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Thanks for your good wishes John, and will do.
Arfa
I think you pretty much sum up the purpose of the website, as we see it. For sure, the primary vehicle for sharing stuff about the place, is intended to be the FaceAche pages, as is common these days for this sort of enterprise. Certainly, the milkshake side of things is aimed at the kids. We used to sell loads to the kids getting off the school buses every day outside one of our cafes. I just popped up there to see how they were getting on, and they had to open early because of the queue of kids outside waiting to buy milkshakes, so that's a promising start :-)
The website is, as you say, more of a backup for those who have no inclination to use the FaceAche route for seeing what's going down with 'specials' and so on, so the idea is to keep it simple, consistent with looking reasonably attractive and 'professional'. But, as I said, it's still under construction, and is by no means the finished article. We will take on board the comments that have been made, and thank everybody for their observations, and the work done on the maps for us.
Arfa
It's a great credit to you - looks the equal of any other retail premises.
I must admit I find it strange that companies which have spent years and millions building their own web presence and tempting users to visit
are now so determined to push users away to
facebook.com/theirbrand
or
twitter.com#theirbrand
It's because the marketing consultants are getting worried that their clients are starting to understand how web sites work :-)
Colin Bignell
Depends on the market you are aiming at?
We were seeing something over 70% of email through our email hubs being facebook related - and that's through hubs that transit >1 million emails a day...
I'm not sure people realise just how big facebook is. If I'm given a company name, the first thing I hit is google. I know plenty of people whose first search will be facebook.
Increasing number of google results now have the company facebook page returned higher than the main site...
I don't think they are trying to push users to facebook, I think it's more that they realise that's where their customers are.
Also, why have the headache of running forums, blogs, etc (and all the associated headaches) when you can let facebook take the load? Also means that the bulk of your users will already have accounts - how many people think "oh god, another password to forget" when they have to sign up to yet another site?
Used well twitter is a bit different - see how VirginMedia use it for example. It's now my prefered model of getting support from them...
Admittedly, some companies (and my MP grrr) seem to use it to just push out PR crap. That just annoys and misses the point.
Darren
There's more than a grain of truth in that one, Colin.
Quoted on a redesign for a website the other day - the spec (from another consultant) was full of phrases like 'improved customer experience' - and advocated lots of effort on facebook / twitter etc. - and "Instead of just catching up with the best e-commerce sites out there today, we?d like to move one step ahead in style and function."
All the site really needs is better design, a simpler shopping cart and professional photography - plus proper promotion via the search engines.
Simples!
Adrian
It looks like that on a 20" monitor too.
Colin Bignell
Thanks ! We're pretty pleased with how it all came out, and the general reaction from both customers and other trades who worked on the place has been "Wow!"
First night's customer take was good - especially considering it was only a Monday, which was always a quiet day at the cafes, so it will be interesting to see how it builds over the rest of the week.
Thanks to all for your help and interest, and I'll keep you posted.
Arfa
But a bloody awful colour scheme grey(?) on blue with very similar luma levels, almost impossible to read the text. Unvisted links being blue on blue almost disappear. The active page highlight is readable but only just.
The overall retro feel and colour scheme is a matter of personal taste, but you've certainly made a good job of it.
Bit out of my way, but good luck. (I won't bother repeating what other people have said about the website. I'd expect local word of mouth to matter far more anyway.)
Same goes for olive oil. I prefer chips fried in olive oil these days.
Why have forums, blogs, etc?
That link takes me to a page with "Find attached a Slideshare of presentation ...", The link to which requires flash or some other pluging which I don't have (or want), so I am none the wiser, but suspect it's the sort of customer service that drove me away from Virgin Media long ago.
Firstly - and most importantly - good luck with tour venture!
Suggestions - all the photos of the place have no people in them.
That may work like empty restaurants - people walk past - and go in the one that's busy but not too busy.
May I suggest, website priorities:
- will help people find you - people searching for dominos wellingborough will hopefully also see your page - people can get a pizza from D's and a burger from you
Hope the new venture goes well
Owain
(googlegroups has caught up again!!!)
I always eschew sites that use mouseovers. Sorry.
Can you do strictly vegetarian fare?
I've often wondered why somebody should "like" you before you can see their "Facebook" stuff. Isn't that like putting the cart before the horse?
Thanks for your good wishes. Day three now complete, and it's going very well. Selling many many milkshakes, and are getting good feedback on the food - especially on the chips. I'm sure all the people who commented on that aspect, will be pleased to hear this ! Interestingly, the chicken burger is very popular, and sales of hot dogs have exceeded all expectations. I hadn't realised how hard it was to get a decent hotdog anywhere. Seems that many places sell a sausage in a bit of French stick and call that a hotdog ...
As to the pictures, they were not really done as 'promotional' ones as such. It was more so that people who were interested, could get a quick squint at what it looked like. They were all actually taken before the grand opening.
Arfa
"Owain" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@x38g2000pri.googlegroups.com...
Thanks for all the valued input. As I said before, the website is far from 'done' so the things you suggest can easily be implemented. I'll make sure that your comments are passed on. Interesting that you say about the phone, and taking cards. At the moment, we can't take cards. We were all set to have the phone line put in the week before we opened. As the building has been divided down into three units, only one got the existing phone line - and that was the first unit to be occupied. Anyway, BT came along and surveyed the job right at the beginning of June. The guy said that it wouldn't be a problem etc etc etc. So, the phone / internet package is all booked, and the card machine company that we were going to use was contacted, and the terms and supply of a PDQ machine all sorted out ready. Then the shit hit the fan. A couple of days before BT were coming to put the line in, someone rang to say that there was going to be a small charge for putting in the line, due to the fact that they'd got to go across the service road at the back from the nearest ground chamber. Ok we said, what's that then ? £100 ? 200 ? Er actually, £2,320, said the nice man. So having rather impolitely told him that she was well pissed off that the guy who had done the survey had made no mention of this, the missus told him where he could stick his phone line. He rang back a couple of hours later to say that as they had messed us about, they could do it for £2,000 ... Again, he was told where to stick his phone line.
So that has put us behind with being able to take cards, and we have had to open not being able to for the time being. It's not a super-big problem, as the Co-op a couple of doors down has a cash machine, but we would of course still like to take cards. It turns out that it can now be done via the mobile phone network. There are PDQ machines that have a phone built in, and a deal is done with one of the network operators to provide the sim. Apparently, taxis and market traders use them, so we should be fixed up in that respect, shortly :-)
Arfa
Depends how 'strict'. There are options that use no meat products, and the wife and daughter were well experienced at catering for vegetarian needs when the owned the cafes. In fact many of their customers were vegetarians, and came for the understanding that their needs received. However, I guess if you are a really strict vegetarian who doesn't consume dairy products, you would be struggling when it came to the milkshakes in the new place.
Facebook, and its protocols are a complete mystery to me. However, the daughter understands it all, and she is fully intending to use the pages allocated to this business, to run promotions like coupons and so on, as Owain suggests.
Arfa
Not sure he meant mouseovers as you are thinking - alt text for images doesn't mean a mouseover (as in some sort of annoying pop up).
If you really avoid sites with alt text then you must struggle...
Good point - I'd definately go for a decent burger over a crap pizza anytime.
Yep, all good points.
I did check to see if cherry coke was there ;-)
That's not how it tends to work. It's more you go there, decide you like it, tick the like box - and get vouchers etc.
Of course, I'm sure loads of people just tick the box to get the voucher but it's still business I guess :-)
Darren
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