Businesses, especially restaurants, are fighting for customers in the tough pandemic climate.
So why do so many commit basic marketing and customer service errors?
Here’s another example of a fail that should be simple – very simple – to fix.
On the way home from an appointment, I decided to pick up lunch from a new restaurant. I looked on Google maps at my route to identify a place to try and review the menu to decide what I wanted. I then called for a to go order.
Here is a paraphrase of the conversation that ensued after greetings:
me: I’d like the [name of dish] as an appetizer.
OK – got it.
me: I’d like the [name of dish] as the main.
We don’t have that dish anymore. Are you on our current website?
me: I don’t know … what is the current website?
[provides URL]
me: OK … I’m starting to look at the menu … it’s going to take a moment as I’m having trouble reading it [the menu did not work well AT ALL on a phone]
me: All right, I’ll have the [name of a different dish]
That’s not on our current menu … we’ve updated our menu from the website. Do you want me to take a picture of the menu and text it to you?
me: Uhhhhh … how about [name of another dish]?
Yes, we have that.
And we finished the conversation. I could have just as easily given up, losing the restaurant the sale. I partly kept on going just to see what would happen next 🙂
In the digital age, the restaurant’s situation is a ridiculous scenario.
- The restaurant had a new website but Google maps (and maybe other listings) was not updated.
- The old website URL wasn’t pointing to the new website. And if the owners are the same, why change the URL? Why not just update the website? If the owners are not the same and the old URL belongs to the old owners, why is the old website still the one associated with the restaurant?
- The new website menu was not updated to match the actual “new new” menu.
A major advantage of the digital age is ability to keep things current far easier and faster than the old printed phone books, directories, restaurant guides, and so on that had become out of date even as printed.
Have you committed any similar mistakes? Is buying “easy” for your customers? Have you taken your prospect’s or customer’s journey lately to make sure?
Leave a Reply