Food For Thought - A Tale of Two Restaurants

It's fair to say that Claire and I like our food and we're lucky to be surrounded with an abundance of pubs and restaurants within walking distance of our home.

A few weeks ago, a new Indian restaurant opened near us, offering amazing-looking street-food style cuisine and at decent prices to boot. 

How did we know that it looked amazing? 

For one thing, we had a leaflet through the door a couple of weeks before it opened, offering us a discount on our first visit as an opening gambit and showcasing photos of everything the restaurant had to offer, from the food to the decor. 

Within this leaflet were several calls-to-action - 'follow us on Instagram', 'Whatsapp us to book a table', a QR code link to their website. 

A few days later, I noticed a Facebook / Instagram ad for them and that a couple of friends had 'liked' it - so I followed them too. 

On their socials, they were proudly linking to all of the reviews they'd received in their opening week - it turns out they were proactively asking everyone to leave a review with a QR code that arrived with the bill - making the process as seamless as possible for customers who were still sitting in the restaurant and enjoying the experience. 

Reading the reviews they'd been receiving via Google My Business, they'd taken the time to comment on each and every one of them, thanking each customer individually for their patronage. 

We went out with some friends around the same time and walking past the place, it was buzzing - we agreed there and then that we'd be visiting next time out for sure.

And we weren't disappointed when we did - the food and service were excellent and the place was once again packed - we booked via Whatsapp and the whole process was seamless. 

They've since launched a lunch offer - promoting this across the social channels as well as on an A board outside the restaurant. 

Here's the thing though - on the way there we passed a Mexican restaurant that opened a couple of years ago, but that we're yet to visit. 

We love Mexican food (and we're definitely partial to a Margarita or two) but for some reason we've never quite made it there. 

And being honest, looking in through the window as we walked past did little to persuade us. 

There were three or four couples dining in what is a fairly big place, on a Friday night. 

The menu on the window had faded in the sunlight and was barely readable. 

There was a banner hanging lop-sided out the front, it wasn't clear what it was promoting, I could just about make out a picture of a cactus. 

The A board outside said something like "try our tasty burritos". 

I thought I'd check out their socials - they posted six times in January (including four posts on the same day) and have posted ten times since, but not since 10th May. 

On at least one of their posts they've had an open disagreement with a customer in the comments. 

We've never had a flyer through the letterbox or been advertised to via the social channels and *gasp* - they don't even have a website. 

Ultimately, it's a lesson in local marketing - there's no 'if you build it, they will come' when it comes to this stuff - it's YOUR JOB to make it easy for your customers to find you, and then to make it effortless for them to do business with you. 

The one thing that the Indian restaurant didn't do is to take my email address - but I'll be speaking to them about that the next time I'm there - which I can promise you won't be too far away.