playing field between small business owners and big name corporations. Before the internet, the majority of marketing is done on TV or magazines and newspapers. This means you’ll be spending millions of dollars just to let people know you are opening a restaurant.

For small business owners, this can be killing.

Modern internet marketing, on the other hand, is fought with ideas, not money. You could advertise your restaurant on the internet and not spend a single cent. Your competitor’s fat wallet isn’t a big factor here.

A tried-and-true formula is to advertise your restaurant on social media. Why not invest on a monthly cooking show to be shown, for free, on YouTube? Like my friends, why not sign up on popular social media such as Twitter and Facebook and get to know your market niche better so you could serve them what they want?

A successful business venture is one that takes the time to listen.

Money still plays a role here. Don’t take it the wrong way when I said it’s “free“. But even so, it doesn’t play as big a role as it does when advertising on any other medium outside the internet. You can pay for an online ad space, sure, but you can’t buy the sense of trust and intimacy between brand and client that result when you, the restaurant owner, form a relationship with your customers.

Did you know that only a handful of US restaurants use social media to get their names around? Don’t be one of them. Leave a comment below and tell me how you intend to make a difference by going online.

The Ugly Truth About Restaurants And Social Media

Who hasn’t heard of social media? My kids love their MySpace, I mingle on Twitter from time to time. Even my wife plays her farm and restaurant applications on Facebook.

But here’s the real thing: are restaurants actually using social media? I’ve been raving about them ever since I started this blog, and I’m sure every other consultant and business coach out there is doing the same – trying to emphasize the importance of social media in today’s business environment.

The sad news is that most restaurants don’t seem to be getting the same message about social media.

Chalkboarder.com recently surveyed restaurants in the better parts of San Francisco, New York, and Portland. The survey wasn’t about food preparation or anything like that. They were only interested in one thing: do restaurants actually use social media?

About 80% of restaurants in Portland and New York maintain their own website. Pretty good. But not considering that San Francisco only compares by as much as 50%.

The city is home to Silicon Valley, considered the cradle of the internet. If so, then why is it that only half the restaurants in San Francisco are using social media? I don’t get it either.

This is where it gets more interesting. In all three cities, only 10% of restaurants, just about, are using Twitter and Facebook as a free online marketing tool. This is San Francisco, New York and Portland we’re talking about – not Timbuktu or any other location where internet access is either scarce or banned.

The reason why these restaurants aren’t doing anything is beyond me.

Maybe it’s got something to do with the owners coming from an older generation before the internet. The restaurant is going well even without social media marketing, or they can’t afford to hire someone with the marketing expertise. Or the restaurant owner simply doesn’t believe in the kind of influence social media could have on people.

Since I’m here anyway, I’d like to make one point clear. Put social media to good use. It’s convenient, it’s accessible, and most importantly, it’s free. Trust me. If you don’t take advantage of social media now, you’ll be kicking yourself in the #@$& later on.

Are you using social media to introduce your restaurant? How much do you think is it affecting your business?

Leave a comment below.