Restaurant Menus, Prices, And More - 10 Reasons Your Restaurant Website Should Share Every Detail
Posted October 6th, 2008 by AdminMore than half of all restaurant websites do not display vital information such as menus, pricing, parking information, a map and directions, and more on their website. I cannot think of one reason why any restaurant shouldn't put these important details on their webpage.
Here are my top ten reasons why you as a restaurant owner need to make this information available to your customers - there are many more reasons, but I shortened the list because these ten seem to be the most important.
Number 10 - Happier customers the moment they enter your door
More of your customers will already know what they want to eat and how much it will cost. Customers will come in happier and ready because they know what to expect when it comes to the stressful things. Now you can surprise them, pleasantly, with other things like customer service, or food quality.
First impressions matter. When your customer walks in happier, your staff will be happier. When your staff is happier, they perform better. When they perform better, your customers leave happy too.
Number 9 - People are already searching for your restaurant
If you own a restaurant people are trying to find you online all the time. The quality of your virtual real estate will have a direct impact on how many people are attracted to your physical real estate. A website with very little or no information is poor virtual real estate.
Improve your virtual real estate by giving people what they want: menu, prices, payment policies, contact information, hours of operation, holidays, specials, coupons, and little details like the condition of your restrooms and where to park.
Number 8 - People expect it
I can type "calculus" into Google and learn it from home without a textbook. People today expect easy access to all sorts of information. It's not called the "information age" for nothing!
Restaurants that do not share important information such as pricing and menus are perceived as "behind the times." When a customer cannot find details about your restaurant fast, they may feel like your establishment is backward or just too cheap to invest in something as important as a good website.
Number 7 - It will save you time (money)
People take more time to order when they are unfamiliar with the menu. That means an employee must wait while the customer decides. If the employee has to wait an extra minute for the customer it adds up, especially if that employee has to wait for ten or twenty customers during the course of a shift.
Your employee can use those twenty minutes for better tasks than standing around waiting. Imagine if just half of the indecisive people are ready because they looked at the online menu first. Your employee saves ten minutes. Over the course of a year that employee will now spend only forty hours waiting for customers to decide what they would like to order instead of eighty hours!
That saves you about three hundred dollars a year per employee (At $7.50 per hour).
This is just one way that time is saved. Employees will spend less time answering questions and phone calls about the menu, payment, parking, and other concerns that your website should address.
Number 6 - Customers will be more satisfied
With improved efficiency, faster order taking, and less mistakes customer satisfaction will increase. Customers are happier when their expectations are fulfilled. The information you provide on your website creates those expectations. By providing more information, customers will be more satisfied.
Number 5 - People will find your website more easily
One internet study suggests that websites with a number one rating on a Google search get up to three hundred times more traffic and sales than other websites.
By adding more information such as a menu, prices, and parking information a website will achieve a better search engine ranking which means people find your website more easily and you will get more customers.
Since the website now has more information available, people will post more links that refer to it. More linking also means a better search engine ranking.
Finally, with better content your visitors will be more likely to visit again, tell others about their visit, and spend more time on your site with each visit. Here are the three main advantages to this:
a) More traffic means a higher rank.
b) Advertisers on your website pay more money for more traffic.
c) They also pay based on how long visitors stay on your site.
Number 4 - It will improve your ratings
Ratings will be better when your restaurant is filled with people who chose your restaurant with all the facts. Because of your superior service, improved efficiency, and happier customers - ratings will improve. In addition your restaurant will experience unhappy customers less frequently since the customers who fill your tables know what to expect.
Restaurants with unpleasant surprises may unknowingly create a bad rating nightmare.
For example your unpleasantly surprised customer may go home, get on the internet, and find the twenty or so databases where your restaurant is located. Each of these databases has minimal information such as phone number, address, a map, sometimes a sentence describing the restaurant, and a star rating.
Surprised customers can rate your restaurant very unfavorably in all twenty of these databases! How many potential customers will be lost as a result of one customer who was unpleasantly surprised with some detail of your establishment?
By giving out vital restaurant information like pricing policies, and a menu - you can avoid more of these unpleasantly surprised customers.
Number 3 - More tourists will choose your establishment
When planning a trip most people now do some kind of online research. They are excited to find out where they will be staying and what food choices they have. They know that they will only eat exactly seven meals out on this trip and they want to make those meals a special experience usually.
Out-of-towners choose those seven restaurants based upon several factors. Restaurant ratings and the amount of available information on the website are two factors that probably influence their decision the most, and by placing your menu, prices, parking information and more online, more people visiting from another place will choose your establishment.
Number 2 - Customers Keep Coming Back
When customers are satisfied, they come back again. Online menus, prices, and more improve customer satisfaction and patrons will keep coming back.
Number 1 - You will make more money
Better customer service, improved efficiency, and high ratings add up to making more money.
Nathan Engquist is an editor, consultant, and writer on Wiki-Eatia and co-owner of Fradey Cat Web Solutions.
Wiki-Eatia is a free community where restaurant owners and enthusiats can add, and edit restaurant information. Features of each restaurant include ratings, menu, prices, images, a map, parking information and every detail imaginable. The goal of the website is to make it simple for every restaurant owner on earth to showcase their restaurant for free. Visit now to add your restaurant or find one. http://www.wiki-eatia.com
Fradey Cat Web Solutions is a web design and development firm dedicated to assisting companies with their internet marketing efforts. The company offers top quality websites and consulting soutions for half the average industry cost. If you would like help or advice building your restaurant website, marketing campaign, or search engine optimization please visit the website. http://www.fradeycat.com
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