Google is replacing their Locations application with Google Places.

If you are a restaurant owner/manager you owe it to yourself to take the opportunity and get familiarized with this new tool. It can prove very powerful in helping your restaurant come up on local searches.

And as consumers become more and more connected with their iPads and iPhones and all the other web enabled portable devices you want to be where those consumers are.

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What's more you can use this tool to see how people are finding you online and so tweak your website or blog so that it moves higher up the search engine rankings.

And remember, we at SellMoreMeals.com are here to assist you in reaching out to and rewarding your faithful guests as well as gain new ones.

Serve so that they tell others.

This past week I had the opportunity to dine at a small family Thai restaurant with a friend, Sila Thai Restaurant (FoodSpotting link).

It is a new restaurant and I had heard good things from others who "had" to tell me about it after they ate there.

So I had to try it out myself.

There wasn't a whole lot of space but they did a nice job of decorating without going too overboard with that cheap Americanized Oriental feel, if you know what I mean. Which is to say that the single dining area was tastefully decorated. Tables were all set simply but with enough care to set the restaurant apart from the chains which often leave me feeling more like cattle being led to the trough.

As it happened this day, there was just one of other couple in Sila Thai and one waitress.

When we entered we were immediately greeted by a young woman who happily told us to pick a spot anywhere. Which we did, but she did something very important by greeting us quickly and with such a positive attitude. She put us at ease. When a customer walks into a new place a good many feel a sense of being out of place and in unfamiliar territory. So nervousness can be a factor and when the restaurant is practically empty that just multiplies whatever feeling with which the customer walks through the door. And I have to admit when I first walked in the emptiness of the restaurant wasn't lost on me and the question why popped into my mind as it was around the dinner hour. But the young woman's actions quickly but me at ease, plus I remembered that this was a new restaurant.

Once we were seated and comfortable she gave us menus and proceeded to wait upon us.

Throughout the meal she engaged me and my friend in friendly banter and even joked with me when she brought my meal. I watched her do the same with the other table of customers who were regulars from what I could tell from the overheard conversations. I got the sense that the guests were also there for the relationship that was being built with the waitress and for the food. The chef was fabulous at blending wonderful spices and flavors.

I left knowing I would return because I was made to feel welcome. She did all she could to make sure that everything was to our tastes and kept our glasses full. Of course you may say this is because we were the only people there. Well, yeah we were. But I don't think that would have mattered whether we were one of two tables or one of six. Sshe had the mindset to serve. And that will bring me back.

In fact I left the restaurant wanting to set up a Fan Page on my Facebook account. And that is the feeling with which you want your guests to leave your restaurant. That is branding at it's best.

When that happens they will spread the word and you can fan that flame with our proven marketing tool at www.SellMoreMeals.com.

The Email Subject for your restaurant campaign.

It's one of the most important parts of your eMail Campaign.

In fact some may argue that it is the most critical part of your eMail campaign.

The world is changing at a speed that would make a top blanch. A marvel of all this change, all this information coming at us so fast is how we adapt to it. Human beings are incredible creatures of adaptation. We are the king of the hill when it comes to this area of expertise and we learn to search, gather, and eliminate information that clutters up our already busy time.

In some ways the continual flow of information to us in our eMail boxes, our Blackberry devices, or our iPhones, has made us a bit jaded. In the millisecond of time that I see an eMail with the prefix "FWD:" attached to it I automatically disregard it once it passes through my internal "who-sent-this-filter", and I am going to guess that it's reasonably the same with you.

Then there are all the eMails that start by telling us we've won something or that a money making opportunity is within our grasp.

Let's face it, we probably get upward of 50 emails a day and some of us a lot more than that once the spammers find our eMails. A quick look at my Google Spam filter shows over 1,000 suspected spam eMails. In 2008, it was estimated that 210 billion eMails were sent every day. That's a lot of information to have sort through. Thankfully we have spam filters to help and thankfully we are adaptive people.

And this leads me back to the beginning of this post. In your eMail campaigns with your restaurant guests that subject line is very important for grabbing and holding their attention in a world where attention is precious and quick.

If you don't grab their attention then they won't be clicking on that eMail.

The best way to ensure that you grab their attention is to be personable. Showcase your personality or the personality of your restaurant in that subject line. For example, if your a pizzeria, "Today was probably a long one. Join us tonight with this special and we'll slice through it together." Or how about, "A pie among friends is the best way to close the day. And here's a special to make it happen."

The thing you need to do is get creative. No one knows your business or your guests better than you do. Relate local flavor and happenings. The weather, the sports. Things that your local eaters know and follow. Did something special happen at your restaurant? Use it.

How about, "We wanted to let you know what's been going on at [insert your restaurant here]." Then tell them briefly of the happenings, like a new baby or wedding or award. Connect with your guests and attach a coupon for a special or free side item.

People want a sense of connection today. Key into that and be willing build a relationship with them. We can help at SellMoreMeals.com with our proven campaign program.

A Must Read on Customer Service.

I just read a blog post by Aaron D. Allen. If you own or manage a restaurant I highly suggest your read it through. It's a bit long but very much worth the read. He covers issues from how social media can immediately impact you to how complacency and arrogance can affect your view of customers.

What Le Bernadin Can Teach Us About Bad Service

One of America’s Top 50 Restaurants turns away customers seeking a $55 lunch over a $3 cup of Starbucks tea and in so doing offers many lessons in what not to do.

In his section titled, "So, what can a top 50 restaurant teach us about bad service?", he has a list of eight things you should pay close attention too.

Cool Kitchen Tool and a Stock of Reputation.

I came across a couple of posts on this thing called the Internet that I think are worth making note of today.

The first is this cool little package from Innovative Technologies by Design. It's nifty a little device for labeling your food prep list.

Check it out. You might find it useful in your restaurant.

The other thing that I came across was a worthy article by Ragsdale Hendrie: Fully Stock Your 'Reputation' Toolbox.

You define what you are through your marketing and delivery on service, product and facility. The marketplace validates your performance. Their report card is your reputation – good, bad or indifferent. Thus, it boils down to how you can influence and leverage that reputation with what you have learned and how you respond to that insight. And, there are “tools” out there to give you the advantage.

I hope your week is looking good. I know much of us are experiencing some unseasonably cold weather. You might consider just how you could capitalize upon that fact. Perhaps a special marketing campaign touting a freeze busting meal.

Until next time.

When you think about customer service, what do you hear?

Running a restaurant is demanding.

And gaining and maintaining regular guests is hard.

Aside from great food, one of the ways you capture those guests is through exceptional customer service.

But when you think about your customer service do you think about sound?

More specifically the sound of noise.

I've been to a lot of restaurants throughout my life so far, from the hole in the wall fifteen blocks east of here to the type of restaurant where they don't feel it necessary to put prices on the menu's (if you have to ask you can't... well you know.)

In all of those restaurants noise can be a positive or negative factor. It can add to the ambiance, like water babbling in a fountain, or it can detract from the ambiance, like a dentist's drill on one of your molars.

That kind of noise can drive a customer off.

In and article from last year in The Washington Post from Tom Sietsema, No Appetite for Noise, the tag line is:

The No. 1 complaint of restaurant-goers in the Washington area isn't the service, or even the dinner. It's the din

The Number One Complaint.

That's pretty bad.

In a more recent article by Ray Kelly in Masslive.com, Dealing with noisy restaurants, he writes:

Apart from the issue of too-loud music, excessive restaurant clatter can result from poor design choices.

Sound that becomes noise, that irritating stuff that grates on us, can seem to reflect an unconscious air of disdain really. That may not be what you think and certainly probably is not what you want to come across to your guests. But in the mind of the guest it says,"They really don't care a whole lot about my experience here."

This YouTube video is a perfect example where noise is very specifically tied to poor customer service.



So take an opportunity to listen in your restaurant. What noises do you hear? When the place is full during a dinner rush, can you hold a conversation without having to use a voice you would use to call across a ball field?

If the din is too great find a way to change that because you will be serving the customer by making them comfortable and they will in turn want to come back again.

And remember, with SellMoreMeals.com you can connect with those guests outside those four walls and let them know how much you appreciate them.

Those elements which make or break a restaurant.

Here's a couple of links to some items that are well worth your reading time in the quest for success in the restaurant biz. They are the kind of times that give you some good thought food.

The first article is from the Restaurant News Resource:

Convenience still top order for younger diners

Over half of younger adults rank a restaurant's proximity to their workplace as very important/important when selecting where to dine (62% of 25-34s and 55% of 18-24s, versus 41% of all respondents). The ability to order online ahead of time is also essential to young, time-strapped consumers (31% of 25-34s and 24% of 18-24s, versus 19% overall). The younger demographics also rank extended hours (i.e. late-night) and speed of service highly in their restaurant selection processes.

That's something worth thinking about as you seek to market to your area. Those age groups are greatly attached to all things electronic.

This second post is from a blog on The New York Times and it's a wonderful read:

The Four Basic Elements of Dining (and Umami, too)

The first paragraph caught my attention right away as I couldn't agree more:

“If someone likes a restaurant, just enjoys being in that space, say no more, the game has been won.” That’s a chef talking, a highly acclaimed young New York City gastro-turk.

The four elements which Bush Buschel lists as key to any restaurant's success (or failure) are:

I was sitting at a table full of food and foodies, and the discussion was all about, well, you know. You are listening to it. I steered the conversation in this direction in an attempt — as I prepare to open my own restaurant — to prioritize the Four Basic Elements (in alphabetical order): ambience, food, price, service.

He goes on to note that there is one more element and that is Umami.

Umami is the fifth flavor in food, the untranslatable Japanese word that means “delicious” or “pungent” or “essence” or “gimme more.”

That fifth element I would propose is not so much and element as the sum of those four elements properly attuned with a the right dash of "human element."

Those four elements are so special because of the fingerprints (ie the human element) upon them which is the seasoning if you will. Once combined, you have Umami.

And that is what keeps us coming back for more. Well, that and a bit of convenience as well ;-)