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.

How To Generate Restaurant Loyalty The Old-Fashioned Way

There’s something special about Morrisville Cafe, and it is not their company website.

Morrisville Cafe isn’t even a company. It is a small diner along Chapel Hill Road owned and operated by Naomie Jenkins. She bought the business 30 years ago, during that time she redid the menu only four or five times, and replaced the countertop once just four years ago because the old one had worn out.

Do you still feel like asking Ms. Jenkins her online marketing plans to go viral?

And yet, Morrisville Cafe has timeless appeal.

According to Ms. Jenkins, the business maintains strong restaurant loyalty among patrons by simply giving them what they want: good food. No tricks. No antics. No gimmicks. Just delicious old-style home-cooked American cuisine.

As a restaurant operator, here’s what you can learn from Ms. Jenkin’s way of doing things.

1. Serve food the way fast foods don’t
The food at Morrisville Cafe is a part of it. A big part of it.

Jimmy Davis, 67, goes to Jenkin’s for breakfast at least once a week. He’s been doing it since 1979, when Ms. Jenkins first opened the place. His friend, Jimmy Winters, 45, spends his breakfast and lunch time there everyday. A true picture of restaurant loyalty.

He says, “I like the old-style home cooking. I don’t like fast food.”

2. A meal should be satisfying, not pre-cooked
Nobody likes to eat pre-cooked food at home. So why should you pay twice as much to eat them at a restaurant?

“Nothing is pre-cooked,” says Harold Heath, Ms. Jenkin’s only employee. He says when people come in asking what’s quick on the menu, the only answer he has for them is, “We don’t have nothing quick.”

Freshly-cooked meals are a specialty at Morrisville Cafe. And their success speaks for itself.

“If you don’t want to eat it at home, I won’t serve it here,” Ms. Jenkins says.

3. Maintain a personal atmosphere
The comfortable feeling of home goes beyond food preparation.

The main dining room at Morrisville Cafe can hold around a dozen people, just about, and maintain a relaxing atmosphere. It’s a hit among Ms. Jenkins’ patrons. Some of the diners, when Jenkins is busy, go right ahead and walk behind the counter to refill their coffee.

“I guess they’re not supposed to do that, but they do,” Ms. Jenkins says. She doesn’t mind.

It’s small touches like these that distinguish Morrisville Cafe from the uptight high society restaurants that continue to shut down one after the other in the face of the on-going recession.

Restaurant loyalty is something Ms. Jenkins can be proud of. Sadly, it’s more than what I can say for the rest of us. Ask yourself and the next person what it is you really expect when you walk into a restaurant, and eventually you’ll discover we all have the same answer to that one: fresh and delicious meals, and a nice place to enjoy it.

Ms. Jenkins sure taught us a thing or two about restaurant loyalty.