The End of Trans Fat?

Hello again. This particular post is not particularly on-line specific, but important to restaurant owners and operators. We do plan on getting out the post on email marketing in the near future as we mentioned previously. However, recent developments in regards to trans fat have made this blog information particularly timely.

California restaurants have till July 1, 2009 to become trans fat free.  This legislation follows a similar ban of trans fat, which are the partially hydrogenated oils that result from a chemical process producing solid fats with a longer shelf life, that has gone into effect July 1, 2008 in New York City. Trans fats have been linked to major health problems, especially heart disease. As public awareness of the dangers of trans fat has increased, trans fat is being cast as a major health threat. It seems that it is a matter of time before national legislation against trans fat will be introduced and passed.

To the credit of major food suppliers such as Nabisco, these food giants are ahead of the game and already introducing trans fat-free versions of their popular snacks and cookies. As well, quick service restaurants such as McDonald’s and KFC have already moved towards a trans fat free menu. Last year at the Western Food Expo in Los Angeles, there were many food booths focused on trans fat free products. It is safe to say that trans fat will be a major topic at this year’s event.

Unlike the recently introduced restaurant-labeling legislation passed in San Francisco, which is being met with fierce opposition by restaurant owners and operators, California restaurants are largely embracing the new trans fat free legislation. Though restaurants, especially in California, have major challenges keeping up with all the regulations that go along with the operation of food service business, the health risk of trans fat has seemingly trumped restaurant owner’s aversion to more state enforced regulations.

Fortunately for most restaurants, going trans fat free should be relatively easy and cost neutral. Cooking with trans fat free oil is as easy as choosing a different cooking oil, and should have little impact of food texture and taste. For bakeries, the challenges will be much more difficult. As any good baker knows, the ingredients and process for preparing baked goods is very delicate, and any little mistake can translate into a major difference in presentation, texture, and taste. Bakeries will have to spend significant time in the kitchen experimenting with trans fat free products, and may find that their products are impacted. That is not to say that trans fat free products are inferior to those with these partially hydrogenated oils, but it is likely that the process and recipes will need to be modified for many of the baked products.

For any restaurant, in California or otherwise, there is an excellent opportunity to take advantage to the negative publicity that trans fat is generating. The first obvious step for restaurant owners and operators is to become trans fat free. Many have already made the move or are planning to be trans fat free. It is a good idea to accelerate the process. For those whose clientele tend to be more health conscious or family-friendly, being trans fat free is particularly important. Once your restaurant is trans fat free, make it known. In your advertising, marketing, web-site, and in store displays, especially your menus, let your clients know that you are trans fat. Public perception is critical, and being concerned about the health of your customers is good for business. At a time when Atkins was the all the rage and carb-based menu items were falling out of favor, Subway’s Jared campaign turned the tide and greatly improved their public image, sales and profits. The lesson to be learned from Subway is that diet fads come and go. These fads will drive short term menu conversions, but ultimately what consumers are looking for is a tasty, healthy meal at a good value. Restaurants need to work towards not only the taste and value proposition, but also the health considerations. Eliminating trans fat is a clear step in that direction.

Bakeries need to begin experimenting with trans fat free baking and slowly convert the products. A rush to go trans fat-free could be dangerous if the product is impacted. As the process of conversion may take some time, it is wise that bakeries find a way to carve out time for new recipe experimentation. Bakeries who convert last minute could be scrambling to fix problems with unsuccessful new recipes, and those who have begun the conversation earlier could end up gaining favor. Have fun with your new creations. There may be some beautiful disasters along the way. “Chance favors the prepared mind” – Louis B. Pasteur.

Surviving Stagflation

Whether we are in a recession or not is immaterial.  Food and gas costs are skyrocketing, while consumer confidence if falling.  This is creating a hyper-challenging environment for restaurant owners and operators.  A common response to this challenge is to raise menu prices across the board.  Perhaps this strategy would be okay if food costs were rising, and consumers were feeling flush.  However, higher prices can exacerbate the problem.  The thought that equal sales volume but higher prices to cover rising costs will solve the problem assumes that customers still keep coming despite the price increases.  With consumers paying close attention to where every dollar is going as higher gas prices, falling home prices, falling stock prices and tighter credit are eating into their financial well-being, the assumption that price increases can be introduced without any lost sales is an unlikely scenario.

So what is a restaurant owner to do?  Each restaurant is different, so the answers will vary widely.  It is important for restaurant owners to carefully analyze all aspects of their operations and business. 

• Are there menu items that no longer make sense?  (The cost of the ingredients may have skyrocketed, customers may be trading down to lower cost menu items, a menu item may never have been a popular item in the first place.)  Perhaps it is time to streamline your menu and eliminate these dogs.  The cost of offering these low volume items may be more costly than the profits they generate.  By streamlining your menu, you can reduce food waste in holding ingredients for seldom ordered items, and negotiate bulk pricing as your sales for fewer items increases. 

• Can you modify menu items using less expensive food ingredients without impacting food quality and taste?  Have some loyal customers do a sample taste test till you have a winner.  If this goes test goes well, you can run a trial with the reengineered dish.  Be sure to get feedback from your customers to see if they are ok with the changes.  THIS CAN BE RISKY SO TAKE THE EXTRA TIME TO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE IT RIGHT.

• Do your hours of operations make sense?  This is a tough one.  Depending on how your restaurant is doing, you may need to take some drastic actions to reduce costs.  If your restaurant is not getting much traffic between the lunch rush and dinner, you may want to consider closing for a few hours.  Same goes for weekends.  You can adjust your hours to reduce your labor costs.  This may mean layoffs, but this may be a necessary evil.  Be sure to talk with your best employees regarding the idea of modifying the hours.  If you lose all your good people due to the change in hours, any cost benefits in reducing the hours can easily be lost.  On the flip side, if your restaurant is busy, you want want to experiment with expanded hours to see if the extra traffic warrants the extra cost of operations.

• Pick your spots with price increases.  Raising prices across the board as mentioned in the intro can backfire.  You can drive customers away as they trade down to less expensive restaurants.  Find out which menu items you can increase without scaring away your price sensitive customers.  Drinks, desserts, sides, and more exotic menu items are probably a good place to experiment.  It is probably best to hold off on raising prices on your most popular entrees until you can get a better handle on how the other price increases are being accepted.

• What is your competition doing?  Your competitors are feeling the pain as well.  Get an idea of how they are dealing with the challenges and be aware of whether they are winning your customers or you are winning theirs.  The pool of customers is shrinking, so competition for each customer will be getting fierce.  Are your customers trading down to lower cost options?  Are you getting new customers who see your restaurant as a more cost effective option to their normal restaurant choices?  The expectation of these new customers may be different than your existing customer base.  It is a good idea to talk to them to see how you can better service their needs and meet their expectations.

• Review your marketing programs.  Time to get a better handle on your marketing costs.  Marketing programs that may have worked in the past, may no longer work with the current economic conditions.  If you have winning marketing programs, it is NOT recommended that you discontinue these.  Although it is tempting to cut the costs, marketing is necessary in both good and bad economies.  The key is to get rid of your ineffective and costly marketing programs.  How do you know which are effective or ineffective?  Experiment.  Perhaps you are pretty sure that a couple of programs you are using are not producing the necessary results.  Cut them.  If you see your business severly impacted.  Don’t panic.  Maybe you were wrong.  Reinitiate the program and see if your business picks up again.  Now you know that this program works, keep it and experiment with your other marketing programs.

So to summarize our suggestions:

• Talk to your customers.  Find out why a new customers is dining with you.  Find out why a regular is not coming as frequently.  Find out where your customers eat when they are not eating with you.

• Experiment.  Try different things.  Different hours, a different menu, different prices, different marketing?  Be prepared to reverse your decisions if the experiments are going south.  Understand the risks of your experiments and be careful with the more riskly experiments and more aggressive with the higher impact/low risk ones.

• Compete.  The competitive landscape is changing as consumers change their buying behavior.  Find out how to retain your good customers, realize that you may lose some of your more cost sensitive customers, and WIN new customers from your competition and new customers looking for a better value proposition.

• Improve your customer service.  Make sure your staff realizes that the game has changed and competition for business will be intensifying.  Improved customer service does NOT have to cost anything extra.  It can make all the difference in how well your business manages the tougher economic conditions.

• Maintain high food quality.  It is tempting to cut corners, but it is important to realize that consumers are pretty smart.  Customers can tell if portions or quality are being sacrificed.  That is not to say that less expensive ingredients can’t be used.  Provided you have a good chef who can invent a quality meal with less expensive ingredients, than you still pull it off.  In the end, great food combined with good customer service at a fair price is the key to success for a restaurant in any economy.

The road ahead is going to be rocky for restaurant owners and operators.  As you can see from the suggestions, most of these are good business practices in any economy.  They are just more urgent when business is challenging as it is now.  The good news is that once you survive this downturn and the economy once again improves, your business will be that much more efficient and profitable.  The key is to take action and don’t panic.  In every market there will be winners and losers.  Here’s to hoping yours comes out on top.

Reach Out to Your Community – Blog

As we have discussed in previous blog entries, setting up a professional web-site for your restaurant does not have to be expensive or time consuming. However, keeping a traditional web-site up to date with regular updates is another story.

The good news. There is a solution. Blog.

What is a blog? This web-site is a blog. The term blog is short for web log. In essence, a blog is a digital journal.

If you have already selected and like your web-designer or web-design firm, you can ask them to create a blog template and get one started for you. The initial setup of a blog is better left to those that have some technical expertise and/or web design knowledge and talent. Once your blogs template has been setup, creating blog entries is no more difficult than composing an email.

You simply need to login to your blog site, and compose a blog entry and then click post. That is it. So why do you need a blog? You already have a web-site.

Your web-site should be designed so it does not require frequent updates. Unless you have the time and skills to update your web-site yourself or don’t mind paying your web-designer or web design firm for this work, consider a blog.

What if you want to promote your Valentine’s Day special, publicize your community service contributions, or post your employment opportunities? If you launch a blog, you can use your blog to post this information. Your customers will begin visiting your site more regularly to see your latest updates. For those who have successfully implemented an email marketing program, you can attest to the benefits of keeping your customers current on your restaurant news. The nice thing about a blog is that unlike direct mail or even email marketing, distribution does not require stamps or even email address collection, pruning and distribution. Simply click the “Post” button on your blog entry, and your update is posted to the web.

That being said, driving traffic to your web-site will take time and dedication. Although your information is online, does not mean that your customers are looking at it. You may need to mix in some special promotions and awareness creation in order to get your customers to regularly tune into your blog site.

Restaurants have done a great job of capitalizing on email marketing, and we will discuss some of the tips regarding email marketing in our next blog entry. In the meantime, running a blog is very inexpensive and simple, and something I recommend you experiment with, if you have not already done so. Customer love coupons. You can create a special limited-time offer for a great discount or free food if a customer prints out a blog entry for example. This may be a way to get the traffic started to your blog. Be sure to include your website address on your menus, in-store displays, and receipts. If you run any radio, TV, direct mail or email advertising, also include your website information there. The more ways you let your customers know you have a web presence and are proud of it, the faster you can build your online traffic.

Keyword Advertising – How Not to OverPay Google

Before You Get Started:

Are you proud of your web-site? 

Does it have useful information that will drive your target audience to your restaurant? 

Does your web-site represent your restaurant well?

 If any of these answers are “NO”, then spend some time revamping your web-site before you being keyword advertising. 

Search Engines

Hopefully most of you have used Google or Yahoo! to look for information.  The way search engines like Google and Yahoo! work is take a word or group of words and provide a listing of what they hope to be the most relevant and popular results. 

As an example, you can see the results when entering “Pittsburgh Steelers” into the Google search box.

Keyword Listings

On the right side of the page, you see a listing under the “Sponsored Links” section.  This listing is a paid advertisement using Google’s AdWords technology.  We will do a step by step walk through of a sample keyword ad setup. 

Take a few minutes and setup an account with Google.  Go to http://adwords.google.com to go through a quick tutorial and setup a user account.  Once your account is setup, you are ready to get started.

Step 1: 

Name your campaign something you can remember.  You can change the name of the campaign later, so don’t worry too much about getting the campaign name perfect.

IMPORTANT:  Make sure to click the “Change targeting” link in the “Target customer by location” section.  If you do NOT, you will be advertising through the United States and wasting money on customers who will never be able to reach your restaurant.

Step 2:  Targeting by Location

 After you click the “Change targeting” link, the above page will appear.  You can enter a zip code, city name or region. 

STRONG RECOMMENDATION – Start with a small local region.  Zip Code or City is a good idea.  Keep the location you wish to target small, 10-20 mile radius is a good start.  You can always expand and add more locations later if you like.

Step 3:  Ad Copy

You want to have ad copy that will bring people to your site (click on your ad).  You can look at some different keywords that you think may be relevant to your restaurant and see what other people are writing for their ads.  Don’t worry, you can experiment and change your ad copy easily.  You can also have more than one advertising message saved and have Google rotate your ads to see which one is more popular. 

Step 4:  Choosing Keywords

IMPORTANT:  Here is another area people make mistakes.  You can spend a lot of money by trying to advertise for very generic terms such as “pizza” or “chinese food”.  The return on investment for these ads can be very low.  You will find that you can secure tons of inexpensive keywords by combining words such as “pizza” and the “city” where your restaurant is located.  Experiment with a variety of word combinations to see what works best.

Step 5:  Setting Daily and Per Click Limits

Be sure to set a daily budget, or you could end up with a huge bill from Google.  By setting a daily budget, your ad will run all day OR until the daily budget limit is hit.  You can also set the CPC – Cost Per Click – default bid.  $.10 is usually a good starting point.  This is how the system works for billing.  Everytime someone clicks on your ad, they will redirect to your web-site.  Google keeps track of all these clicks and billing you accordingly. 

 Step 6:  Turning off the Content Networks

Last step.  By default, Google sends your ad to other sites where your ad can be posted.  This is called the Content network.  So rather than seeing your ad which originates from a Google keyword search, your ad can be sent to other web-sites who will run your ad.  This Content network tends to have weaker results than Google’s keyword search results.  You can end up spending on advertising for less relevant sites.  Turn this content network option off to begin.

So stick to these tips and you can get started with inexpensive keyword advertising.  Some of these concepts may be a little complicated, but there are many small business owners who are benefiting from keyword advertising.  There are professional online marketing consultants who can help you, but I recommend that you have some knowledge of the ins and outs of keyword advertising so you can understand where your keyword marketing budget is being spent.  There may be other small business owners who you can talk with you have some experience with keyword advertising and can help you out with your own.

This blog post features Google’s Adwords, but Yahoo! is also good, and often provides better results per dollar.  Google has a larger marketshare, so you can reach more people with Google. 

The key strategy we are suggesting is that you start small to get familiar with keyword advertising and see some initial results.  Then as you optimize your campaigns, you can begin to get more aggressive with your budget and see if you can produce some huge results.

Hopefully this was post will help you from making some costly errors in your keyword advertising, or at least give you some familiarity with this marketing vehicle.

Good luck and happy keyword hunting.

Get Your Customers to Advertise for You

Satisified customers are a restaurant’s best advertisers.  Word of mouth has long been a great way for a restaurant to gain new customers and generate buzz.

New “web 2.0″ sites are bringing user-generated content to the Internet.  “User-generated” content is the trend that brings regular people’s comments, reviews, videos, and pictures to the Internet.  Blogs, YouTube, Myspace, Facebook, Photobucket, Yelp, Wikipedia, and Flickr are examples of sites that are primarily populated with user-generated content.  Many people enjoy sharing their work and opinions with others, and the Internet is a great way to be heard.

Web sites like Yelp!, ChowHound, Google Local, and Yahoo! Local offer tens of thousands user reviews for restaurants.  Yelp! in particular has become not only a place for user reviews for restaurants, but a form of self-expression for customers.  An example is the following In-n-Out Burger review by Yelper Michael B:

Damn you, In-n-Out Burger.
Damn you for
Your clean restaurants
Your kind-mannered staff

Damn you, In-n-Out Burger, for
Your focus on just the basics
Your fresh-cut fried potatoes
Your clean uniforms

Damn you, In-n-Out Burger, for
Your strawberry shakes, pink as puppy toungues
And for making me wait until I, too, begin to shake.

Damn you, In-n-Out Burger, for
Not holding back on just the right amount of grease
And for paying your employees something resembling a living wage

Damn you, In-n-Out Burger, for
My burgeoning man-boobs, gently jiggling as I drive across the speed bump in your driveway.

So why does this matter to a restaurant operator/owner?

For one, a bad review on Google Local could drive away new prospective customers.

Fear not. Customers are generally fair with their reviews, and there is an easy way to capitilize on this new trend. If you are finding that Yelp! and Yahoo Local are one of the main sources for new customers, restaurant owners have a great opportunity. It is not easy, but it will work. Delight your customers with excellent customer service.

Did you know that according to PMQ’s Pizza Magazine, of the total guests who will not return to your restaurant, 14% is due to poor food quality and 68% is because of service?

Let’s say that you have a customer that discovers hair in their entree or lipstick on their cocktail glass. Give them a free dessert or drink. Sure it costs you some food costs, but once they start telling their friends about the serendipitous experience at your restaurant, you can expect to see some of their friends. If you are lucky, they will write up their experience in Yelp! or Google Local.

Google your restaurant’s name to see what comes up. It is not as important to respond to positive reviews, but it IS important to respond to unfairly negative reviews. It is best not to be combative, but instead try and explain your side of the story. Read other owner responses to negative reviews, and determine the best approach to take.

Let’s say that the customer did have a legitimate reason to complain about her experience at your restaurant. Try and connect with this customer to offer a free meal or discount on their next order. Hopefully you can make ammends for the previous negative experience. If the customer is satisified with your mea culpa, there is a good chance she will write a follow up review.

Consumers are bright, and they can detect a bogus positive review. Before you have your brother write that your restaurant is the greatest restaurant in North America, be careful of the potential fallout if the user community discovers this fake. No one likes to be misled, so be careful.

Getting great reviews comes down to some basic customer service principals.  Makes sure that your employees recognize that providing excellent customer service is good for business and expected.  Lead by example by taking customer service and problems with a high level of importance.  Customer service issues will occur.  When they do, are your employees equipped with the authority and abililty to do the right thing?  Empower your servers, hostesses, and managers to solve customer service issues with discounts, free food, and gift certificates.  Follow these common-sense customer service guidelines and watch as your reviews shine, repeat business grows, and customer base expands.  In the new “user-generated” age, the impact of good customer service is magnified.

 

So to summarize:

- Google your restaurant name to see what results come up,

- Consider customer service as a marketing opportunity versus a cost of doing business,

- Respond to negative reviews with your version of the story,

- Try and connect with your negative reviews to see if you can win back their business,

- Encourage your employees to focus on providing excellent customer service, and

- Empower your staff to remedy customer service issues with discounts, free food and gift certificates.

Getting Listed Online

First a question:  Are your Yellow Page ads still working? 

In some cities and with younger customers, Google is replacing the yellow pages as the preferred method for finding local businesses including restaurants.  So if you think your Yellow Page ad is not driving the traffic like it used to, it may be time to pull the plug on that marketing expense. 

We’ll talk more about using online advertising such as Google, Yahoo!, and MSN in a future blog.  First, we are going to talk about getting your business listed for free.

 There is a saying in the media and Internet business:  “Content is king!”  This including local business listings.  The major search engines Google, Yahoo! and MSN would love to have information about your restaurant.  The more relevant content and information they can provide to their customers the better.

 A second question:  Did you know that Yahoo! and Google have a locals section where you can add and update information about your business?  These Internet search companies pay third party companies to provide them with business listing information that they can populate to their database.  Usually the information is address, phone # and business name only. 

 Try this:  Go to Yahoo’s Local site.  Once you are at the site, enter the ZIP CODE of your restaurant in the text box. 

 Select the Restaurants link.  Once you are in the restaurants link, locate your restaurant listing. 

 Click on the UPDATE THIS BUSINESS link.  You will see an option that will ask you if you are an owner or employee, or a customer.  Select owner or employee.  Login using your Yahoo! account.  If you do not have one, apply for one.  It is free and easy to setup.

 Now here’s where it gets cool.  Once you are in, you can edit your restaurant info (such as):

- Address,

- Phone #,

- Web Site URL,

- Fax (I wouldn’t suggest listing this as you will get tons of spam fax),

- Company Email,

- Hours of Operation,

- Payment Methods You Accept,

- Year Established,

- Languages Spoken,

- Brand Names Carried,

- Products & Services Offered (Delivery?, Catering?),

- Professional Associations, and

- Specials.

Pretty cool.  Only takes you a few minutes, its free, and now prospective customers will know a little more about your restaurant.

You can do the same with Google and MSN.  We’ll discuss restaurant review sites like Yelp! and CitySearch in our next blog.

Online Ordering: The Power and Limitations of the Web

Ordering online to your favorite restaurant is gaining popularity.  A recent article in the New York Times describes this new trend.

So is online ordering right for your restaurant? The answer is most likely “Yes”, but you do need to understand what you are looking to get by adding online ordering capabilities. There are two primary reasons to offer online ordering.

SCENARIO 1: Your restaurant is crazy busy, and your staff is getting distracted by a huge volume of phone orders. (Good Problem)

SCENARIO 2: Your looking to get more exposure and business for your restaurant. (Common Problem)

SCANARIO 1: Online ordering provides an excellent way to streamline your take-out and delivery orders without the need for lengthy and distracting call-in orders. Customers are able to interact with your menu without needing someone to walk them through your menu. For example, for a Mexican restaurant, you may need to know if the customer wants pinto beans or black beans on their burrito before you can complete the order. A properly configured online ordering site should allow a customer to select the required ingredients. As well, the site should allow a customer to add notes to each item. There will be situations where you will need to contact the customer to clarify the order, but the goal is to greatly reduce these phone interactions.

In addition to steamlining the order taking process, an online ordering system reduces human error that occurs when transcribing an order, or when training a new hire. This is a definite plus for online ordering.  As well, a customer can order anytime of day, as the web never sleeps.

On the flip side, your staff needs to be prepared to handle these online orders. Anytime you add a new order process, there will be some confusion and a learning curve. Most online order transactions are sent via fax and email. Your restaurant needs to have an alert system to know when an order has come in. As well, your staff needs to know how to handle these orders once they do come across. The best way to train your staff is to have them mimic a phone order process when dealing with these orders. As your customers and staff begin to realize the many benefits of online ordering, you can realize the desired impact for your restaurant. 

“But Wait!  I have spent some time and money to get my online ordering menu up, and my customers are still just calling in!”

Changing your customers behavior takes time.  First you need to create awareness.  Put up signs showing where the “ONLINE ORDERING PICKUP” is handled.  Put “Next Time – Order Online” brochures in customer’s to go bags.  Have your web-site prominently feature your online ordering menu.  Have your staff be able to explain how your online ordering works.  Keep it up, and make sure that you give these online orders an excellent level of detail, timeliness and attention.  

 

Over time, the percentage of online orders will grow, and your call in orders will be reduced.  You can now enjoy increased orders, more repeat orders, and most importantly “STEAMLINED ORDERS.”  So as you get started with online ordering, take some time to train your staff, and be patient as you will have a few quirks to work out.  In turn, you will have more satisfied customers and the ability to handle a higher volume of business more efficiently.

 SCENARIO 2:  Your restaurant has good food, excellent service and is hungry for more business.  Coupons and promotions help some, but you can handle more.  The idea of using online ordering to pump up the volume strikes you as a winning solution.  NOT SO FAST.  The Internet is great in that it provides your restaurant extra exposure.  However, simply launching a web-site and setting up an online ordering system is not going to instantly generate huge volumes of orders. 

PRICING:  Do you have the right prices for your items?  Ask your customers.  Study your competitors and set a pricing level relative to the competition.

PORTIONS:  Are your portions in line with your competition?  Make sure your customers are getting a good value for their dollar.

SERVICE:  Are you able to provide quality and timely service?  If not, study your staff and training to determine where you can improve.

 The moral of the story is that you need to have a sound business before on-line can make a significant positive impact.  It can help drive people to your restaurant, but if they are not turning into repeat business, online will mimic what is happening in your store.

 Once you get the pricing, portion and service on-track, time to go to market.  You can try different marketing efforts including coupons, promotions, advertising, web sites, online ordering, etc.  Each market is different, so you can not be sure which marketing method will be best for you.  Once you do identify where you are having the most success, devote more of your time and effort into these marketing channels.  As we have explained earlier, you can launch a well thought out online marketing strategy with a modest budget and a little effort.  We recommend that you do setup a web page and find an online ordering partner to help get your store up and running.  As you add online ordering, follow the guidelines above to maximize your impact.

We will go through some free ways to get exposure through restaurant review sites in an upcoming blog post.

Before & After Case Study

The presentation of a website should be professional, reflect the target market of a restaurant and facilitate customer’s inquiries.

Here we will look at a before and after redesign of a restaurant’s website. Southwest Grill is a restaurant that sells mainly Mexican food and they will be opening a new restaurant in Mountain View. To coincide with their opening of their second branch, they have decided to upgrade their old website.

Old Website: www.SouthWestGrill.com

New Website: http://www.southwestgrill.com/WebV1/old

First let’s take a look at the old website.

 

This is their front page. You get the idea that the website is quite sparse and has actually very little design on it. The front page immediately presents branch information which is the right way to do it since most users are interested in checking out where you are and how to contact you. One anomaly is that the home link is at the bottom of the navigation bar.

The colour scheme of a restaurant or any other website is very important. The colours usually used on a webpage should be near to that on the logo of the restaurant. Colour schemes are applied to navigation bars, text and background colours. On the initial version of SWG, the colour scheme has been chosen to be like the colour of the logo which is a good move. The colour scheme even matches the colours found in the real life SouthWest Grill restaurant.  

 

In the new design, the navigation bar has been brought to the top and “Home” is now the first item on the bar. Contact infomation for resturant branches are also presented on the home page.We have also added a “Order Online” link that links to the Southwestgrill’s ordering page on GetQuik.com.

In addition to providing a telephone number or an address, we have also added a map of where each branch is. It will be most useful to a customer who will be drving to a branch. You could use either yahoo maps or google maps. For Southwest Grill, I used google maps and embedded the map into the webpage. This is a rather simple prodcedure and can be done by clicking <!–[if gte vml 1]&gt; &lt;![endif]–><!–[if !vml]–><!–[endif]–>Link to this page and then copying and pasting your code into

 

A website is a selling tool and dishes get more enticing with some visual aids like pictures or slideshows. Unlike a real menu where there is a limited space for pictures, a website has unlimited space. Try to have a picture for every dish in your restaurant or at least the signature dishes of your restaurant. The menu page should show the prices and a short description of each item. If you do offer catering, a downloadable menu will be great as someone could print it out and order from it.

How to Choose a Web Designer

Now that you have the basics down, its time to get your restaurant online.  You could use your 14-year old niece to do your website for free, but this is probably not your best choice.  Your website is a low cost way to present your restaurant to your target customers. 

Web designers can vary dramatically in price, quality and reliability.  C0nsider the following factors before you choose a designer.

Firm or freelancer?
Check out www.craigslist.com and you will get a good idea of the freelance market for web designers.  Finding a qualified freelancer is hit and miss.  You can find a talented, dedicated designer at an incredible price.  You may have to sift through flaky, amateur artists before you find the right choice.

Using an agency can also be hit and miss.  The fact that the company has reference customers and a reputation to protect typically means that the quality and professionalism will be superior to the free agent avenue.  The freebies and flexibility will be less than a freelancer.  Want a simple modification to your website?  Expect a bill for these consultations and updates.  A freelancer may be more willing to provide the service gratis.  As to be expected, the costs for an agency will typically be higher than the average freelancer.

Research Other Sites

Look at various restaurant websites to get some ideas.  See which ones you like.  Often the design firms name and contact link can be found in the footer (bottom of the page).  Make a note of the design firms that you like.  If you see the same design firm more than once, also make a note. 

Getting Quotes (Hourly or Project Basis)

Most designers and design agencies prefer to bill on an hourly basis.  Customers can be notorious for changing their minds on design or features.  These changes can make a simple 8-hour project take twice or three times as originally expected.  Customers need to be careful when being billed hourly as the original quoted price can balloon before the project is complete.  Customers should be clear on their website requirements and negotiate a project cost to avoid these cost overages.  You may want to spend a few hundred dollars or so on your website, so be clear on your budget before you spend a lot of time with any one particular freelancer or web design firm.  Some may require a project to be thousands of dollars or more before they would take on a project.  Get to the point and see if the designer or firm wants your business.  If not, move on.  Someone will.

The Portfolio

Design aesthetics and styles are very subjective.    Once you find a designer or firm who will work with your budget, its time to see if their style matches yours.  Ask to see prior clients and their porfolio.  If the do not have a portfolio, move on.  Most professional designers have a portfolio, so no need to go based on trust when you can view other quality designers porfolios.

Does their porfolio include any restaurants?  Unless you really love a designers style or personality, look first for those who have done websites for restaurants.  The designer should have a good idea of your project costs and will have some good suggestions for you as well.

References

You have seen their work, so why do you need to check your references?  Lots of reasons.  You need to verify that the work they did for the customer is their work.  Sometimes one designer may begin a project, but another designer or firm will have taken over and revised the entire site.  Get the reference name and number.  Use the contact phone number from the customer’s website to connect with the reference.  You need to make sure the reference is real rather than the designer’s girlfriend.  Yes, this does happen.  The reference will give you a sense of the character and reliability of the designer or firm.  After the initial project was complete, was the designer willing to help with updates and maintenance.

REFERENCE QUESTIONS TO ASK:

- Was the designer or firm responsive? 

- Did they deliver the project on time? 

- Did they correct their errors without any additional charge? 

- Did they make minor changes without charging huge fees for these changes? 

- Was there more than one contact familiar with the customer’s site (more for firms than a freelancer)?

- What maintenance costs, services, programs, and availability does the designer or firm offer? 

Review the Checklist

So let’s review the checklist:

- Restaurant website theme determined:  Check

- Domain name secured:  Check

- Web designer and design firms researched:  Check

- Budget and general project scope set:  Check

- Find designer willing to work in your budget:  Check

- Review the designer’s porfolio:  Check

- Check the designer’s references:  Check

Start Small and then Expand

So the hard work is done.  Time to get the project started.  Before you get fully committed to a designer, it is a good idea to test drive your site.  Ask for a deliverable from your designer which will not take a lot of time, and you can review in a few days.  If the work looks good and the communication between you and designer is working, you can go ahead and expand your project.   If the work has not met your expectations, or you are not clicking with the designer, this is the time to think about making a change.  Hopefully, this is not the case.  The good news is that you probably reviewed and talked with other qualified designers during the review process.

The cost of the project in dollars should not be excessive, but you do need to dedicate some time and energy in making the right choice of web designers.  To reiterate the difference in quality from one designer to another can be huge, and you want to make your first impression for potential customers a positive one.

So have fun with the search and find someone you like and can work with.

Master Your Domain

So now that you have figured out your web site’s theme, its time to secure a domain name (ex. www.pizzaheaven.com). The domain name is “pizzaheaven” in this example. The good news is that the cost of securing a domain name for a year costs less than a medium pepperoni pizza. One of the most popular domain registrars is GoDaddy (www.godaddy.com). Yes, the one with the scantilly clad women in their Super Bowl commercials. GoDaddy charges $8.95/year for the rights to a domain name.

CYBERSQUATTING

Alas, these low prices for domain names has lead to cybersquatting. Some unscrupulous folks will secure hundreds to thousands of domain names in turn holding domain names hostage in the hopes of garnering a high priced transfer sale. For example, if a cybersquatter knows your restaurant is popular and realizes your restaurants domain name is available, the cybersquatter will secure rights to your “pizzaheaven.com” in the hopes that you will one day come asking to buy it. The previous $8.95/year price for your desired domain name can balloon up to hundreds to thousands of dollars when negotiating with these cybersquatters.

Getting Your Domain Name

To check if your desired domain name is available, go to www.godaddy.com and type in your restaurant’s name. If you find that it is available and you like the name, then go ahead and secure the .com address. You may also want the .net address. (ex. www.pizzaheaven.net) Although if you have the .com, that should suffice.

If your desired domain name is taken, you can find out who owes the domain name. WHOIS provides contact information for the domain name holder. **WAIT BEFORE YOU EMAIL THE DOMAIN NAME HOLDER.** Check out the web-site first. Is it a real site? If it seems like a legitimate site, you may be out of luck. If the site is under construction or simply a placeholder site, you may be dealing with a cybersquatter.

What NOT to do: “Hello, I am owner of a very successful pizza restaurant, and I am interested in buying the domain name from you. Are you willing to sell it?” The cybersquatter is thinking jackpot and will be looking to see how badly you want it. Instead, contact the domain owner, but do not seem overly eager. Be willing to walk away if the price is too high. The reality is that if you have loyal customers, they will figure out which domain is yours without too much trouble. More on how search engines like Google and Yahoo! work will come in future blog posts.

Do I have to use a domain name ending in .com?

There is no question that .com is still king, but the .net suffix is also popular. So if www.pizzaheaven.net is available, go ahead and secure that domain, and if your .com cybersquatter is asking too much, you can launch your site with the .net domain name. If .net is not available, there are other options such as .us though those are not very commonly used. It may be better to instead use a different domain name such as www.pizzaheaven-sf.com.

A good domain name is important, but as we mention above, search engines such as Google and Yahoo! are making the need for a perfect domain name less important. So hopefully you have found a domain name that will work for your restaurant. Go ahead and purchase the 2-year plan. Google and Yahoo! will rate your site higher if the domain is secured with a 2-year plan, so it is worth buying the extra year up front.

What if you change your mind? Don’t worry, the price for domain names is at a level where you can buy a few domain names and figure out which one is best. In our next entry, we’ll talk about how to get your site up and running.