Taking your restaurant to the next level requires various actions.

You’re a busy restaurant owner or manager, and while your business is growing, you’d like to really up the ante. Perhaps you’re looking for some suggestions on how to do that.

The good news is that we have compiled five tips to take your restaurant to the next level. Once you put these into practice, you just may notice an upward swing in diners, customer satisfaction, and revenue.

Tip #1: Treat Your Employees Well

While this may not be the first thing that pops into your mind, it is one of the most important things you can do to level up your restaurant. Why?

According to the Harvard Business Review (and many others), engaged, happy employees are the secret to your success. Happy, satisfied customers are in direct relation to how happy your employees are.

It seems that employee well-being and customer satisfaction are tightly linked. Your first step to creating and maintaining a positive, successful customer-first strategy is to boost your employee morale. Without it, you will find it difficult to improve and maintain a high level of customer satisfaction. (tweet this)

So, how can you build employee morale? Here are a few suggestions:

• Hire the best team you can.
• Provide ongoing training, especially in customer service.
• Be quick with praise.
• Recognize employee achievements with rewards. For example, your employee of the week may get the first pick of shifts for the next month. Or you might provide monetary incentives like gas or food cards.
• Have employee events. Take your staff to the movie, the spa, or to the lake. Feed them and provide them with a bonding experience.
• Provide ways for your staff to excel and move up.

­­Tip #2: Uphold Consistent Quality

The best restaurants have consistent quality every time a diner walks in the door.

You want to make this one of your top goals. Each time someone dines with you, their food should taste just as good as it did the time before.

The key here is to build a reputation of consistency. All it takes is one bad meal to lose a customer. The last thing you want is for inconsistency to lead to a bad review that lives on the internet.

In addition to the consistency of your food, you want to make sure your staff provides the same high level of customer service with every diner, every day. This is where your customer service training really shines.

It’s important to monitor the consistency of your food and your customer service. You don’t want either of these to slip during busy times or busy seasons. By thoroughly training your staff and keeping that high morale we mentioned, your restaurant is sure to receive high marks for consistency.

Upgrade your marketing strategy and tactics to next level your restaurant.

Tip #3: Showcase Sustainability

Research shows customers are more environmentally conscious than ever. So, another way to take your restaurant to the next level is to showcase your commitment to sustainability.

There are several ways you can achieve this:

• Recycle plastic, glass, cardboard, etc. Make sure your customers know this by posting it on your menu or even signs around the restaurant. If you are a fast casual restaurant, provide recycling bins.
• Look into composting as well. Many cities have companies that offer you compost bins for food scraps that they pick up each week.
• Consider shopping locally for produce, dairy, and meat.
• Make your dishes smaller, so there is less food waste.
• Have your own kitchen garden.

You can pick one of these ideas or several to see how it works for your restaurant. The biggest key here is to let your customers know if you are using locally sourced food, if you’re recycling, and/or composting. You want to make sure they know you are making strides toward being environmentally conscious.

Many people will be more likely to frequent your restaurant if it aligns with things they care about.

Tip #4: Unleash Your Website

Your website is your most powerful marketing feature. You can unleash its potential by harnessing its speed, refreshing it if needed, and making sure your online ordering system is up to par. (tweet this)

It’s vital that you have a modern, thorough website that renders well on mobile devices, is optimized for SEO (search engine optimization), and provides an excellent user experience.

You also want to ensure that your menu is up to date on your website with fresh photos, great content, and current pricing.

Make sure your customers can easily navigate your site and find your hours, phone, and location easily.

Tip #5: Work on Customer Retention

While it is important to find new customers to come into your restaurant, you don’t want to neglect your current customers. Why? They are the lifeblood of your restaurant, returning again and again to dine with you.

Your current customers are also your brand ambassadors. Those who love your restaurant will tell everyone they know, and this is free, invaluable marketing. Here are some tips to take your restaurant to the next level:

• Incorporate a loyalty reward program.
• Send texts and email messages to your regulars on a consistent basis.
• Offer special events or tastings.
• Send your customers special deals on occasion.

On Your Way to the Next Level

Now that you have our five tips to take your restaurant to the next level, it’s time to incorporate some of these strategies into your overall marketing plan.

Take them one at a time and perfect one and then another.

Keep evolving as time moves on, pivot when you need to, test your strategies, and fine-tune them. Finally, keep re-evaluating your processes to make sure they are working for both your employees and your customers.

Overall customer satisfaction is the goal, and everything you do to take your restaurant to the next level should have your customer in mind.

At Restaurant Engine, we can create a website for you that takes your restaurant to the next level. Your website is a pivotal piece of your success, and all your marketing leads to and from your website. You can count on us to create a website that converts. Let us help you make the perfect site that draws customers in, improves customer engagement and your conversion rate, and enables you to grow your business!

Are you ready to take your restaurant to the next level with a new website? 

Get your free website consultation today!  

Images: Hayffield L and Veli Iliev on Unsplash 

Stay on top of the latest trends to help your restaurant grow.

You’ve got great food, wonderful ambiance, highly trained servers, and an excellent chef.

But where are the diners?

This is a common problem for both new and established restaurants, and it all comes down to marketing.

In this article, let’s look at 2020 restaurant marketing trends for your best year yet, and so you don’t have to ask, “Where are my diners?”

Have Someone Dedicated to Marketing

One of the most important things you can do when it comes to your restaurant marketing is to put someone in charge. This might mean hiring a marketing person for your restaurant, hiring an agency, or employing a freelance worker. (tweet this)

Whichever route you go, it’s trendy to put someone in charge. Why? Then you are assured it will be done and done right.

Dedicate part of your budget to a marketing position, and you’ll notice results very quickly.

Offer a Wi-Fi Exchange

First, your diners expect free Wi-Fi, and if it’s not available at your restaurant, they’re going to be extremely disappointed.

So, while you know you need to offer it, take advantage of another trend, and offer free Wi-Fi as an exchange.

Require customers to provide their email address or cell phone number to sign up. This way you can text and email them your marketing messages.

Wi-Fi is a perk, and to get the perk, they give you something in return. Your diners can always unsubscribe, but if you’re doing your marketing right, few will.

With their email addresses and phone numbers, you can send info about sales, events, promotions, tips, and more.

Offer Delivery

During the COVID-19 pandemic, and for the foreseeable future, your restaurant customers want delivery options.

Don’t let this be an afterthought. Your diners want convenience, and they want to be safe while ordering food from your restaurant.

You have a couple of options: you can offer the delivery on your own, or you can partner with a food delivery service.

The most important piece of the delivery option is making sure your food is still warm and delicious when it arrives. We encourage you to test out different packaging and time frames to see what it’s like when the customer gets it. (tweet this)

For example, if you are sending tacos, consider wrapping them separately in foil so they don’t get too mushy.

Finally, you don’t have to make your entire menu available for delivery if that doesn’t work for your restaurant. If you do offer your whole menu, make sure that it can all be sent out and received in an acceptable manner.

Offer Packages

One of our favorite trends in restaurant marketing is the “family meal” or meal package.

This has been a fun trend for people and helps take the some of the mystery out of online ordering.

Many restaurants are putting together family meals in sizes of two, four, six, and eight people. These options make it easy for everyone to order.

This might include lasagna, salad, bread, and dessert package for six people. All your customer has to do is click one item and order.

Offering packages like this is also easier for you because you know what is on your delivery or carry out menu and can plan for it.

Encourage your customers to share content about your restaurant on social media.

Concentrate on Social Media

If your restaurant isn’t on Facebook and Instagram, it’s time to get there now.

Because you’ve hired a dedicated marketing person, you are better poised to create daily, valuable content for your customers.

Facebook is a must-have, and Instagram is a close second. Not only can you post on both platforms, but you can leverage their paid advertising options as well.

The costs for social media advertising aren’t too high and can provide you a great return on your investment.

Create a social media marketing strategy, create valuable content and professional photos, and use a scheduling tool to make sure you cover each day.

In addition, make sure you are responding to all the comments, both positive and negative. Your online reputation is vital to your success.

Offer Discounts

Everyone has to eat. And your customers like a good deal.

Consider advertising locally in the neighborhood around your restaurant.

Not only does this help with brand awareness, but if you offer a small special, you encourage would-be diners to become real customers.

Take flyers and coupons to all of the neighborhood businesses. This can help you catch the business lunch crowd.

You can even run promotions in the business arena by setting up a collection jar at a local business. Ask employees to drop in their business card. Pick a winner each week or each month.

This is a great way to build your email list, too.

Don’t forget your menus. Provide these to your neighborhood businesses and ask them to put the menus in their breakroom. Because, after all, everyone has to eat.

If there are local events around you, try to get involved in them. This is another way to get your restaurant out into the spotlight and on people’s minds.

Incorporate Text Message Marketing

Another trend is sending SMS messaging to people who’ve opted in to receive text messages.

It’s been rising in popularity for several years, and it has now come into its own.

Encourage your customers to join your text list. Put up signs on your tables. Hand out flyers with your take-out and delivery orders.

Your customer has to opt in to receive text messages, so you’ll have to provide them with the invitation.

The key thing here is not to bombard your customers. Otherwise they’ll opt out. Create a strategy that hits them at just the right amount.

Text messaging is great for announcing specials, events, and even new menu items.

Final Thoughts

According to one report, more than one third of restaurant owners said attracting and retaining customers is their number one challenge.

As the restaurant industry gets more crowded each year, and with the challenges presented by COVID-19, it’s never been more important to look at restaurant marketing trends.

The biggest overall trend we’re seeing in the restaurant industry is a large leap to digital offerings and an increased focus on marketing as we’ve looked at here.

You can use the restaurant marketing trends for 2020 in this article and use them to improve your overall reach to not only attract new diners but retain your current customer base.

At Restaurant Engine, not only do we create great, responsive websites, but you can count on us to create a website that drives business to your restaurant and edges you above the competition by using mobile-friendly design with a terrific user experience. Ready to take the plunge and create a website with an online menu, blog, and beautiful photos? Get your free website consultation today!

Images: Benjamin Rascoe and Nate Johnston on Unsplash

The digital age means changes in customer expectations.

Over the last decade, the food and restaurant industry has seen many changes and evolutions.

More and more people are enjoying eating out multiple times per week. In fact, Americans eat out more than 5.9 times per week on average.

Because people are eating out in your community, you want to stay updated on the last trends for 2020. Here’s what your customers will expect from your restaurant this year and moving forward.

Small, Simpler Menus

In the last year, many restaurants began tightening up their menus to relieve operational issues. In addition, smaller, simpler menus make it easier for diners to choose what they want to eat while making it easier for you to keep a cost effective food inventory.

Restaurants who streamline their menus can operate more efficiently, get orders out to customers in record time, and improve the quality of their food.

Smaller menus tend to produce higher volumes, which is always good for your growth.

Plant-Based Meat Items

In 2020, many restaurants have already jumped on the plant-based meat bandwagon.

This should continue throughout the year as more diners try to eat healthier while taking advantage of the latest trend.

So, while you’re simplifying your menu, do take care to find a place on your menu for plant-based meat items that fit in with your overall brand.

More Healthy Choices

In addition to wanting to be trendsetters and eat plant-based meat, Americans continue to be more conscious of all the food they eat.

Many restaurant diners are looking to their favorite neighborhood restaurants to provide healthier options on their menus. They are look for vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options as well.

Your customers are concerned about the environment and the impact on it. This has trickled down to what they eat as well. If you can show them you purchased organically or locally, you’ll engender yourself to them.

You’ll find that customers are more loyal to your restaurant when they believe you care about the same things they do – in this case a more sustainable lifestyle.

Show your diners you care about your carbon footprint and tell them where your food comes from.

In addition, when it comes to your to-go containers, try to be as environmentally friendly as possible. Your customers expect it, and when you provide it to them, they’ll be more loyal to your restaurant. (tweet this)

A Growing Delivery Sector

Even before the COVID-19 virus, customers were demanding more delivery options simply for the convenience.

The number of people ordering food from their smartphones for takeout and delivery has grown over the last few years. It continues to grow now as one way restaurants can survive the coronavirus.

Delivery options are just another way the restaurants can leap over the competition while meeting customers’ expectations.

Choices for delivery are available as many restaurants opt to use food delivery services while others offer to deliver their own food.

Know your customers, and you’ll know how to meet their expectations.

Instant Gratification

Today’s diners want what they want, and they most often want it now.

With the onset of the digital age, instant gratification became they way many people live their lives. After all, they can open their smartphones, order from any restaurant they choose, and have their food in under an hour.

The 21^st century has created a generation of people with little patience and lots of expectations.

So, to do your part to meet their needs, you’ll want to find ways to provide your food to people more efficiently.

Look for ways to streamline your processes without sacrificing quality to meet this new customer expectation.

The Foodies

There is a new subset of the population that deems themselves bonafide “foodies,” whether they have a culinary degree or not.

Today’s Millennials and Generation Z young adults (and to some degree those a little bit older) revolves their days around what they’re going to eat. They are always on the lookout for the newest, most interesting food.

These foodies may spend copious hours each walk watching cooking shows, so they think they know a lot about what food should look like and taste like.

Then, they are coming into your restaurant expecting to find the same.

You can cater to the foodie by providing a unique experience for diners that takes them someplace interesting. You’ll also want to consider artisan food that is natural, organic, locally-sourced, eco-friendly, and sustainable.

While they usually look for something healthy and without a lot of calories, the foodie is also known to splurge on a “treat” if it’s perceived value is tantalizing enough.

Foodies aren’t generally cost conscious, so the items they’ll order may be the more expensive ones on your menu, too.

A Personalized Experience

Like the foodie, many diners come to your restaurant for the whole package. For example, if your menu offers Peruvian food, they want to feel like they’re actually in Peru.

They want a server who is well-versed in the foods and customs of the area. They want you to cater to them and create an amazing experience as they eat their meal.

Consider your ambiance. Does it match your menu? Are your servers up to speed?

If you offer the complete package to diners, you’re more likely to see them return.

To Conclude

We’ll leave you with the one thing customers will expect from you restaurant above all else.

That is excellent customer service.

Your diners want not only an authentic experience, but they want to know you care about them. They want to know that it matters to you if they enjoyed their meal. (tweet this)

The customers who dine at your restaurant want to be treated like guests with exceptional customer service. In fact, if they love your food but hate your service, they may not even return to your restaurant. And, vice versa, if your food is okay, but your service is exceptional, you’ve got a lifelong customer.

The best thing you can do to grow your restaurant is train your restaurant staff, both the front and back of the house. Provide ongoing customer service training. Really teach them how to treat people and behave with your customers.

When your employees are happy and well-trained, they are more able to provide the excellent customer service your restaurant customers expect.

At Restaurant Engine, not only do we create great, responsive websites, but you can count on us to create a website that drives business to your restaurant and edges you above the competition by using mobile-friendly design with a terrific user experience. Ready to take the plunge and create a website with an online menu, blog and beautiful photos? Get your free website consultation today!

Images: Rohit Khadgi and Piotr Wyszomirski on Unsplash

Cold Spring Tavern’s Homepage

Cold Spring Tavern, located in Santa Barbara CA is a delightfully quaint, antique-filled, mountainside Western saloon serving local wine & American fare including wild game. They have recently launched their dazzling new website designed by yours truly — Restaurant Engine!

Their new website was built custom tailored for their needs and features captivating photos of the restaurant’s unique atmosphere ambiance. Cold Spring Tavern’s owners worked closely with our developers to create a website that is not only functional but that also matches the aesthetics of their establishment by using carefully selected colors on top of our custom “Primo” template.

Cold Spring Tavern offers a wide range of delicious food from their ‘Charbroiled New Zealand Venison’ to their ‘Jack Daniels Pecan Pie’. Customers can enjoy these tasty dishes in their cozy dining room or outside sitting at one of their many picnic tables. With the help of the Restaurant Engine development team and our unique software, Cold Spring Tavern’s menu page presents all the great dishes they have to offer on one easy to read website.

Cold Spring Tavern’s Gallery Page

For Cold Spring Tavern a well-organized page that displays their upcoming entertainment events was a must-have for their website. Cold Spring Tavern uses Restaurant Engine’s events plugin to manage and display all the fun-filled events Cold Spring Tavern is hosting and custom contact forms for patrons to book their next event at Cold Spring Tavern. Their site features a gallery page showing all the great food and fun that Cold Spring Tavern offers. Cold Spring Tavern worked closely with our team to build their unique website. We received great photos and content from the Cold Spring team to add to their website during the initial included setup process. Any future updates to their website will also be handled for free as part of our hosting fee.

Restaurant Engine is beyond excited to be working with the lovely people at Cold Spring Tavern and encourages anyone in the Santa Barbara area to visit their enchanting Tavern for brunch, lunch or dinner!

Blogging and social media are complementing digital platforms.

In today’s article, we discuss an important part of your restaurant’s marketing strategy.

You’ll find that in today’s digital world an active, online presence makes good business sense.

So, let’s answer the question, “Should restaurants blog, or is social media enough?”

The answer to that is, “Yes, your restaurant should blog, and, yes, your restaurant should do social media as well.” These two platforms can work hand in hand to help you build relationships and spread the word.

While you may have thought blogging and social media were separate, and several years ago it might have been an either-or, it’s no longer that way.

Social media has not done away with blogging, and in fact it has accented it and provided a way for restaurants to share posts and get them in front of more people.

Blogging and social media naturally complement one another. You want to continue to blog while using social media to promote it.

How to Share Effectively

It’s not quite as simple as writing a blog, copying a link, and pasting it into your social media, and hitting send.

In order to share your posts effectively, you want to tailor each message and blog post to fit your platform and your audience.

For example, perhaps you’ve written a blog post about how to pick the best fruit and vegetables at the farmer’s market. You’ll want to address your Facebook friends differently than you would your followers on Twitter and Pinterest.

You also want to consider the way you interact with each social media community.

For some social media platforms, you want less words/characters, while for others you want striking images.

Some social media platforms work better with multiple hashtags, while others are good with just one. For example, use multiple hashtags on Instagram and Twitter, and use just one or two on Facebook or LinkedIn.

Now, let’s look more in-depth at how to share blog posts on various social media platforms.

Sharing on Facebook

First, you want to make sure you have a Facebook business page that is complete with profile and cover photo, website address and about us section.

Next, here are some important tidbits when it comes to Facebook posts:

• According to Hootsuite, the best time to post on Facebook is between 12 – 3 pm on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and on the weekends from 12-1 pm. Please check your Facebook insights because this is in general, and your followers may be online at a different time.
• You can use up to 10,000 characters on Facebook posts (but that is too many for most readers). Note that only the first 480 are visible without clicking more.
• So, put your most important text first. The best practice is to keep your characters under 50 for more engagement.
• Use imagery. Instead of sharing the post and letting Facebook ad the image from your blog post, upload the image on your own and include the link in your text copy. This way the photo gets added to your Facebook album, and all of your blog images with their respective links stay right on your Facebook page.
• Using personal, engaging language to invite readers to click to read your blog.
• Post on Facebook once a day, every day.

Finally, you can share your blog post on social media once a month. Consider posting once and then waiting a month or show and sharing it again. Use different text this time around to see if you can increase engagement.

Tweeting on Twitter

You might already know that Twitter upped its character count for tweets from 140 up to 280.

Interestingly, though, Twitter finds that only 5% of tweets sent from people in the 280-character test group were longer than 140 characters, and just 2% were over 190 characters.

So, our recommendation is to keep your blog sharing tweets to the 140-character limit to increase engagement.

As with Facebook, you also want to use images. In addition, you can include @handles to give others some credit or to make sure the tweet gets to specific people.

It’s also always a good idea to include hashtags with your tweets as well as a call to action, such as “read this” or “retweet.”

The best times to tweet on Twitter are between 8 – 10 am, 11 am – 1 pm and from 4 – 7 pm. Because the lifespan of tweets is so low, you can feel free to post many times on Twitter.

You can also continue to share the blog post at different intervals over time, especially if your content is evergreen.

Use the right platform at the right time and to the right audience to share blog posts.

Dos and Don’ts of Blogging

When it comes to blogging, you don’t have to publish your content every day to be effective, but you do need to post at least once a week. (tweet this)

Your posts don’t have to always be long. Three hundred words – 1000 words is a great start.

Plus, the more often you blog, the more posts you have to share to social media, and the more positively Google looks at your website.

Final Thoughts

Blogging and using social media is a win-win for your restaurant. Let’s conclude by highlighting some specific reasons you want to combine these two digital strategies in your restaurant marketing.

Blogging and sharing posts establishes you as the industry leader well ahead of your competition. (tweet this)

Choose the right topics that your audience cares about, write good articles and share them on social media, and you’ll begin to build trust with your audience and build trust in your area.

You’ll find that this power duo makes people remember the name of your restaurant.

Next, you create good customer relationships by giving your customers what they want and need both on your website blog and in social media.

Blogging and sharing posts helps your audience get to know you before stepping foot in your door.

Use your blog and social media posts to show people who you are, feature menu items, teach, provide information and connect with customers.

Finally, when using your blog in conjunction with social media, you send a steady stream of traffic to your website.

Blogging helps you utilize keywords, so your posts show up in organic searches. And, every blog you post is a new indexed page. Plus, when people click through your social media posts, they’re increasing traffic.

Nearly all of your customers use social media, and many of them want to get to know you. Create a blogging and social media strategy today and watch your business grow.

At Restaurant Engine, not only do we create great, responsive websites, but you can count on us to create a website that drives business to all your restaurants and edges you above the competition by using mobile-friendly design with a terrific user experience. Ready to take the plunge and create a website with an online menu, blog and beautiful photos? Get your free website consultation today!

Image:  rawpixel and Artem Bali on Unsplash

Don’t get caught unprepared – make your plan before a crisis.

What is crisis management?

It’s the strategies you use to deal with a “sudden and significant negative event.”

That crisis could be one of any number of things – health trouble (think roach in the soup), PR issue, customer service problem or natural disaster. Most importantly, a crisis is an unpredictable event, or one you didn’t see coming.

Ultimately, a crisis poses a risk to your restaurant, your staff and your customers.

To help you in the event of a major crisis, we look at seven tools to help with restaurant crisis management.

#1: Know the Goals of Your Crisis Management Plan

First, let’s look at the main goals of crisis management. You’ll use these to guide your strategy for dealing with the unexpected.

• Your over-arching goal is to get back to business as quickly as possible.
• You want to either reduce or completely eliminate (if possible) the negative impacts of a crisis on your restaurant. This would be anything that affects your diner traffic, your earnings, your building’s structure, or your staff.
• Next, you want to make sure your brand image stays intact. It is possible for you to come out on the other side of a crisis in a positive manner and with your reputation intact.

#2: Have a Crisis Management Team

One of the best things you can do for your restaurant is to have a crisis management team in place before disaster strikes. (tweet this)

This team can include your most trusted employees, your marketing team, PR staff and human resources (if you have it) and even your attorney.

Create a plan that follows your goals of crisis management. Everyone should be thoroughly familiar with the plan so it can be put into motion at a moment’s notice.

These people can work your crisis management plan and make sure that everyone on your team and in your employ is confident in the response from your restaurant.

Your crisis management team can get to work quickly crafting your response so it’s unified across all platforms.

#3: Get Out in Front of The Issue

In the case of a food disaster in your restaurant like Chipotle’s food-borne illness issues and other crises, you want to get out in front of the problem.

Don’t wait for social media or the news media to tell the world what’s going on.

If something negative is affecting your restaurant, you want to be the first one to announce it.

The last thing you want is to get caught playing catch-up and defending yourself.

Break your own story. Why? Because when you tell the community what’s going on, you control the spin of the message.

You’ll find there are several ways to inform your customers about the crisis. You can always use traditional formats such as news conferences or press releases.

A faster method is to use the digital arena. You can post a message on your website as well as your social media platforms. Utilize your email list to broadcast your crisis response. 

When crafting your response, be sure to have several people proofread your comments because once it’s out there, it’s next to impossible to take back. 

You can manage your restaurant’s reputation through a crisis with careful planning.

#4: Be Proactive

Let’s say you didn’t have time to get out in front of the crisis.

For most people, restaurant owners included, the fight or flight response kicks in.

Unfortunately, some people choose flight. This isn’t your best option.

If you remain silent, someone else has power over your story. You want to make sure that even if someone else brings the crisis to light that you respond to it.

Sure, it may be devastating to your restaurant, but if you stay silent, you let others frame the narrative which doesn’t meet the goals we mentioned above such as maintaining your restaurant’s reputation and getting back to the business of serving meals. 

#5: Be Calm at All Times

Regardless of what transpires, you want to keep a level head.

You may not like what people are saying about you. It may make you crazy that your customers are upset.

The bottom line is that you don’t ever want to be rude or attack people during a crisis. This puts everyone on edge, and it doesn’t do anything positive for your restaurant.

Do your absolute best to keep calm. Provide empathetic responses to all queries and do everything in your power to respond to each one in the same manner.

#6: Cut Off Social Media Account Access

In the middle of a crisis, you only want approved people to have access to managing your social media accounts as well as your website. (tweet this)

Generally speaking this should only be members of your crisis management team. It’s too easy for well-meaning employees to post something about your restaurant that isn’t in keeping with your crisis management goals or plan. 

In fact, while crafting your crisis plan and your team, you might want to take a long, hard look at who has access to your social media accounts. This can help you avoid an extended crisis down the road.

#7: Manage Your Communications

When drafting a plan for your crisis communications, follow this checklist as best practice:

• Ensure your messaging is clear and concise. Put one person in charge of disseminating all print and digital communication.
• Assign one person to do all communicating with the news media.
• Have someone monitoring all social media platforms and online news outlets for mentions of your restaurant. Consider setting up a Google alert.
• Ensure your entire staff knows your plan.
• Give your staff a set of “talking points,” but ask them to refrain from speaking or posting anything about what’s going on. Ask them to refer all questions to your crisis management team.
• Contain the messaging and maintain all control.
• Apologize when necessary.

Final Thoughts

Crisis management is always challenging, but as long as you’re prepared, and you use these seven tools to help with restaurant crisis management, your restaurant is well-poised to weather the worst circumstances.

To sum it up, create a crisis management team, make a crisis management plan and make sure you control the narrative. This helps contain leaks and misstatements and ensures you walk away from the crisis with your restaurant’s brand and trustworthiness intact. 

At Restaurant Engine, not only do we create great, responsive websites, but you can count on us to create a website that resonates with customers. Ready to take the plunge and create a website with an online menu, blog and beautiful photos? Get your free website consultation today!

Images: chuttersnap and Helen Martinez on Unsplash

Word of mouth is a very powerful marketing tool.

What is a restaurant ambassador?

It’s someone who has been to your restaurant at least once, tried your food, and loved it. A restaurant, or brand ambassador appreciates everything about your restaurant including your service.

Why are they good for business?

Brand ambassadors are good for your restaurant because having tried your restaurant, they love it enough to tell everyone they know how good it is. (tweet this)

Restaurant ambassadors aren’t paid. They are strictly people who so appreciate your restaurant they’re willing to spread the word.

In this article, we look at how to create restaurant ambassadors to win at word of mouth.

Identify Your Restaurant Ambassadors

The first step in creating a program that helps you spread the news of your restaurant is identifying potential ambassadors from the pool of your regular customers.

Look for these people among those customers who already love your restaurant.

These are the ones that come back night after night. They are the ones who seek you out to tell you how much they enjoyed your new dish or how much they appreciate the great service.

You can also look for people among your online reviews – think Yelp, Google, Instagram and Facebook. You’re looking for the ones who shared very positive reviews about your restaurant online.

Another place to look is on your social media platforms. Note the customers who are enthusiastically sharing and talking about your restaurant already.

Take it one step further and look at the food bloggers in your area. Are any of them talking about your restaurant? If so, these could also be restaurant ambassadors for you.

How many people should you pick? As many as you want. Just make sure they really do love your restaurant enough to spend time promoting it for you.

Ask for Specifics

Once you have your restaurant ambassadors, you want to give them a list of tasks to accomplish. They can include some or all of the following:

• Social media promotion on your restaurant’s pages as well as their own
• Reviews on websites and blogs
• Google reviews as well as social media reviews
• Video testimonials
• Community interaction such as help at events
• Delivering samples to local businesses

Some of your ambassadors will be better suited for online activity, while others will be adept at mixing and mingling in the community.

Make a Plan for Measurement

Just as with any marketing strategy, you need a plan for measuring success.

Not only do you need to identify your restaurant ambassadors, but you need a plan to track how well your program is working.

Here’s some things to consider:

• How will you measure the success? Is it new reviews, more social media posts, an increase in customers in the door, or a boost in sales?
• What data and metrics will you keep, and how?
• What analytics will you use?

It’s a good idea to assign a staff member to track your restaurant ambassador’s online activities.  Over time and with some diligence, you can measure at least the online reach of your ambassadors.

Provide Content

Help your ambassadors by putting together some information for them to use.

This might include a file of menu photos or restaurant photos, videos, links to blog posts and more.

In addition, ask them to take their own photos and videos while they’re in your restaurant. These ultimately look more authentic.

Do also give them a list of your brand hashtags so they can add hashtags to their posts for brand consistency. 

Encourage your brand ambassadors to share content from your restaurant.

Reward Diners to Get Them Talking

Now it’s time to put a plan in motion for giving your restaurant ambassadors incentive for spreading the word about your restaurant.

How can you reward them? With free food and gifts.

Why do you want to reward them? This incentivizes them to continue spreading rave reviews about your restaurant.

Check out these ideas for restaurant ambassador loot:

• Coupons and free meals at your restaurant
• Exclusive access to events
• Aprons
• T-Shirts
• Oven mitts and digital timers
• Cups and bags
• Cooking classes with your chef
• VIP tasting events
• Celebrity guest chef events

The ideas are endless, so get creative and come up with the ideas that will really drive your ambassadors to spread the news about your restaurant by word of mouth.

Ask for Their Ideas

The great thing about restaurant brand ambassadors is they know just why they like your restaurant and what makes it stand out in the crowd.

They also know where and how to spread the word.

So, on occasion, solicit their feedback about your menu, service and ambiance. In addition, ask them what they think of your restaurant ambassador program. 

They are well poised to offer you suggestions for improvement and show you where you shine.

Now let’s look at what triggers brand ambassadors. What makes them willing to spread your restaurant by word of mouth?

Restaurant Ambassador Triggers

Nowadays, good service and good food is expected. If people aren’t finding this at your restaurant, you can bet they won’t be back.

What sets you apart from the competition and triggers your restaurant ambassadors is how far you go beyond “good” and “acceptable.”

Is your food top notch and your presentation impeccable? Have you thought of everything when it comes to the interior of your building, ease of access and cleanliness?

Have you overly-trained your staff in the finesse of customer service? 

To gain ambassadors and earn their positive reviews and their loyalty, you must go above and beyond. You must thoroughly exceed expectations.

• Brand ambassadors are triggered when they experience something in your restaurant so far beyond what they could have expected, they’re willing to tell others about it.
• Your staff must provide more than exceptional service. They must be generators of positive feedback by anticipating their customers’ needs and exceeding them.
  

Final Thoughts

Your restaurant benefits greatly when you have ambassadors speaking highly of you throughout your community. (tweet this)

Your restaurant ambassadors help you grow your restaurant by spreading the word online and in your city. 

By rewarding brand ambassadors, you can increase your reach right along with your sales.

You’ll find that restaurant ambassadors give you more sway than traditional advertising because of the power of social proof – “If Cathy likes it, I know it must be great.” 

Help your restaurant grow by establishing a restaurant ambassador program today. 

At Restaurant Engine, not only do we create great, responsive websites, but you can count on us to create a website that includes your brand ambassadors. Ready to take the plunge and create a website with an online menu, blog and beautiful photos? Get your free website consultation today!

Images: Benjamin Voros and Josh Rose on Unsplash

Appeal to your customers through social media and meet their needs.

For many of your customers, social media is a daily affair. They may visit their pages multiple times per day and for hours on end.

In fact, the time people spend on social media is increasing daily with 30% of all online time spent interacting on social media. Your customers are spending nearly two hours on social media every single day.

So, you can see that social media should be an integral part of your restaurant’s marketing strategy.

Many restaurants don’t have time or don’t realize how much potential exists for them on social media.

It’s time to leverage the opportunities that social media provides. To do that, you might be wondering what social media you should be using for your restaurant. In this article, we look at your options.

Facebook

You should definitely be using Facebook for your restaurant.

With millions of users, it’s the number one platform you should be using.

Establish a presence on Facebook by engaging with your customers and sharing videos, recipes, funny stories, inside looks, contests and coupons.

Respond to customer comments as they come in, both positive and negative. This helps show all of your Facebook followers you care and are interested in what they have to say.

Get familiar with Facebook and the Insights tab. You’ll learn a lot about your followers – when they’re online, their demographics and much more. Use these insights to target people in your area.

As an added bonus, Facebook paid advertising is a cost-effective way to get more out of your posts and to advertise on Facebook. (tweet this)

As a business page, your restaurant will want to leverage Facebook paid ads to extend your reach and get in front of more customers. You can choose from a number of goals such as promoting an offer, getting more followers, encouraging users to visit your website and much more.

Visit the Facebook Ad Manager to peruse your options and learn more about advertising your restaurant on Facebook.

Instagram

Another good social media platform for you to build a presence on is Instagram.

This platform is image based, and since your customers are driven by not only their stomachs but their eyes, you can engage your followers with beautiful photos of your menu items.

Food is visual, and Instagram is a visual platform, so your restaurant and Instagram are a great match. (tweet this)

As an added bonus, if you use Facebook paid advertising, you can extend those same ads to Instagram all from your Facebook dashboard.

When it comes to Instagram posts, post incredible photos of your food and share the fun that goes on in your restaurant. Funny staff photos or diners doing interesting things are always popular.

Unlike Facebook where you want to keep your posts light on the hashtags, feel free to use as many as you’d like on Instagram. Here are a few tips for using hashtags on Instagram:

• Always include #TheNameofYour Restaurant
• Include geo tags for your location
• Use other food-type hashtags that work with your post such as #Foodie, #nomnom and #FoodPorn

Social media starts conversations and drives engagement.

Google+

You might be wondering why we suggest using Google+ because it doesn’t have a lot of active users, and it’s not popular.

That may be, but Google+ is definitely a social media platform you should be using because Google puts its own results first. Just by having a Google+ account makes you more favorable to Google than those who don’t.

The first thing you want to do is claim your Google listing and create your Google+ page.

Fill out all of the information (using keywords), add your logo and some photos. When you add photos, they’ll show up in your Google listing along with the map photo, personalizing your presence.

Your address, phone and hours are crucial here because that is what shows up when people search for restaurants in your area. It also ensures you are listed correctly on Google Maps.

Another way to stand out on Google+ is with reviews. Encourage your customers to leave you a review.

The more positive reviews you have, the better Google will list you in local searches.

Tips for Social Media

Before you start posting and advertising on social media, you want to make sure you have fully completed your profiles.

This means adding profile and cover photos that are the right size for each platform. You can easily Google these sizes, and it’s a good idea to do so before changing or adding them as the size requirements change often.

Your logo is appropriate as your profile photo. When it comes to cover images, include tantalizing photos of your food or customers enjoying a meal out. You can use this space to advertise new items and rotate it regularly.

You also want to complete all of your business information including a brief description about your restaurant. Always include your website address in your about sections as well.

Run sweepstakes and contests on your social media platforms. These benefit your customers while generating excitement. Use sweepstakes to drive business, showcase a new menu item or get diners in the door.

Another good rule of thumb is to include photos or videos in every post. Text-only shares don’t get read as often or seen by as many people.

Finally, as you post on social media, keep your audience in the front of your mind. Social media isn’t about outright promoting your restaurant. It’s about building customer relationships.

Ask yourself the following questions when planning your posting strategy:

• What do my customers need to know?
• What do they want to know?
• How can I showcase my staff and restaurant so it’s interesting and intriguing to customers?
• How can I tailor my message so it’s customer-centered?
• Is my content valuable to the customer?
• Is my tone friendly and likeable?

Final Thoughts

Generate buzz for your restaurant and build relationships using social media. If you haven’t started yet, it’s time to jump in. If you have started your social media marketing, consider increasing your activity.

You want to be where the people are, and they are definitely on social media.

Social media is a terrific way to communicate with your guests when they aren’t inside your restaurant (and sometimes when they are).

Choose a few platforms and get started building relationships, generating buzz and providing customer service that beats the competition.

At Restaurant Engine, not only do we create great, responsive websites, but we’ll integrate your social media accounts on your website. Ready to take the plunge and create a website with an online menu, blog and beautiful photos? Get your free website consultation today!

Images: William Iven and Hans Vivek

You know how important your staff is to your restaurant.  They not only keep your operation running, they interact with your customers and make the face and personality of your restaurant.

So you know how crucial it is to hire the right people.  But that’s easier said than done.

You can’t hire just anybody off the street (or off craigslist).  They must have the right experience, the right personality… the right fit. It takes time to post your “Help Wanted” ads all over town, in the newspaper, on the job boards, on craigslists, etc.  After all of that legwork, you have to sift through the responses, narrow down your search, schedule interviews, then narrow down your short-list.  And we haven’t even begun training yet!

I’m exhausted just writing about the process of hiring restaurant employees!

Wouldn’t it be great if there was an easier way to staff up your restaurant?

As it turns out, there is.  I came across this website called Shiftgig a few weeks ago.  You know by now that I don’t usually promote a single site or service here on the Restaurant Engine blog unless I think it delivers a real benefit for restaurant owners.  ShiftGig is one of those rare exceptions

Shiftgig makes it easy to find hourly and salaried employees for your restaurant. Restaurant industry candidates have profiles that include work history, education, photos, and reviews/references. You can browse through thousands of great candidates or post a job for free.

You read that correctly – Stop paying for job boards or staffing agencies, because this tool costs you nothing. That should be enough, but let’s dig in a bit, shall we?

Browse and sort thousands of candidates that fit your criteria.

Shiftgig leverages its online community to simplify the often daunting task of finding qualified staff. With 240,000 members and over 7,000 businesses using the site (as of April 2013), Shiftgig provides employers and workers exactly what they need to find a perfect match. When restaurants post jobs, Shiftgig automatically shows them candidates who are most qualified for the position, thereby shortening the frustrating, time-consuming search process. Instead of combing through hundreds of resumes from Craigslist and walk-ins, you can use Shiftgig and save yourself the hassle, find more choices and get a better staff.

Detailed profiles for each candidate.

Here are few of my favorite aspects:

• Free distribution to other job sites  — Job postings on Shiftgig are automatically included on more than two dozen “pay-to-post” websites for free
• Create “Apply Now” Button on Craigslist and manage your craigslist applications through Shiftgig to reduce spam, limit inbox clutter and manage your hiring process online
• Schedule and track interviews easily through Shiftgig’s online messaging system
• Create filters to organize applicants based on experience, geography and other relevant information
• Find the best applicants by easy accessing work history, references, photos, education, certifications and other critical hiring information
• Re-post previous jobs easily with one click
• Browse thousands of candidates based on keyword or geography

Get your staff search on at Shiftgig.

What do you think?  Will this be helpful in your hiring process at your restaurant?  Tell me in the comments.

We’re extremely excited about today’s launch of the Restaurant Engine Affiliate Program.  So excited, that we’re awarding New iPads as the prize for our 2012 Affiliate Contest!  Details about the iPad contest in a moment…

First, About The Affiliate Program:

The new Restaurant Engine Affiliate Program offers the opportunity for anyone to earn serious amounts of cash.  In fact, it’s one of the most competitively awarded affiliate programs in the industry.  Here’s how it works:

Register to become an affiliate, and for every customer you refer to Restaurant Engine, we’ll give you $100.  Plus Bonuses!  For every 10th referred customer, you get an extra $100 bonus.  Every 50th referral, you get an extra $500 bonus.  As you can see, your cash earnings can really add up fast.

Visit the Affiliate Program page to find complete details and to register yourself as an affiliate.

And now, to the good stuff…

The 2012 Affiliate Contest: Win a New iPad!

Here’s the deal:

We’re awarding a brand-new, 16GB New iPad, in all of it’s Retna-Display glory, to the first two affiliates who rack up 10 customer referrals.  

That’s right:  Two of you will get a new iPad in 2012!

Your iPad prize will be in addition to the cash commission + bonus commission you’ll earn for referring 10 customers.  In other words, the first two people to refer 10 customers will receive $1,100 in commission payouts AND a New iPad!  Yes.  You read that correctly.

The 16GB New iPad is truly a magical device.  It features the beautiful high-resolution Retna Display, 5 Megapixel iSight Camera, A5X Chip, Wi-Fi connectability, 16 Gigabyte hard drive, and other amazing features.  Black or White (your choice).

Everyone who becomes a Restaurant Engine Affiliate is automatically eligible to win the New iPad.

Sign Up For The Affiliate Program

The Fine Print…

• Two different people will each be awarded with one New iPad by being the first two people to achieve 10 customer referrals.  One person cannot win both iPads by achieving 20 referrals.
• As per our Affiliate Program Terms & Conditions, a customer referral is counted after the referred customer has completed 2 subscription months beyond their free trial period (75 days after the customer signs up).  Referrals for customers who have not yet completed 2 subscription months, or cancel their account before 2 subscription months have elapsed will not count towards the affiliate’s total referrals.
• The contest winners can choose between having us send them a New iPad or they opt for a cash prize of $500, paid via PayPal.
• The contest winner can choose the color of their New iPad (Black or White).
• We will ship the New iPad to the contest winners and we will cover the cost of standard (non-expedited) shipping anywhere in the world.
• The iPad prize is in addition to the cash commissions paid to all affiliates for each customer referral (paid via PayPal).
• Any questions about the contest or the affiliate program, please email us.