No Website = Lost Customers
In this blog post, I discuss why a website is absolutely crucial to your restaurant business.
1) Your Customers want Information NOW!
Potential customers search a website because they don’t want to wait for information or to call someone over the phone only to have that person sound rushed or busy. Customers want information conveniently and they want it NOW. They don’t want to call your restaurant to find out the hours of operation, or to call to find out what’s on your menu.
If you make it hard for potential customers to know about your restaurant, then they’re going to search for a similar restaurant or one in similar geography that delivers the information with ease.
2) You’re Giving Too Much Power to the Review Sites.
If you decide that you’re not going to have a restaurant website then you have made a poor decision to let review sites do all the selling on your behalf.
Whether your restaurant reviews are good or bad, they will never convey the message of what you want people to know about your restaurant. Your own website is a great medium for you to describe the history of your restaurant, the people who operate it, and any other messages you wish to share with your potential customers.
Would you let your own child was getting important information from hundreds of other strangers except from you the actual parent? That’s almost unheard of. Yet so many restaurant owners would rather let review sites (strangers) tell their restaurant story than do it themselves.
3) It Hurts Your Branding
I can’t stress this enough but people will judge your restaurant by the quality of your website. I’ve seen it on discussions on Yelp and it does make a difference. This is because your website is your host or hostess. Imagine having no hostess at the door to greet you, how would you feel?
And even if you had a host or hostess, how would you want her to represent your restaurant. Do you have a clear picture in your head? What type of tone would she have with customers? What type of smile would he have? What kind of knowledge would the hostess have? Now, that’s what your website should represent.
4) I’ll Steal Your Site
If you decide not to register your website name, what’s preventing me from actually buying the domain name of your restaurant and then deciding to use it to my advantage. When people search or type in a domain they type in what is easiest to remember.
Kyo Restaurant in Vancouver has this particular issue, where they have registered their domain name but it’s not a searchable or intuitive name to type. It’s easy for a company like me, or a competitor company, to buy out a name that’s easy to remember like www.kyorestaurant.ca. and use it. We haven’t done this of course but it’s not that hard for someone to buy that site and redirect them to their competitor Shabusen. Imagine how many loses in sales then for Kyo?
5) You Have More Control of Your Restaurant’s SEO
SEO stands for search engine optimization. This is where by performing certain activities you can rank higher among Google, Bing and Yahoo search engines. For example when people search for a term such as, “Top 10 Restaurants in Vancouver for 2011″ there are methods that allow you to be able to rank higher for such a search term.
However, if you don’t even have a site at all, then to rank higher for these terms is impossible. Having your own website is the first foundational step to being listed on the first page of search engines for specific terms.
6) You Miss out on a Whole Different Demographic.
I’m still surprised at the number of Chinese Restaurants in Richmond that don’t have a website. It really makes things intimidating for people who want to try out a new restaurant but want to know more information about it.
People get scared of what they aren’t familiar with. A great website will allow people to feel familiar with your restaurant. They don’t want to waste their money on a restaurant that they feel is a gamble. And so many Richmond restaurants miss out on those that are travelers, that are internet savvy, and those that don’t have Chinese associates to introduce them to these restaurants.
If you look at Kirin Restaurants’ website, you’ll see that they make it accommodating for non Chinese eaters to feel comfortable at their restaurant before arriving at the restaurant.
A website is a good investment because other than hosting, it’s advertising to people who are actually LOOKING FOR YOU! And your website has a huge potential to convert them to coming into your restaurant. You can put in so much information in there that you can’t put in a newspaper or magazine ad.
Think about it. A newspaper attracts people of different sorts, most are a big miss, but when people are searching for a restaurant and they search for your name, you know they are looking to be your customers. It’s exactly the same thing as the person who walks by a restaurant and takes a look a the menu. That person is more likely to come in to eat, then the person who just walks by.
If you don’t have a website and dont’ want to lose tens of thousands of dollars a year in sales then feel free to contact me, Vincent Ng from Eat Marketing at Vince (at) eatmarketing.com
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All excellent points. Ultimately, the data these ideas can produce will give you better insights into your business. With more control, you can engage and communicate with your core customers in ways that match their needs. This provides a powerful to for driving long term profit.