In the digital era we live in, we can’t just focus on restaurant design to attract customer. All businesses require an online presence, as that is where the customer is. It does not matter what business you run; you cannot afford to ignore the importance of having a positive online presence in today’s digital world. If your customer is online, an online presence for your restaurant is considered an essential requirement to run a business; moreover, your customer expects your information available digitally. Building the brand reputation is not easy to achieve, but it is doable with some effort and persistence. To make it possible for you, here we are sharing proven ways to produce an online presence.

1. Build Website For Your Restaurant Business

It does not matter whether it is a small or big restaurant, a good website is just must-have! Nowadays people check reviews, menus, prices using Google and if your restaurant does not have a website it would not be so popular as any other restaurant that has its own website. Your website is where you can showcase your brand and tell customers what your business is all about. It is where you can be more talkative through colors, images, and creativity. One of the first places people will go to find out more about your company is your website. Research proves that more than 60% of customers trust your brand when you are serious about customer’s time and customer service. So, if you have not created your restaurant website yet, do it right away. 

 

2. Google My Business

Google My Business (GMB) is a service provided by Google that generates information from two major Google services which include: Google Search and Maps. GMB connects Search and Maps in order to help users find businesses online and collect Google reviews with QR code. If you don’t use GMB tool then you may not be able to make it on local map listings in the search results which are being used by Google for local search queries. The purpose of this service is to allow users to create an online identity for their business, which ultimately helps customers find them online. It is like an online business card for your business with Google not only helps for marketing but it is considered to be an industry-standard to have this profile. If you want to appear in google search results and map results for directions, you can’t ignore this. It allows you to publish and manage your website details, business hours, street address with precise location in Australia , pictures of your restaurant interiors, menu, recommendations and official contact details. It shows analytics of your GBM traffic into “Insights” section. If you haven’t setup Google My Business for your restaurant yet, do it now. 

3. Google Book a Table

A handy feature for restaurants that provide dine-in to their customer. With this feature, your customer will be able to book a table directly from the google search results page. This feature is also part of Google My Business. It’s easy for Google users to check availability & follow the table reservation steps without navigating elsewhere. Restaurants can track bookings in their reservation dashboard in Foodship portal.

4. How to Improve Your Restaurant Online Presence?

4.1 Make most of your online presence

In this article, we are not talking about why you need an online presence, that we have already covered here in detail here. This article is covering how to make most of your online presence once you have it.

Most restaurant owners tend to get a website for their business. Still, they don’t update it or improve their restaurant online presence, e.g. never having a table reservation system or the restaurant ordering system connected to it.

Restaurateur often asks these questions, why do we need our own food ordering system? When we have Ubereats, MenuLog, Doordash services, & does it make sense to have both private & 3rd party systems?

Well, the answer is simply “Yes”. It would help if you used Menulog & Ubereats because these 3rd party companies bring customers & sometimes new customers too.

The primary business model of corporate food ordering companies like Ubereats & Doordash is to use their big marketing budget to get your local customers & then resell it back to you & charge big fat commission. The sad part is the customer still belongs to them even though you do the sales manage your menu

4.2 Promote your restaurant:

There are several ideas to improve online presence of your restaurant:

1. Optimise your website by doing its SEO as this can impact your ranking in google search results.
2. Social media marketing on Facebook, Instagram, etc.
3. Restaurant listing on online Restaurant Directory Listings websites
4. Build customer relationships by asking your customers to leave reviews on GMB and responding to those reviews.
5. Email marketing for offering gift vouchers
6. Offer discount on table reservation online
7. Publish your menu online.

4.3 The next big question is how to convert these newly acquired customers to use your portal?

Well, there are many ways to achieve it. Still, one of the most effective ways is to have a polite but honest approach with the customer, don’t be shy of sharing with them that you have a website & food ordering system, also there is very little or no margin in using these 3rd party portal.

Invite them to use your ordering system for even better deals & experience. There are some more creative ways to improve your restaurant online presence which we will share in our future blogs.

4.4 Cautious of strategy backfire

The idea is to get new customers from Ubereats, Doordash type companies, not to lose existing ones. So if you have a good number of take-away & phone orders already coming in, just use a commission-free online food ordering system & enhance your customer’s experience.

So they spread the word, & you get new customers. Big companies often keep an eye on restaurants that have a good rating & online clientele & try to overpower them with excessive promotions. Once your customer sees that they get the same food for less price by ordering through these companies, they will move on from your portal & start using them.