Put Yourself In Their Shoes: Why You Should Become A Customer In Your Own Restaurant

For some reason, the title of a short story I read a long time ago called “Put Yourself In My Shoes” came to me as I sat down to write this article.

Last month I came across an article by Rohit Bhargava on the internet. The article had an interesting title, “Forget Eating Your Own Dog Food - Just Try Buying it…” Rohit believes the best way to understand the customer is to experience your own product and services yourself – from the initial awareness up to the purchase period. That means every single step of the way.

It makes sense. If you put yourself in your customer’s shoes, you’d see things from their perspective. It might explain why your restaurant business is booming, or being unprofitable.

So how do you put this into practice?

The first step is to create a portrait of your ideal diner. What is her social status? Has she eaten at your restaurant or is this her first time? Is she a local or an out-of-town visitor? Is she here to conduct a business meeting or is the meal purely for leisure?

Answering these questions will help you put together an image of your prospective client.

Next stop is establishing a visible online presence. A successful restaurant internet marketing plan is when your restaurant is visible no matter what the ideal client is looking for. If your restaurant is only visible to those looking for it, then you need to reconsider your online marketing mix.

Search for restaurants in your city using Yahoo!, Google, Ask—any other popular search engines. Are you in the Top 20 list of local restaurants? Too bad if you’re not – your online visibility is minimal. If you’re in it, are the descriptions about your restaurant accurate and appealing to first-time diners?

Also look for your restaurant on Facebook and Twitter to check the social media community for fans and detractors.

Last but not the least, it’s time to check your website’s usability first-hand. Pretend you’re a potential diner looking for a place to eat and came across your restaurant’s website.

• Is the address, phone number and email address clearly visible on every page of the website?
• Do you have a dedicated page showing directions to your restaurant’s location?
• Is the menu available online? Is it in an easy-to-read format?
• Can you order online?

It’s probably going to take a while to get all of this done, but believe me, and Rohit Bhargava, it’s worth every ounce of effort and penny you put into it. The idea is to thrust your restaurant’s name out there on the World Wide Web, and eliminate every obstacle that stands between the ideal diner and your front door.

Put yourself in the shoes of your customers. You might just find something useful – a new marketing idea or opportunity – you didn’t know was there from the beginning.

Double Your Restaurant Profits And Fight The Recession

This morning I woke up and found this interesting article on Yahoo!. It was a market analysis of eight restaurants in the US that are still making a good dollar after the recession hit the country near the end of 2007.

All emphasize value, whether it’s huge portions or quality for less.

It’s exhilarating to know that at a time when less people are eating out, at least eight restaurants are doing it right.

So is there any other way to generate good money from running a restaurant business at such a bad time in the economy? Yes. As a matter of fact, there are three! Here are some tips.

1. Train employees and keep customers happy

Let’s face it. Employees and staff are your biggest budget drainers. So it makes sense that they should be your biggest asset. A good menu is nothing without the chef to prepare them and waiters to bring food on the tables.

Train your employees to work briskly and efficiently. Review your training programs; make sure they address the issues needed to improve your brand service.

How does this make you money? Well-trained employees mean good service. Good service means happy customers, and happy customers are known to spend more than the average ticket.

2. Prepare detailed reports to reduce food costs

A good restaurant owner values the importance of statistics. A restaurant business deals with food, sure, but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be concerned about the numbers and figures that show up on your monthly budget report.

I suggest you list down the top ten or five ingredients you spend the most money on every month. Then find ways to cut back without sacrificing quality – remember the Yahoo! article. Schedule a talk with your distributor and check if they could find you a cheaper alternative that’s similar or maybe even better.

While we’re on the subject, consult with other distributors and see if they could make you a better offer. Business is business. If there’s more value on the other side of the fence, then scoot over. I believe customers think the same way. If they didn’t like one thing about your restaurant, they won’t eat in your restaurant. Period.

3. Empower employees by talking incentives

Here we go again – employees. This time, the aim is to make them stay longer and work harder on your behalf.

Not every employee is motivated by the same thing. Some work for money, some work to kill time, some work for personal satisfaction. But even so, the one thing common about them is that they’re always excited to hear about additional benefits. I mean, come on, who isn’t?

Some ideas for incentives include sharing a small percentage of profits with seasoned employees, implementing a monthly rewards program for the employee who showed the best performance, rewarding top sellers with a monthly bonus, etc.

These are just rough ideas off the top of my head. I’m sure you could formulate your own ideas based on your scale of business and budget constraints.

How does this make you money? It’ simple. The longer someone’s worked for you, the more efficient he or she becomes. In the end it boils down to bringing out the best performance from your staff.

I’d be happy to hear more tips on how to invite more customers during the recession. Share your ideas by leaving a comment below.

Five Big Reasons Why A Restaurant Marketing Blog Is Essential To Your Success

Blogging is funny. If you’re reading this article, do I really need to explain why your restaurant business needs its own blog website? This article is evidence in itself!

Anyway let’s get down to business, and allow me to explain why a restaurant marketing blog website is essential to your business success.

In another article, I talked about the decline of other advertising methods—newspaper ads, Yellow Pages ads, etc. I don’t mean to be harsh, but these platforms are simply no longer effective, and advertising through them is like throwing away good money into the roast pit. People are looking elsewhere for information: the Internet. On the Internet, blogs rule. In blogs, content is king.

I admit that sometimes no amount of words will convince a person with so much at stake, especially a restaurant operator, who’d rather spend his time managing the business than typing cutesy words on the Internet. But before you put your foot down, I recommend you check out these popular restaurant marketing blogs from Dairy Queen and Tyson Chicken.

Another popular blog website is KogiBBQ. See for yourself what a good restaurant marketing blog did for a small rolling store that sells tacos.

But to answer the question why it’s important, let me go into the details…

• Easily recognized by major search engines
• Helps identify your customers’ problems
• Allows you to share interesting and valuable information to your customers
• Works as a guide to your products and services without looking like an advertising gimmick
• It’s a great platform to cultivate your own fan base

1. Easily recognized by major search engines
Did you know that thousands—no, millions—of Internet users set their homepage to Google? Same goes for Yahoo! In fact I have Yahoo! as my homepage on my home computer. All this is absolutely free marketing. Imagine all those money used to pay for commercials turning into direct profit for you instead of being handed over to those TV executives.

2. Helps identify your customers’ problems
When you talk about new menu items and services on your restaurant marketing blog, your followers get the chance to react and post problems they might have with it. This is a good thing. As a restaurant operator, it’s important that you keep in touch with what your customers think about your little operation.

3. Allows you to share interesting and valuable information to your customers
A restaurant marketing blog is a two-way conversation platform. Customers get to share their problems, you get to communicate new and interesting tidbits about your restaurant.

4. Works as a guide to your products and services without looking like an advertising gimmick
A restaurant marketing blog is essentially a complete guide to your restaurant’s services. It’s effective, too. Instead of paying thousands of dollars for a TV commercial that says, “Hey, come to our restaurant. We have the best sausages in town”, you get to write about why your sausages are special, and let your followers decide if they want to try it or not.

5. It’s a great platform to cultivate your own fan base
A restaurant marketing blog is where you pamper your fans and followers outside the restaurant. Make them feel like they’re a part of your little operation, and I’m sure they’ll stick around much longer than if you chose not to blog about your restaurant.

Look at all the benefits of a restaurant marketing blog. Check the examples I mentioned. If you had made up your mind not to start a blog, I hope these will get you to reconsider. I’m going to spell it out for you here: there’s nothing to lose and everything to gain in starting a restaurant marketing blog.

How A Publication Going Out Of Business Can Impact Marketing Plans For Restaurants

A newspaper going out of business doesn’t really stir a lot of water. That is, unless you’re a restaurant operator, and then it becomes an entirely different story. Every publication that decides to close shop will affect the marketing plans for your restaurant in ways you don’t expect it to.

The Seattle Post Intelligence posted the following message on its website in January 9, 2009.

After 146 years of delivering news, the Seattle P-I faces becoming what it has chronicled: history. The Hearst Corp., said Friday that it has put the paper up for sale, and it will stop publishing unless someone buys it in 60 days.

That’s some bad news indeed. But allow me to skip to the root of the problem. Why do newspaper businesses continue to bite the dust? It’s got something to do with their major source of revenue: print advertising is dying.

Consumers are crossing over to a more accessible medium for information to travel from writer to reader. The Internet. This is what I’m trying to get across when I said you should let the demise of a publication affect the marketing plans for your restaurant. Advertise where the customers are.

The marketing plan for your restaurant should include the following online ventures.

• A streamlined website

A website per se isn’t enough. Make sure your restaurant website is easy on the eyes and user-friendly to attract customers.

• An email campaign

There’s nothing wrong with sending ads through email as long as it isn’t spam. Refer to this article for tips on how to get started on your email campaign.

• Presence in social networking sites

Popular websites like MySpace and Facebook allows you to interact with your customers on a personal level… from a mile away. Even politicians embrace this form of free online advertising.

• A Twitter account

I separated Twitter from the previous pointer because Twitter is as different as it is significant. In other words, Twitter has something Facebook and MySpace don’t: immediacy.

• Online booking system

It’s convenient for your diners. Enough said.

I don’t mean to add fuel to the fire, but if you’re still advertising on newspapers and on the Yellow Pages, you’re probably paying hard-earned money to reach even fewer potential customers. Advertise on Craigslist. Advertise on Yahoo! Anywhere is better as long as it’s online.

Or you can follow those tips I just mentioned. Go online with your marketing plans for your restaurant.