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Why are restaurant web sites so bad?

juliansanchez.com

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Re: Why are restaurant web sites so bad?

#81

Post by lowglow »

cubicle67 wrote: post #59
Volscio wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Word. I want the hours, location, phone number, and menu. All in a format I can copy & paste into my email to convince my friends to go. I rarely get any of that at a restaurant's web site. No wonder that it's easier to google/yelp it and use their listings.

See, that's where it gets hard. Menus, and especially prices, change. People get upset if they're charged differently to what they saw on the website, and keeping the two in sync requires a conscious effort on behalf of the restaurant that it's not likely going to receive. There's two way around this problem (keeping the website up to date) that I can see: integrate with existing POS system (expensive and hard) or of…

Great suggestions. I'll actually talk about implementing this with some people.

Re: Why are restaurant web sites so bad?

#82

Post by japherwocky »

trop wrote: post #74
bdclimber14 wrote: post #11

Because restaurant owners are barely figuring out what email is. How often do you go to restaurant websites vs. actual restaurants (not including Yelp or Google maps)? Truth is, they just don't matter. The cost of creating a website, even a $500 design over a CMS doesn't justify the cost. Also, a small business restaurant owner won't know how to operate a CMS. They just figured out email, remember? Worse, is that web…

> Because restaurant owners are barely figuring out what email is. That seems a bit condescending to restaurant owners? Rather, perhaps, they are so much in the real world, dealing with suppliers, cooks, kitchen equipment, waiters, decor, etc., that navigating the virtual (websites) is antithetical?

My experience has been kind of like this. The owners are pretty smart people but don't have the time/energy to figure out website tech.

Re: Why are restaurant web sites so bad?

#83

Post by lowglow »

chunkyslink wrote: post #69

We've been quite successful at cracking the UK market and we run the sites for a few of the UK's biggest chains down to some smaller brasserie style companies. I'd like to present some work which I think is good for a change (there are a lot of bad examples on here) So here we go http://giraffe.net http://www.chezgerard.co.uk http://www.brasseriegerard.co.uk Some of our older ones http://www.strada.co.uk http://www.c…

thanks. This gives me something to focus on.

Re: Why are restaurant web sites so bad?

#84

Post by japherwocky »

prawn wrote: post #78

Anyone tried offering a deal to a restaurant owner whereby you get a tab (e.g., shout friends a $500 dinner) to build a site and then a lunch/dinner per month in exchange for maintenance of menus, etc?

I built/host a site for a local brewery, and I bill them $X/mo for hosting and small tweaks. We've definitely bartered some of those invoices away. :)

Re: Why are restaurant web sites so bad?

#85

Post by daveambrose »

jasonlbaptiste wrote: post #28

I think there are a few things here that cause this: a) You're going against the worst kind of incumbent- the 15 year old nephew or kid next door. He's cheaper, good enough, and "trusted". He is competition that exists a million times over. b) Even if your system is better, they just can't be bothered to even get a good demo. You definitely need to build something so usable and good it's frightening, but good luck ge…

From experience, this is a very high touch business with intense sales efforts to scale. One company that's in our backyard here in NYC has had success with a sales and channel model is SinglePlatform.

They are a bit under the radar but are solving these problems in realtime within a huge market.

Re: Why are restaurant web sites so bad?

#86

Post by redwood »

patio11 wrote: post #25

Restaurants aren't unique offenders. Most physically extant businesses which can't transact online suck. Try your dentist's.

No matter how unique a restaurant's website is, it cannot satisfy a customer to that restaurant: only the food can. Thus there is little impetus for the restaurant to try to create a good experience online.

Re: Why are restaurant web sites so bad?

#87

Post by Ogre »

SquidLord wrote: post #77
verisimilitude wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh my god, dentist's websites. I've one full year of dental school left, and as I'm looking around for a job, I sometimes wonder if I should just be a dental website designer instead of a dentist.

So ... why NOT be a dentist website designer, at least part-time? You know the business needs, you know the lingo of both (you're here, anyway) ... It sounds like a job that fills a needed niche! Better sites == more hits due to easier searching; there's a business case. I say go for it.

And while you're at, write some better X-ray and tooth-photo database UI for them. I cringe at the program my dentist plods through every time she takes pictures or X-rays of my teeth.

Its been at the top of my list of software I have basically no interest in working on yet feel like I could do a hell of a lot better at anyway. Of course, I haven't researched what's out there, there may already be much better options available.

Besides being ugly, my main beef is that I have watched her drag photos, one at a time, into their proper slots in my "file" from the incoming area, even though they were already clearly labelled as to what tooth they were pictures of. It's maddening. It's only a minute or two, and she doesn't take pictures every visit, but it's the kind of thing that just screams shoddy workmanship... and opportunity.

Re: Why are restaurant web sites so bad?

#88

Post by throw_away »

redwood wrote: post #86
patio11 wrote: post #25

Restaurants aren't unique offenders. Most physically extant businesses which can't transact online suck. Try your dentist's.

No matter how unique a restaurant's website is, it cannot satisfy a customer to that restaurant: only the food can. Thus there is little impetus for the restaurant to try to create a good experience online.

I was going to write pretty much the same comment on the tazo tea landing page discussion, but online sales aren't the end-all-be-all justification for having a good, easy to use web site. Very often, if I'm considering going to a restaurant or coffeeshop that I've never been to, I'll look for a website to figure out the hours, location and menu & perhaps to find out more about the place. A website that is difficult to navigate or looks ugly won't hurt them, exactly, as I wasn't a customer, but a good site might compel me to visit or to try their product next time I have a chance. I've also chosen not to try out places and products before, just because I couldn't figure out an easy way of knowing whether they were open or because I couldn't figure out more info about the product.

Furthermore, there are places that I go to regularly whose easy access to info regarding hours and menu causes me to go there more often. Here is one from a place I like: http://eathomegrown.com/ Could be better (uses flash), but the info I want is there. And they have a blog and social media presence. All this has resulted in more than a few conversions into sandwich purchases from me, personally.

Re: Why are restaurant web sites so bad?

#89

Post by dodyg »

SquidLord wrote: post #77
verisimilitude wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh my god, dentist's websites. I've one full year of dental school left, and as I'm looking around for a job, I sometimes wonder if I should just be a dental website designer instead of a dentist.

So ... why NOT be a dentist website designer, at least part-time? You know the business needs, you know the lingo of both (you're here, anyway) ... It sounds like a job that fills a needed niche! Better sites == more hits due to easier searching; there's a business case. I say go for it.

It is a tough market to operate on since a lot of dentists are busy people and usually their practice is managed by marketing consultants that do their local marketing/business promotion for them. It's not a straight forward "Let's meet and I build you a kick ass website" business.

We have been trying to crack in to this niche for almost two years with our http://patientboost.com/default.html service but it is a damn challenging market.

Re: Why are restaurant web sites so bad?

#90

Post by Someone »

Ogre wrote: post #87
SquidLord wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So ... why NOT be a dentist website designer, at least part-time? You know the business needs, you know the lingo of both (you're here, anyway) ... It sounds like a job that fills a needed niche! Better sites == more hits due to easier searching; there's a business case. I say go for it.

And while you're at, write some better X-ray and tooth-photo database UI for them. I cringe at the program my dentist plods through every time she takes pictures or X-rays of my teeth. Its been at the top of my list of software I have basically no interest in working on yet feel like I could do a hell of a lot better at anyway. Of course, I haven't researched what's out there, there may already be much better options…

I have watched her drag photos, one at a time, into their proper slots in my "file" from the incoming area, even though they were already clearly labelled as to what tooth they were pictures of.

Are you certain that is a software problem? It could well be a user education problem, or a trust issue between dentist and program.

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