Category Archives: Mobile Marketing

Restaurant Marketing done by using mobile or cell phones.

Mobile Text Survey: How Your Restaurant Can Conduct Surveys And Get Feedbacks For Improvement.

Posted on August 10, 2011 by Nash Sherchan| Leave a comment

A little known secret about doing customer satisfaction surveys and getting the proper feedback instantly for improvements is to do mobile text surveys.

Do you remember a day in your restaurant especially during the busy weekends where things didn’t go well as planned? May be the customer didn’t like service that he got from one of your servers or may be the quality of the food was not so good as expected.

The big question is how do we find out that critical information from your customers so you can correct those mistakes and avoid them from happening again. In this competitive restaurant market there is no space for any restaurants that keeps making the same mistakes on quality of food or service and still survive let alone be profitable.

Big chain restaurants have their survey done via email or 800 number. They can do it because they have big budgets. But for most of the smaller restaurants there is no system in place to get customers’ feedback. May be it’s the belief that it’s expensive therefore very few restaurants do surveys. Most of the times it’s just due to the lack of information. The reality it that there are some affordable system that any small restaurant can use to get the proper feedback and suggestions from their customers.

Though it seems difficult to do surveys, they can be done easily and you can get the response right away . One of the easiest ways to do is via text messages. The nice thing about doing it via text rather than email or postal mail is that it is instantaneous. People are more receptive to text survey because they are short and quick. Since the phone is right on their hand,if you persuade them, chances are that they are gonna respond to your text survey while they are in the restaurant right before they sign their final check. The experience is still fresh in their mind and the feedback will be more accurate.

The idea is to offer an incentive like 20% offer on your next visit for doing a customer satisfaction survey via text. You can have a sign up form which says something like “text your name to 404-894-897X and answer 5 quick questions for free dessert next time.” The server will hand it with the final check with proper explanation. The goal here is to persuade the customers to do a survey via text as he is getting ready to sign the check and before leaving the restaurant while he or she is still in the restaurant.

The key to make them do the survey depends upon few important things that you should do. There are few do’s and don’ts for writing an effective survey.

A great survey will provide you with the right feedbacks and opinions from your customers that you can directly apply to improve your restaurant business. A poor survey may or may not generate many responses and thus the survey might be useless and just a waste of your time and money.

Here are a few do’s and don’ts for writing surveys.

DO: Make sure you have goals before writing questions

A survey should have a simple, concise goal in mind before anything else.

A good example, is question like “Do you like the quality of food in our restaurant ?” and the answer with numbers 0 being bad and 10 being excellent.

A bad example is “What do you think about our restaurant” It’s too general, too broad and has too many open ends.

DON’T: Use many open-ended questions

Open ended questions might seem right initially since it can give you tons of information. But the problem with this strategy is that it takes more effort and time for your customers to answer. So the end result is that they give up in the middle or avoid in the first place. The key is to make it short and easy so that the survey can quickly done in less than a minute.Instead of making them respond long answers if you can create questions and have them answer in scale of 1-10, you’ll have more success.

DO: Keep it short and simple

If you keep your survey short you have a greater chance that people will complete your survey. If your survey is long, people will often abandon the survey before finishing.

If your survey is long, people will just scan the survey. After finding it too long it triggers psychologically in their mind that it’s too much work to even get started.

Cut out as many questions as you can. Be specific on what you exactly want to find out with the right questions.

DON’T: Start with difficult questions

Try to place the interesting easy to answer questions first. This will intrigue them into a mood of answering the survey. Once you get them into that flow motion they are more likely to finish it also.

Try to avoid boring questions. However if you have some complicated questions you should reserve them for the end of the survey. Doing this, there is greater probability that they’ll likely answer them any way since they’re about to finish the survey.

DO: Offer free give away offer, discounts, prize or incentive

There should be some kind of incentive or prize for the time and effort they are putting to complete the survey. With out some sort of prize they are not motivated at all. Run a contest. For example, run free food give away surveys, where one survey winner will win a certain food items..

You can also give away free appetizer or discounts to everyone who answers a survey. That way, they feel that they are rewarded for their time. This will motivate them to fill out the survey, knowing that they’ll get something out of it.

DON’T: Use complicated or technical language

Use simple language without any technical terminology that is easy to answer. Try to use short words instead of long words.
In other words, aim to make your survey so easy and simple that a ten-year-old could answer it.

I hope when ever you decide to do a survey among your customers you’ll follow the above do’s and don’ts. This will get you the right feedbacks that’ll indeed help you improve the quality to become a better restaurant. Have you ever conducted a survey for your restaurant or competed a survey for other restaurants. Please share your thoughts what you think about conducting a good surveys and how it has helped your restaurant.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Marketing-General, Mobile Marketing

Tagged , ,

3 Easy Steps On How To Market Your Restaurant Online

Posted on August 8, 2011 by Nash Sherchan| Leave a comment

If I could sum up how to market your restaurant online in 3 easy steps, here is what they would be….

Step 1: Create Content – Build a regular and mobile website

Step 2: Connect and Capture – Go where your customers are. Connect with your prospects online via social media and get their contact  information for future marketing opportunities

Step 3: Convert prospects into Customers: Communicate with yourprospects via  email or  text messages automatically and convert them into paying  customers

Now, let’s discuss those 3 steps in further more detail…

Step 1: Create Content -
Build a regular and mobile website with useful information so that your restaurant can be  found online when prospective customers are searching via mobile or desktop

First step is to create a search engine friendly website – regular and mobile with great contents. It should be informative and valuable enough for it to appear on the first page of Google and other search engines like Bing and Yahoo. Don’t be misguided that just because the site has cool animation and is designed by a website designer, it will rank high on Google. To make the website work it has to be designed with marketing on mind so it will attract search engines first and thus your prospective customers. If search engine can’t  find your website, then your customers can’t find it either because there is no way search engines can bring up your restaurant listing on the search results.

Second thing to do is to get your restaurant listed in Google properties like Google Places and other popular online directories which will help your restaurant get better rankings.

This isn’t a “set and forget” strategy. Once your restaurant  establishes itself in these online locations, it needs to ensure its information “stays fresh.”

The internet search engines, directories and social media are similar to perishible products in your restaurant. There’s a “use by” date on everything you use to prepare your food, which means it expires over time. If your restaurant doesn’t deliver new or updated content on a regular basis, it will get “knocked off the shelf” by another restaurant that does, and it becomes irrelevant as it gets buried in cyberspace for no one to be able to find.

Step 2: Connect and Capture – Go where your customers are.
Connect with your prospects online via social media and get their contact
information for future marketing opportunities

Once your restaurant’s search engine friendly website is published, you need to make sure you also have a proper lead capture system that will automatically capture leads and manage your email and mobile text marketing campaigns. Without the system it’s going to be hard to attract and retain new customers.

The idea is to make sure that you entice those online visitors  to sign up for your email club or VIP mobile club. You can accomplish this  by offering them a free appetizer or glass of wine or some thing else that you think is appropriate. Remember you’ve only 3 seconds to convince him or her to sign up and take your offer other wise they are gone faster than you can think. You must have an email coupon sign up form. Along with that make sure you also offer a special deal that they can get exclusively  via text message. This will help you to not only attract this new prospective customers  but also communicate with them for future marketing promotions. Literally you have a power to fill up empty seats of your restaurant in a matter of 2-3 hours.

Now the question is, where should you find these prospects that could become your paying customers? There is a saying: “go where customers are.” You should reach out to prospects and customers where they spend most of their time online. So it makes sense to go to social media like Facebook to attract people. You can do this  by placing some Facebook Ads if your marketing budget permits. Since most of these users are always on mobile phones, make sure you are reaching them via mobile marketing too.They tend to more receptive to sign up via text message and deals.

3.Convert into Customers-
Communicate with your prospects via email or text messages automatically and convert them into paying customers

Once your restaurant establishes relationships with prospective customers online, you need to continue to provide valuable information and make offers because it is proven that it’s six to seven times easier to get an existing customer to buy from you again than it is to get a new customer to buy from you the first time. However, you should still continue attracting new customers; just be sure you are converting them to paying  customers and funneling them into your customers database.

Most restaurants miss opportunities to incrementally increase their revenue because they don’t follow up with their customers.

One of relatively easy and affordable ways to follow up with prospects is through text messages. It also provides a simple entry into mobile marketing for your restaurant business.

Text messages are effective because 97% are read and 90% are read within the first hour of receipt. A business like your restaurant can text a follow-up offer for a two-for-one special on a slow Tuesday night, and you can be assured that it will generate a near-instant response.

Furthermore, mobile coupon open rates are as high as 95% and the redemption rates are exceptional ― between 5% and 20% ― compared to traditional print coupon redemption rates, which average below 2%.

So now let’s recap how you can market your restaurant on the internet effectively at an affordable cost without spending tons of money on traditional advertising that doesn’t work any more.

Step 1: Create Content – Build a regular and mobile website

Step 2: Connect and Capture -  Go where your customers are.
Connect with your prospects online via social media and get their contact
information for future marketing opportunities

Step 3: Convert into Customers – Communicate with your prospects via email
or  text messages automatically and convert them into paying customers

I hope you’ll implement these three steps formula to market your restaurant online and get results in increased sales and profits.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Local Search Marketing, Mobile Marketing

Tagged , , ,

7 Mobile Marketing Strategies and Techniques to Attract More Customers for your Restaurant

Posted on March 29, 2011 by Nash Sherchan| Leave a comment

While you are trying to take your restaurant business to the next level with mobile marketing, there are a number of good techniques and strategies that you can use. Most of these have been devised by marketers who have conducted extensive mobile marketing campaigns and understand the way restaurant customers behave and how they’ll react to specific mobile advertisements.

Strategies and Techniques

  • Send reminders via text messages: Simple, yet effective, send your restaurant information, special menus, specials of the day via a text message. This, along with your contact information, can be sufficient to attract diners to your restaurant.  Make sure that you keep the message simple, precise, and relevant and that it adds value for your customers
  • Quizzing via text: Ask people to participate in quiz competitions that can be focused on questions about your products, for example: a specific recipe or the origin of a particular dish. Offer them free meal deals or great discount offers to attract them to your restaurant.  This is not only a great way to create brand awareness but to also increase loyalty among the existing customers.
  • Text Polls or Surveys: People like to give their opinions.  Conduct a text poll and offer some perks in return for opinions on items of interest to you.  Using this strategy, you can collect valuable customer feedback as well as phone numbers, the most valuable asset for your restaurant business.
  • Coupon sending (text or picture): Restaurant owners can decide to send either text or picture coupons.  Normally, the coupons sent by the restaurants are text based that I’ve experienced so far.  These can be presented at your restaurant counter and redeemed for free meals or great discounts.  They work well to attract new customers who want to try out your restaurant.
  • Ads alongside bulk SMS: A lot of people use free bulk SMS services and all providers need sponsors to ensure profitability.  Book your ads with these service providers.  At times you can benefit from viral marketing if a particular text message is forwarded to a lot of people by the person who received it.
  • Mobile friendly website: Make sure that the website you create has special features that enable it to be easily viewed via a mobile phone in addition to a PC.  For example, if you have a restaurant menu designed for a standard web site, update it for mobile devices, so that mobile users will find it easy to navigate.  Be sure to create a website that is compatible with most mobile phones and test it before rolling it out.
  • Create mobile apps: Mobile-based applications to play games or access popular sites are in huge demand these days.  Have one created with your restaurant name endorsed on it.  This enables you to establish your brand with a younger audience as they are more likely to be influenced by such applications.  You can also utilize existing mobile apps to help your potential customers link to your Facebook or Twitter account.  Whenever you post anything on your respective accounts, your customer will be updated on his or her mobile device. This gives you a better chance of reaching out to your customers in a short timeframe.

The tactics mentioned above represent some of the most preferred and well-tested techniques for mobile marketing. Plan innovative campaigns and tweak them to create better mobile marketing techniques of your own.Obviously, you don’t have to do all at once. You can choose what you feel suits best for your restaurant.

Have you ever tried mobile marketing for your restaurant? I believe that there is a huge opportunity for restaurants. Hope you will take advantage of this new mobile marketing trends.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Mobile Marketing

Social Media and Mobile Marketing-How to Integrate both for Maximum Result

Posted on March 24, 2011 by Nash Sherchan| Leave a comment

Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and others continue to be a growing trend among both teenagers and adults.  There is no better place to advertise your restaurant business than on a social media site especially if you are  looking for low cost marketing channel for better return.

A large percentage of consumers access these sites via their mobile phones and have multiple social media applications downloaded on their mobile devices.  Develop a presence on these social media sites so that potential and existing customers can follow you and receive your latest restaurant updates.

Best Times to update for better response

Since mobile phones are accessible at any time, day or night, your message, when communicated via a social media site, will reach the fans or followers in a timely manner.  Keeping your social media site updated also enables you to grab the attention of prospective customers and create brand awareness in their mind.The best time for updates seems to be 11AM, 3PM, & 8PM ET.However you can test by updating on different times to find out the best times for better response from your fans.

Word of Mouth Advertising -How Social Media creates a Viral Effect

Social media campaigns can have a viral effect.  Your message can be circulated to more prospective customers than you initially targeted.  For example, when you send an offer on Facebook or Twitter, if your followers like the offer, they will share it with their friends. The message and your offer are then displayed to their friends on those respective social media sites.  Thus, your marketing campaign has a viral effect.  Make sure that you maximize your use of social media integration on mobile phones as most of people, about 50% of your total customers  may be accessing social media sites like Facebook and Twitter via mobile. Expect the percentage to go even higher as smart phones become a main stream.

Think integrating Mobile Marketing into your Facebook Fan Page

Consider developing a fan page on Facebook where customers can leave feedback or comments. Though this might scare some of the restaurant owners about the negative review, I think it is better to know your weakness and correct it soon and win back that customer than remain in the darkness of unknown. It might not seem obvious but in a long run you’ll win when you adopt this mentality. Why don’t take that same negative experience and turn it into an asset that you can use to gain confidence and trust from your customers.This shows the human side of your restaurant business. We all make mistakes. Let’s face it. But the key is whether we correct it in a timely manner. Actively updating your Fan page enables you to simultaneously acknowledge positive feedback, thank them where ever necessary  and learn about potential areas for improvement.

Always think how you can integrate mobile into any thing you do. You can also add a mobile coupon widget to your Facebook page to encourage customers to sign up for coupons.   It’s a great opportunity to implement customer satisfaction surveys and confirm to your customers that you listen to their views and act on them.  When you are using different social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and text messages to market your restaurant you have to ask this question to your self-  “how do I make sure that all of them work side by side and one is helping the other  for maximum result.” There is a power in a sum than just one marketing channel. When you integrate all our marketing effort stacking on top of every marketing channel you have previously used, you’ll see an exponential growth and return on your investment of time, effort and money.

Are you integrating social media and mobile marketing to get maximum results.I’d love to hear your experiences or any feedback.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Mobile Marketing, Social Media Marketing

How to leverage Mobile Marketing for your Restaurant business

Posted on March 22, 2011 by Nash Sherchan| Leave a comment

When you look at a mobile phone, do you see a new revenue source or a way to increase customers?  If you are a restaurant owner, you should!  Mobile marketing is a channel that can help you increase profits and customer traffic.  If mobile phones are the most popular and contemporary technology used by consumers today YOUR CUSTOMERS use them and that can help you.

Integrating Mobile Marketing
It’s easy and uncomplicated to add mobile marketing to your existing marketing mix.  To begin with, there is no inventory cost as with paper or plastic-based loyalty marketing programs.  Secondly, there are multiple components available that can be tailored to your restaurant’s specific needs.  A mobile campaign can be completely based on text messaging.   And, you can also utilize social media to make your message go viral and exponentially increase the value of your marketing effort.

Using Text Marketing
Text messaging (SMS) is the most common method of conducting mobile marketing promotions.  One benefit of SMS is that you can reach all mobile users whether it is smart phones like iPhone, Android or simple generic phone. It covers everyone. Unlike in the app, you can reach only the person who has smart phones. Not every customers might have the smart phones. Another advantage I see is that you can reach the entire customer list on your mobile database INSTANTLY at any time.

How Mobile Coupon program Works

There are two ways you  can do when you want to implement the mobile coupon program for your restaurant. The first program that I see most of the restaurants using, requires a simple touch screen computer at the front counter of your restaurant.  It is simple for customers to input their mobile phone numbers directly onto the touch screen to join your discount program. But the problem that I see especially for small restaurants is that it is little expensive and can sometimes be technically challenging. You have to invest upfront fees for the hardware and on top of that you have to have access to the internet connection. There are times when you are out of internet connection,and it’s really frustrating experience for the customers. Though the service might be great, just because of the internet outage, it creates bad experience in the minds of the customers. Worst it could  lead them to even opt out from the program itself.

The other program that I recommend is easy and affordable one. It’s very simple since the restaurant businesses don’t have to buy those expensive computer hardware and worry that it might break in the middle of lunch hour. You don’t have to worry about internet or the connections. You are rather using your customers’ mobile phone for your mobile marketing program. How cool is that.

So how does the other mobile marketing program really work then?

That’s a great question. Let me explain to you now. Conceptually this is how it works. You encourage your customers to sign up for either your Mobile eClub program or to register themselves by sending a SMS text message to a specified number.For which you promise to offer something in return. It can be something like Free appetizer or discount offer. Once they have subscribed, you can send them text messages in the form of coupon.  These messages enable customers to receive discounts or Free offer on their next visit to your restaurant.  This is a win-win for your customers and your restaurant business.

Everything is set up internally and is digital. All you need is few big posters for the windows,  signs for the counter-top, in front of the register and table tent cards with mobile sign up info. The signs will have the directions how to sign up for your Mobile eClub. It will say something like Text your name & email to 770-784-xxxx to redeem FREE taco instantly.

Obviously you can offer anything you wish is attractive to encourage your customers to sign. The better the offer, the more sign ups you will get at a faster speed. With this method you are killing two birds at one shot. You are capturing their email and mobile phone number. Essentially you can do email and mobile integrated marketing side by side. When you combine two methods of communication with your customers it becomes more powerful.

You can even use it for doing a mobile survey about the dinning experience of your guest when the experience is fresh in his mind while he is waiting for the check to sign.The waiter would say something like this, ” Mr Smith, I hope you enjoyed the food. We’d appreciate if you could do our simple survey about your experience. Since it is done via mobile, it will take just few seconds.As gesture of thanks for your feedback you’ll receive 20% discount on your next visit.” You can choose to offer  what ever you feel is good as a reward. This does two thing.

First, you are getting feedback on a real time about the quality of your food, service, cleanliness etc so you can improve them as necessary. This will help you to be in control of your restaurant and thus remain as a top brand in the minds of your customers.  Second, you are giving him another reason to come to your restaurant rather than go to your competitor’s restaurant. Occasionally you could send some surprise gifts or birthday gifts via text message. These are little things but it goes a long way. It shows that you do really care about your customers.This helps you to retain and motivate existing customers to remain loyal to your restaurant.  The system is affordable and readily available.

Do you think this type of mobile marketing program would help your restaurant attract potential new customers and keep them loyal to your restaurant. I’d love to hear your experiences, thoughts or any other ideas.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Mobile Marketing

Blue Sky Local-Marketing Solution For Your Restaurant Via eMail, Text and Twitter

Posted on March 8, 2010 by Nash Sherchan| 4 Comments

It is a normal day during the week. Suddenly rain starts pouring right before the lunch hour.The restaurant should have been full during the lunch time. But it is not. The business is slow.Have you ever experienced that?

Weather does affect the restaurant business. Have you ever thought of any marketing strategy to attract those customers who might have decided not to come to your restaurant just because of the rain. Well, there might be an affordable solution for you.

I had a chance to see the video demo of the Blue Sky Local, a company that specializes in smart coupon marketing solution for the restaurants.They empower the restaurants to boost the customer traffic during the slow sales times especially when the weather condition is not so good. Thanks Matt Ackerson for the video. It was quick.

The main feature that I like about Blue Sky Local is that it is web based. Any restaurant owner or manager can do it online from any where. They have an access to dashboard where they can manage their customers. It is permission based which means that the mobile customers who have subscribed for the coupons will have to confirm to receive the coupons from your restaurant. The customers also have an option to unsubscribe by themselves if they choose to do so.

The other feature that I like is that the coupons have an option to be distributed via three different channels-email, text and twitter at the same time. This ensures that your mobile marketing campaign has a maximum effect.

If you are interested to check out this service you can find more information at their site http://www.blueskylocal.com

They even have a 30 days Free trial offer. So you got nothing to lose. Give it a try. If you think it is effective for your restaurant you can then upgrade it.

Once you try it and get some results please do share your thoughts with us about the service. If some one has already used it, I would appreciate your feedback so it would be helpful to other restaurant owners or managers to understand about the smart coupon marketing solution provided by Blue Sky Local. Thanks!

→ 4 Comments

Posted in Email Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Twitter Marketing

Tagged , , , , ,

Chick-Fil-A’s Recipe for Success

Posted on March 3, 2010 by Nash Sherchan| 6 Comments

Watch this at Fox Business

I saw the video clip of Chick-Fil-A’s Recipe for Success on Fox Business Online.It’s an interview with Truett and Dan Cathy. Dan Cathy  talks about their recipe for success. I’m sure restaurant entrepreneurs like you can learn important lessons from them about how to create a successful restaurant empire.

Their first secret is Quality People. Dan Cathy mentioned that they attract high caliber people. I have heard that they go through thousands and thousands of applicants before they choose few who are right fit for operating their restaurant.They choose the people with the right mindset, attitude and drive and not necessarily with the money. This is the difference between their Franchise business model and other chain restaurants. The other restaurant chain go after people with money and sometimes not necessarily the right mindset and attitude.

Another recipe for Success is the quality service. It is the service that makes their business exceptional. No doubt the food is good, but the kindness and the great service of the employees makes the experience memorable.As Dan Cathy says the food tastes even better with excellent service.

Even during Economic Downturn in 2009 Chick-Fil-a weathered the storm and still made good revenues and profits. It is truely the answer to the test of how a restaurant based on principles of putting its people- employees and customers before profits can be strong even during the turbulent times. It shows the power of a business that is based on a strong foundation.

I hope you are inspired and if you at least try to incorporate some of the wisdoms from Chick-Fil-a I believe your restaurant would have a greater chance of success.

Do you like Chick-Fil-A’s business model and their business philosophy? How do you feel about their policy of closing their restaurant on Sundays? Is your restaurant incorporating some of the Chick-Fil-A’s recipe for Success? I would love to hear your thoughts.

→ 6 Comments

Posted in Marketing-General, Mobile Marketing

Tagged , , , ,

Happy New Year 2010

Posted on January 1, 2010 by Nash Sherchan| Leave a comment
What Matters Now, by Seth Godin

Happy New Year from Marketing Restaurant Online.

It’s a new beginning. Want to start with an inspirational eBook written by a great author Seth Godin- also one of the greatest marketers. It’s worth a read.

Hope it will help you to find some new ideas, new way of thinking to grow your business in the year ahead.

Wish you a prosperous year 2010 with full of new ideas.

To your Restaurant Success.

Nash Sherchan

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Marketing-General, Mobile Marketing

Chipotle Online Ordering via iPhone-What it means to the future of Fast Casual Restaurant Industry.

Posted on October 6, 2009 by Nash Sherchan| 6 Comments

Online ordering via iPhone at Chipotle-My experience.

The first time that I saw the Chipotle iPhone app was during the second week of January, 2009. Infact I was checking my iPhone to see if any mobile ordering app was available for restaurants. Co-incidently that was the very day, Chipotle Mexican Grill Restaurant had released their iPhone app. I was excited to see the app and decided to download it later on my desktop thinking that it would be easier and faster to download. Later on that day when I tried to download from my computer, I realized that the app was not available on iTune. I found out that Chipotle had taken out the app due to high volume of downloads. May be it was a good strategy to limit the restricted number of downloads that were made availabe to the public. That way they could test their new baby product without frustrating millions other who would have downloaded if it was available. That would include me too.But I was left behind. Finally after testing and perfecting the app for several months now they finally released their app. This time I made sure I downloaded it right away.

During my last blog post about Chipotle iPhone app I had promised that I would test it and write about it. Last Saturday I had a chance to test it. So I just wanted to share my experience. Tired of eating the same  usual stuff from the same restaurant I was hunting for a new concept restaurant. Then I realized why not take this opportunity to try iPhone app for mobile ordering at Chipotle. A friend of mine and I went to Chipotle located at 10800 Alpharetta Hwy, Roswell, Atlanta. My friend got a burrito, salad and a drink. I decided to test the mobile order via iPhone so I just got the drink only. I then took out my iPhone and started to place an order. The ordering process was pretty simple. Every thing was self explainatory. Since I had not signed up yet, it prompted me to sign up before check out. So I did that too. Thought sign up would be long one but I experienced it to be a short one. Very thoughtful of Chipotle especially for people who would just give up because  it was too long sign up process as it often happens on the web. Once I signed up it took me to the payment section where I input my credit card numbers and in few seconds the payment was processed. Then it said that my order was received and that email receipt would be sent to me which I did receive it. Literally it took me may be 2-3 minutes though it was my first time trying to figure it out and place an order at the same time. Next time the ordering process  would be may under a minute.

Experiencing the iPhone mobile ordering at Chipotle by myself, I see that Fast Casual Restaurants are headed to a promising future. But those who accepts the technology and adopts are gonna win. And the rest who are hiding their head in the sand assuming that nothing is changing they will have a hard time in few years to compete with restaurants like Chipotle who have already started using innovative technology to accomodate the needs of their busy corporate customers.

Why Restaurants need to adopt innovative technology to remain relevant in the future?

As soon as the Chipotle iPhone app was released back in January 2009, I checked some of the Apple forums. There were hard core apple loyal fans who were so excited to use the app. They all were raving about it.With more than 40 millions iPhones to be sold by 2009, the chances of iPhone users downloading Chipotle iPhone app also increases. Since every iPhone users have to eat lunch, I am assuming they would have know about Chipotle app by now or if not they will soon as it gets more popular. As customers become accustomed to online ordering via iPhone I’m sure those busy customers working in a corporation at those high tall rise building would not want to waste their time waiting in the line to get their food during the lunch time. Rather they would want to pre order via their iPhone and pickup their food without having to wait in long lines sometimes taking them may be even more than 5-10 minutes.

The imaginary scenario would be like this. It is almost 12 pm lunch time for all companies in US. The customer gets in the lift to go down to drive up to the local restaurant. While in the lift he takes out his iPhone.( Hope their company has set up the strong connectivity in their building other wise he will have to do it while driving) He places his order in less than a minute. He drives up to the local restaurant. Without waiting the long line during the busy lunch hour he goes straight to the iPhone mobile order line. His lunch is ready for a pick up. He shows his email receipts confirmation to the cashier. He gets his food right away. What it takes 2-3 minutes (fastest) if he would have come through a regular line and paid with his credit card, would literally now take him only few seconds to get his food when ordered via iPhone.

With time being scarce during the lunch time who would not want to leverage the innovative technology to cut down the ordering and waiting time and use that time to enjoy the food. I think every one would. At least I would.

I believe restaurants should recognize the importance of accomodating their busy tech savvy customer’s need and attempt to provide the fast service by leveraging technology.If you restaurant won’t then those tech savvy customers are not obligated to be loyal forever. They will switch the restaurant with few clicks on their iPhones.

So I hope all restaurants  whether independentor chains would see this trend as a promising opportunity and adopt innovative technology to remain relevant in the future.

I’d  appreciate if you could share your thoughts about Chipotle’s  app if you have tried the online mobile ordering via iPhone.Even if you haven’t tried it let us know what do you think about  mobile ordering trends and how it would impact the  future of the fast casual restaurants, by dropping some comments below. Thanks!

→ 6 Comments

Posted in Mobile Marketing, iPhone Marketing

Tagged , , ,

Facebook Marketing Secrets From The Experts That You Can Use To Promote Your Restaurant Business.

Posted on April 16, 2009 by Nash Sherchan| Leave a comment

Facebook is one of the most popular social site in the world with 200 million users so far as confirmed by Facebook recently. Started on college campus and popularized by high school kids it is a digital home to many around the world. It has been a trend where the mums and dads of those high school kids have out numbered them. These mums and dads and baby boomers are one of the population segment that has the most purchasing power. So starting to build relationship with this segment of population and Y Generation customers should be of great interest to your restaurant for your business.

There are so many restaurants that have already made it to Facebook Profile Pages popularly known as Fan Page. Some of the biggest brand on Facebook that I have seen so far are PizzaHut, Dominos, and PapaJohn. You can check them out for your self to see how many loyal fans they have in Facebook.

Now that we know Facebook should be an integral part of our restaurant marketing strategy, the question arises how do we start? What are the best practices on Facebook to be successful.

To answer all these questions, I recommend you to watch the video and learn the secrets to effective brand building tips and techniques on Facebook from the experts around the world.

Four Tips on Facebook Marketing for Restaurants

1. Be Yourself
2. How much is too much personal information
3. Don’t be too Salesy
4. Talk business the right way

Be Your Self- When you create a profile you have to create your personal profile and then on top of that you can create a fan page for your restaurant. But when you start building relationship create your unique style and voice to your restaurant. If you like being funny and bring some smiles to your customers then make your updates with some fresh, unique updates  with a twist of  humour. It might bring a smile on your customers face and brighten the whole day. Share some of the relevant information with your customers and occasional personal thing like what you are doing for  to improve your business or express simply some opinions about some popular chef’s interview that you might have seen on some foodnetwork tv.

How much is too much personal information- Since your personal profile page and business public profile page is lumped up on the same page, you have to draw the line how much personal information to share. It is totally up to you to create that boundary line and make sure that there is a line between personal and business life and therefore it essential to maintain that balance. Just make sure that what ever updates you make on your facebook that should not hurt you in your business. So before you make any updates just make a careful decision on what words you are using.

Don’t be too Salesy – Facebook is a platform to make connection with new people and building a relationship. It is not a place where you pitch your sales for your business. If even some one has already connected with you and if you start off with a salesy pitch  it will turn off that relationship and might be over even before it get started. So BIG WARNING ! Don’t come across as Salesy.

Talk the business right way- Well you might think then when should you do business on Facebook. At certain point of the relationship you do have to propose right. Other wise there is no date and no marriage. You are right but you just don’t ask for a date and straight marriage just the night you meet a girl. You take time to understand each other well before you make any move. You tell right thing at right time while both are on the same mood. Same thing applies at Facebook while you are proposing your business deal. If you are passionate about restaurant, talk about the different foods you like or the popular chef’s interview that you listened to provided both you and your fans like food. Demonstrate your self very knowledgeable in the eyes of your fans by sharing great information or articles on Facebook updates and making a subtle sales which I like to call Presell. When you sniff a sale, take to them to an appropriate place like email or phone to talk the business on private. So this way you balance the Facebook presence with out being salesy and yet doing the business and making the deal as intended well before getting into Facebook.

Please feel free to share your own opinions on how to balance your personal and business profile at Facebook. I would appreciate if your thoughts and experience can benefit other fellow restaurant owners, operators, managers or any interested individual.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Face Book Marketing, Marketing-General, Mobile Marketing

Tagged , ,