Cross-selling other Restaurants within your Group

During these testing times, it is very important to ensure that your digital footprint is accurate, relevant and up-to-date. This is a great opportunity to bring everything up-to-date with some basic housekeeping.

Brands and businesses will be remembered in the future for what they do now and how they communicate with their guests and followers during this current situation. 

Here are some things to consider regarding your own Website; Online Reservations; Facebook; Instagram; SEO; Reserve with Google; and TripAdvisor:

Your Website

Key things to ensure your website is displaying clearly:: current operational status; current menu & pricing; correct business hours; accurate business location; etc.

Does your website need to be updated in style, design and functionality? Is it too complex from a guest point of view?

Is your website secure (https)?

Has your website the necessary on-site SEO? Below is a good example of what needs to be considered?
https://neilpatel.com/blog/simple-guide-to-seo

Online Reservations

Check you are showing the correct availability.

Keep your availability updated, and be ready to promote advance reservations as soon as this situation changes.

Consider what are the best experiences to promote online in the future. Guests will be sure to be looking for more memorable dining experiences, since they may have already become comfortable to home delivery/takeaway from many great restaurants during lockdown.

Plan for the future, as soon as you have a better indication of when your situation is likely to change positively.

Navigating the change from home delivery to encouraging online reservations may be tricky, ensure there are no unnecessary barriers like poor reservation processes, deposits, etc.

Facebook

Your current operational status should be your pinned post. So, if you are closed for Dine In, but open for Home Delivery and Takeaway make this clear and pin it!

Consider maintaining social presence with relevant material e.g. recipes, videos, polls & stories. Now is a great time to raise brand awareness, entertain people, and create brand desire.

Ensure your details are up-to-date and relevant.

Ensure your profile is accurate. Don’t scrimp on your profile, you have a story to tell.

Is your map location accurate?

Consider a future paid campaign and how best to achieve this, for when this situation has cleared.

Use this time to brush up on your social media marketing skills and knowledge.

If using same material on Instagram, don’t use automatic cross-posting solutions. Format is very different.

Don’t overuse hashtags, irrelevant on Facebook and has a negative impact on your posts and campaigns.

Ensure you have your latest menu with pricing listed. People really do want to look at your menu and pricing before they come.

Instagram

Ensure your profile is relevant. You should include your current operating status in here. “Currently we are closed for Dine In, but are offering Home Delivery and Takeaway”.

Consider maintaining social presence with relevant material eg recipes, videos, polls & stories. Now is a great time to raise brand awareness, entertain people, and create brand desire.

Videos and stories are a good way to entertain people.

Location and tagging are key.

Guests do want to be able to view your menu on Instagram.

Like Facebook, consider future paid campaign and how best to achieve this, for when this situation has cleared.

If you have temporarily changed your business to Home Delivery, consider converting your Instagram page to being suitable for Instagram shopping and product tagging.

Search Engine Optimisation

You can’t do this in-house! This is a highly skilled specialist area that you need to outsource to experts with a proven track record. Attempting to do this in house will not generate results.

Consider the expert level SEO strategists and service providers that are ready to assist the business community with free initial consultations, a low-cost audit of your business performance in 2019 and strategy formation overview for recovery.

Currently, there are great opportunities to be on top of your marketplace from an SEO perspective, and in pole position for when business is ready to return to the norm. Use this downtime to position your brand ahead of your competitors who are cutting budgets and losing their market advantage.

Professional SEO consultancies are able to give great results. SEO projects take time. If you have the budget now, then now may well be the best use of your budget and time.

Reserve with Google

Taking reservations from your Google Business listing is a revelation. Many businesses are channeling up to 10% of their total guests from Google Search and Maps. Many reservation providers are able to offer this integration. Most charge commissions for this, which will become exceptionally expensive as Google will only grow even stronger. ResDiary is commission free.

Take ownership of your Google business listing if you have not already done so.

Ensure your business location is verified.

If you are a hotel and a restaurant consider separate business listings, so you can take reservations for both.

Ensure business listing is accurate.

Ensure the reservations link, menu link, and home delivery link are accurate.

Make sure if you have changed your operational hours, that they are accurate, and remember to update them later when business returns to normal.

TripAdvisor

Manage your listing.

Tidy up your profile and information.

Review responses can be used wisely to promote your business, even if the review is negative. Use your right to reply to a review to promote your business.

Consider TripAdvisor Premium for your restaurant.
Key Benefits: Capture their attention with a Storyboard; Dynamic visual presentation blending together photos and reviews at the top of your TripAdvisor page; Create a customized Storyboard in just minutes;  Share your Top 3 Reasons to Eat Here; Make sure they see your Favorite Review; Appears in the #2 review space on your page; Spotlight your 10 best images which diners see first with Featured Photos.

Consider a Sponsored Placement on TripAdvisor. You pay for it based on clicks and it positions you above the #1 slot.

If you are selling online Gift Vouchers (especially in these times of zero to little revenue) then TripAdvisor allows you to add a link in your profile.

During lockdown, confinement and travel restrictions, people are dreaming of getting their lives back to normal. Whilst many people will hop on the first plane abroad, many people may choose never to travel again. Creating brand awareness now can create great future possibilities. As long as people have dreams and desires, you have great opportunities to seduce future guests, bring back your loyal guests and encourage your followers to put you high up their ”wish list” of experiences.

Stay safe and healthy!

Whilst Indonesia has typically abused International Marketing Standards for Opting-In and Opting-Out for Email & SMS Marketing, this is now changing as Indonesia becomes more significant internationally.

It is important to understand how this works in ResDiary.

When a Guest books online, they have an the option to un-select to receive news & offers by Email and by SMS. If you have a high percentage of online reservations, you may be surprised by how many people actually opt-out.

When a Guest books by Email or by Telephone, they may state that they do not wish to receive any news or offers from you by Email and SMS. When you are making the booking, you can un-select the Opt In boxes beside Mobile (HP) and Email, as below.
Please Note the guest will still receive all Email confirmations and Reminders.

If a guest Opts-out, then ResDiary will not allow you to email marketing to that guest via ResDiary.

It is important to respect a guest's request not to receive Email & SMS blasts. We all know how painful the Spam that is sent by Telkomsel is. For sure, if you spam guests, you will lose them as guests and stand a chance of your domain name being associated with spam.

Should a guest contact you by email and request to be removed from your Email & SMS marketing list, you can amend the guest's opt-in details via Reports > Customer List (if you have the necessary permissions to do so). Usually your business owner or General Manager will be the only person with access to your guest database.

If you would like, we can add a like in your email notifications, which gives guests a link to update their own detaisl including opt-in & opt-out settings.

Should you have any further questions, do not hesitate to contact HATI Solutions.

The new W8list has improved existing features and a host of new features allowing front of house staff  efficient, easy to use and complete management of wait times. Users can now edit W8list bookings to meet the changing demands of guests and indicate areas of preference to ensure waiting guests get the table they want. Receive booking warnings when W8list is in operation to ensure W8list bookings aren’t overlooked in favour of other bookings.You will also be able to resend and record diner notifications so that front of house staff can be sure they have given diners every chance to accept their table. Finally, you can sort your W8list by availability, VIP status or alphabetical order to find information easily, while short cut key strokes improve the speed and user experience of W8list for the user.

Increase Restaurant Profit and Yield with new ResDiary Feature - W8LIST™

W8LIST by ResDiary reservation management system is a fully functional waiting list. It’s easy to use and provides professional, effective communication between you and your waiting guests.

W8LIST manages your waiting guests by:

• Allowing the restaurant manager to quote an accurate wait time to the guest
• View at a glance how long the guest has been waiting so far
• See the expected remaining waiting time for each table
• Send an email or SMS* to the guest to confirm if they still require the table
• Update the W8LIST entry as confirmed or not required on receiving the reply from the guest
• Seat the table into ResDiary when a table becomes free
• Decline a waiting table professionally and promptly
  
  

Benefits

• Available free of charge with all ResDiary accounts
• Provides a professional, simple booking experience for your guests - the best first impression.
• Increases profit through maximising your restaurant’s covers and yield
• Gives accurate information about your confirmed and potential business levels
• No need to leave your diary screen, W8LIST is part of the ResDiary reservations system
• W8LIST automatically updates with best availability for each table - no searching required.

*If SMS notifications are used, SilverStreet integration must be activated.