How to build buzz

Want more people to chat about you? Start by checking out what they’re already saying—then get involved in the conversation. Travel Websites like Citysearch and social networking sites like MySpace are abuzz with unvarnished restaurant reviews.
“Google your own name once a week to see where it shows up and whether there are any comments,” says Don Schultz, professor of integrated marketing communications at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
Pay special attention to Weblogs, two-way Websites that get updated at lightning speed and let readers talk back. Most blogs are full of links to other blogs, so a single rave or gripe can quickly multiply all over cyberspace. Technorati.com, a popular search engine for blogs, lists 631 devoted to restaurants. At Icerocket.com, another popular index for blogs, a search on “Cheesecake Factory” yields 36,590 posts.

Read The Full Article    http://www.restaurantbiz.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13399&Itemid=93

Marketing to Diners

Question:
I own a restaurant. How valuable would it be for me to collect the names, addresses, and phone numbers of my customers?

Answer:
Most restaurants you eat at don’t get your name, address, and telephone. Let me share what I suggested to the owner of one my favorite restaurants in Washington, DC, after he challenged me to show him how to rapidly grow his business

http://www.restaurantreport.com/qa/mailinglist.html

Mystery Diners

I think all restaurants need mystery diners. You may think you know how your restaurant functions and how your customers experience it, but you really don’t. Too often your guests won’t tell you if they’re unhappy, they just won’t come back.

http://www.restaurantreport.com/departments/biz_mysterydiner.html

Websites not liable for posts by others

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Websites that publish inflammatory information written by other parties cannot be sued for libel, the California Supreme Court ruled Monday.

The ruling in favor of free online expression was a victory for a San Diego woman who was sued by two doctors for posting an allegedly libelous e-mail on two websites.

Some of the Internet’s biggest names, including Amazon.com, America Online, eBay, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, took the defendant’s side out of concern that a ruling against her would expose them to liability.

In reversing an appellate court’s decision, the state Supreme Court ruled that the Communications Decency Act of 1996 provides broad immunity from defamation lawsuits for people who publish information on the Internet that was gathered from another source.

Read Full article

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-11-21-website-libel_x.htm

Finding Feedback – Article in Pizza Today

Do you know what’s on your customers’ minds, or how your operation stacks up against the competition? You can easily find out – and widen your customer loyalty base at the same time – without hiring a pricey consultant or market research firm.

Why go to the trouble of seeking customer feedback? Simply, it encourages retention. According to loyalty guru Frederick Reichheld, author of The Loyalty Effect, even a small rise in customer retention can double a company’s profits – and speed its growth.

One reason Domino’s Pizza shot off like a rocket in its formative years was its willingness to listen. Founder Tom Monaghan spent a year conducting marketing research on the fly. Over and over, he asked one question: “What’s important to you about a pizza?” Most customers cited a desire for delivery. In the early 1960s most pizzerias shunned delivery service, unless they were new – and even then, they delivered only until dine-in business took-off.

See http://pizzatoday.com/backoffice_articles.shtml?article=NTc5M3N1cGVyNTc5MHNlY3JldDU3OTc==

Jebra Turner is a freelance writer living in Portland, Oregon. Her last feature was on kitchen safety. If you have questions or comments, contact Jeremy White.

http://pizzatoday.com/backoffice_articles.shtml?article=NTc5M3N1cGVyNTc5MHNlY3JldDU3OTc=

How Cooking.com uses feedback

Throughout its product pages Cooking.com, No. 176 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide to Retail Web Sites, features prominently displayed feedback boxes that customers can fill out and submit their comments, questions and complaints. Each month Cooking.com receives about 4,000 submissions which, in turn, the company uses to plan site improvements and add new shopping categories. Taking to heart what customers want pays off. In the past two years the conversion rate on coffee makers has increased by 90% because Cooking.com studied customer comments and then added more than 40 new styles and colors. “Our shoppers are very specific about what they want in the feedback we get from them,” says Cooking.com founder and president Tracy Randall.

Read Full Story http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=20526

Burger King Complaint

WE ORDERED 2 WHOPPER JR. AT THE WINDOW, I ASKED FOR A “CUP OF WATER”. I WAS TOLD THAT NO WATER TO THE WATER AND GIVEN MY BURGERS TO GO. THIS CAUGHT ME BY SURPRISE, AND I ASKED THE GUY, “WHAT DID YOU SAY, YOU DO NOT HAVE WATER? YOUR MACHINE IS BROKEN?” HE SAID “NO HE COULD NOT GIVE ME A CUP OF WATER AND THE MOST HE COULD DO IS GIVE ME AN EMPTY CUP AND FIND WATER ELSEWHERE”. I COULD NOT BELIEVE THIS. MY AUNT WENT OFF LIKE A TYPICAL CUBAN, WATER IS NOT DENIED TO ANYONE…TO MAKE A LONG STORY SHORT, FINAL OUTCOME: “NO WATER, NO CUP, NO NOTHING!!!!!” MY AUNT NEEDED TO TAKE HER MEDICATION-THIS SPARKED NOTHING. I AM VOICING MY COMPLAINT HERE, AT LOCAL NEWS AS WELL AS BURGER KING CORPORATION. I AM A TRUE BELIEVER THAT “WORD OF MOUTH” IS THE BEST ADVERTISEMENT, THEREFORE I AM AND WILL VOICE THIS TO EVERYONE THAT I KNOW TO NEVER GO, BOYCOTT THIS BURGER KING AS THEY DO NOT DESERVE MY MONEY! WATER IS A BASIC NECESSITY OF LIFE, YOU DO NOT DENY WATER TO ANYONE, WHETHER YOUR A PAYING CUSTOMER OR WALKING OFF THE STREET (AND I DID PURCHASE SOMETHING). WE LIVE IN THE USA WHERE WATER IS ABUNDANT AND AVAILABLE.

http://www.my3cents.com/showReview.cgi?id=16935

Message to Papa

What is wrong with Papa John’s Pizza?
Let’s review:

This began on November 6, 2006…

I “plan ahead” ordered two pizzas, four hours early, yet received two cold pizzas an hour late and no offer of compensation when calling the location to complain.

In a gesture of “good will”, the delivery person showed up to our dimly lighted house at 830pm two hours after the pizzas finally arrived, to drop off 4 Cokes (btw, we only drink Diet Coke), in the process woke up my kids and dogs.

I send an email to Papa John’s to complain and get a format email in response suggesting I take it up on a local level.

I explain that I have done that already with no satisfactory resolution.

Shane Little, a franchisee in Tallahassee, Florida calls me three days later and we exchange several voice mails.

When we finally speak on the phone, he explains that he is actually in Florida and was forwarded my complaint in error but understands my frustration, assuring me someone will get in touch with me who can help.

Still waiting. Welcome to my country. This is turning in to “service” economy–good luck! Good news is this is only a $24 meal, nothing more.

Thanks?

Mike Gelman
Silver Spring MD

See Link  http://www.my3cents.com/showReview.cgi?id=16934

Online takeout site boosts Downtown restaurant business

Forget wireless. The latest hi-tech trend for Downtowners is seamless—SeamlessWeb.com that is.

The Web site, which began as a corporate food-ordering service, is now replacing the telephone as the favorite kitchen utensil of time-starved New Yorkers.

The brainchild of New York University Law School graduate Jason Finger, SeamlessWeb began courting corporate clients in Downtown and Midtown — mostly law firms and investment banks—back in early 2000. The site offered a way for employees to order delivery from their desktop computers and charge the food directly to a corporate account. Employees working late got fed, local restaurants got more business, and companies got to avoid the headache and expense of reimbursing their employees individually. SeamlessWeb got to charge a small fee to both the restaurants and the companies.

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_182/onlinetakeout.html

 

How are we doing ?

In February, when online gardening retailer Burpee.com began asking customers to post reviews of the products they purchased, company management imagined it would take several months to collect enough reviews to help boost the site’s business. But they reaped some positive results much sooner than they expected.

After one gushing reviewer in early May explained how Sea Magic Organic Seaweed Growth Activator perked his spider plant up “just like a light socket,” sales of the fertilizer doubled over the following month, says Don Zeidler, marketing director for W. Atlee Burpee & Co., the Warminster, Pa., parent company of Burpee.com.

http://online.wsj.com/google_login.html?url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB116309089183218694.html%3Fmod%3Dgooglenews_wsj

By Kelly K. Spors