Restaurant gains 10,000 e-mail addresses through coupon offer

A single restaurant in the Melting Pot restaurant chain had only 102 e-mail addresses in its customer contact list. But through a coupon and event-driven e-mail campaign to a third-party opt-in database of local consumers, it grew its list to 10,000 e-mail addresses in 10 months, its e-mail marketing firm says.

The St. Louis Melting Pot, part of a 70-unit chain of fondue restaurants, retained marketing firm Brighton INBOX to build its customer base and sales through e-mail marketing. Brighton sent $10 coupons for midweek meals, then expanded the campaign to include offers for specific events like a special Valentine’s Day dinner and offers of 50% off all wine on Mondays.

Ray Burrows, e-mail marketing specialist for Brighton, says the campaign has realized a return of more than $4 in new revenue for each $1 spent. He adds that a single e-mail newsletter has generated as many as 140 reservations.

The restaurant is now planning to automate e-mails to customers for such things as birthday coupons, anniversary coupons and reservation confirmations, Burrows says.

 http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=15132

As more diners dish online, eateries see reviewers at every table

And, as an example of how critical online restaurant research is for many diners, Ho usually doesn’t try out a new place before hitting the Web. For him, that often means browsing customer feedback and searching for a restaurant’s own site on Google.

In the restaurant business, word-of-mouth publicity has always been crucial; it’s just that now, with the growth of online customer reviews, diners’ opinions aren’t restrained to their circle of friends, said Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of research for the National Restaurant Association. The Web has created a larger audience for amateur reviewers.

“Word of mouth continues to be the most important source of information to typical American consumers,” he said. “How that word of mouth transpires has changed substantially in the past few years.”

According to the association’s 2006 research, 35% of adults said they used the Internet to find information about a restaurant they hadn’t visited before, while 13% had in 1999.

While the statistics don’t specify what sites, exactly, customers are looking at in their research, the popularity of Web sites that allow for customer feedback on restaurants seems to be registering even more on diners’ radars.

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More diners reading online reviews

Over a third of adults said they have researched online about a restaurant they had not visited before, according to the National Restaurant Association’s 2006 research. That is up from the 13% who did in 1999.

The association’s Hudson Riehle noted that “in the restaurant business, word-of-mouth publicity has always been crucial; it’s just that now, with the growth of online customer reviews, diners’ opinions aren’t restrained to their circle of friends.”

Top national sites for amateur restaurant reviewers include Citysearch, Yelp, Dinesite.com, local.Yahoo.com and Chowhound.com. Even Zagat.com, which focuses on subscription-only content, has added a free online feedback function to collect input from the average diner.

In a MediaWeek interview, marketing professor Michael Solomon said that online consumer reviews will continue to grow, although one problem needs to be controlled.

“That is the ability of reviewees to slant the reviews by strategically placing their own employees or paid shills in the audience,” Dr. Solomon said. “If this pernicious trend can be brought under control, our restaurant choices truly can benefit from the power of crowds.” 

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?1004908

Loud music can turn off diners

As Mel Greenball and his wife, Ann, walked into Pizzeria Uno at Tuttle Crossing one recent evening, they were met with a wall of noise that was so loud it was “almost deafening,” he said.The couple turned around and walked back out.

“I think if I want to eat there, I’m going to have to phone in an order and have them deliver it to the parking lot,” he said.

Increasing noise levels at restaurants, particularly from loud music, is among the biggest complaints by diners, according to Zagat Survey, which takes the pulse of the restaurant industry.

“A lot of people take issue with it,” said Michael Mahle, a spokesman for Zagat in New York. “Some people say loud music can have a real impact on the overall dining experience.”

Noise and crowding are second only to poor service among pet peeves of diners nationally, Zagat found.

But many restaurateurs say the sound and type of music are parts of the atmosphere they want to create.

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Negative Feedback Can Help Restaurants

BY TED PINCUS theopincus@hotmail.com

‘The only thing owners of our restaurants want to hear is the bad news,” Ron Blake says. “They realized that the only way they can compete today is to hear not the compliments but the complaints — and how they can fix it.”

If restaurantgoers have frustrations nowadays, they’re finding a new voice in Blake’s Rewards Network Inc. (Amex: IRN), a unique Chicago-based firm that serves the nation’s restaurant industry as a marketing stimulus — and now has become its severest critic.

Extensive menu of services

Formerly Transmedia, then I Dine, Rewards is the only resource that offers restaurateurs a premier loyalty program (where diners accumulate points), customer-relations management, special marketing tools and — most recently — access to fresh capital.

“There’s not nearly enough hours in the day for any restaurant owner to stay on top of all these needs,” Blake says, “and we’ve made an industry out of it.”

Once restaurateurs began seeing this kind of negative feedback, they couldn’t get enough of it. They loved the bashing.

Blake points out, “Ignorance about bad service and bad food at your facility can cost you money.”

http://www.suntimes.com/business/pincus/365190,cst-fin-pinc01.article