Turning high tech into high traffic

By David Kritzwiser

The restaurant business has always been a people business. High touch, not high-tech. But all that has changed with the Internet. Now on-line dining guides are one of your most effective tools for driving new customers through the door.

Your Host recently took a look at DineAid.Com, a successful dining website and hospitality industry resource, to see exactly what benefits a restaurateur could expect.

Seeing the Future
DineAid.Com was founded in 1997 by Wayne Jagoe. At the time, Mr. Jagoe was the General Manager of a large-scale restaurant in Fredericton. He admits that he knew nothing about the Internet, but recognized the huge role it could play in the future of the hospitality industry. So he started up the DineAid.Com dining guide in Atlantic Canada. Today, this website lists, promotes and markets every restaurant in the Atlantic Provinces.

But Atlantic Canada was just the beginning. This September 2001, DineAid.com inaugurates totally national exposure by kicking off with a launch in Ontario. It is Mr. Jagoe’s intent that it won’t be long before every restaurant in Canada will be listed.

Through its Internet expertise, DineAid.Com is able to capture customers who overlook traditional media because they love the interactivity of an involving website. They can find out where to eat. What to eat. Should they go out or take out? They can see menus, services, features, coupons, and promotions. They can buy online gift certificates. They can comment online on restaurants they’ve been to. They can “visit” a graphically-compelling presentation of your restaurant.

Tap into your target market
By 2005, world Internet users are expected to rise to over 900 million people. Canadians, as inhabitants of one of the most wired countries in the world, will turn to the Internet in ever-increasing numbers and with ever-greater confidence to seek out information that will help them manage more decisions in their daily lives. This includes the decision of where to dine.

“That’s the market of highly concentrated and self-motivating individuals we tap into with fantastic success every day,” points out Mr. Jagoe.

What’s the proof? This past July alone, DineAid.Com recorded 78,000 page impressions or single page viewings. Ask yourself: Can you afford to miss out?

Restaurateurs online speak out
“On our own,” says Chef Robert Moore at Halifax’s Pastaman Cafe &Wholesale, “we would never get the kind of media exposure DineAid gives us. Our customers love that they can go online to look at our menus, specials, upcoming events.”

Jim Cooper of Fredericton’s Hilltop Grill & Beverage Co. is similarly enthusiastic. “The site is flexible in that we can change the information as often as required for special events and dates. The folks at DineAid are very helpful and innovative, I find. They’re constantly changing which is a must for repeat hits on the web.”

Doug Williams of BrewBakers Cafe Bistro Bar & Grill in Fredericton adds more. “This is a great tool! Because we’re located downtown we know 90% of our customers have an email account. You can’t afford not to take advantage of these numbers.”

Delivering the Online Dining Experience
DineAid.Com lists more than 4300 Atlantic Canada restaurants. Visitors to the site are able to search for restaurants of their choices. They can enter contests, buy gift certificates, fill out comment cards, and check the merits of a showcase restaurant. They can also delve into chef profiles, investigate recipes, and in addition, scan food service news, vital information, and special promotions.

In short, visitors enter into an on-line dining experience. The site also highlights specific restaurants that advertise and promote their presence within the DineAid.Com site through their own menus, promotions, activities, features, and distinctive graphic identity.

By offering sophisticated franchise-style marketing programs to the independent restaurant operator, DineAid.Com is an invaluable resource centre for the food service industry. And now with its national rollout in September, this resource centre will extend sea to sea, from St. John’s to Victoria.

Bringing Numbers to the Table
“But DineAid.Com is not just a web presence or a simple dining guide,” says Mr. Jagoe. “It’s a comprehensive marketing tool for restaurant owners and operators to enhance communication between themselves and their customers. It also supports operators with a wealth of back-of-house information.”

DineAid.Com helps restaurants click with hundreds of new customers every day. “We like to think of the people who visit us as the DineAid community,” expands Wayne. “4.6% of people who visit DineAid dine out every day, and 12.6% dine out at least once a week.”

That’s just the beginning of the impressive numbers DineAid brings to the table. For example: 61% of visitors to DineAid are women. A very important fact when you take into account that 70% of the time when people decide to go out to eat it’s the woman who motivated that decision. And 82% of the time the woman makes the decision where to eat as well.

Building Customers with DineAid
DineAid.Com can serve up customers for your restaurant in three key ways. You can set up a splash page on the DineAid.Com site that will let customers see a photo of your restaurant plus read a tantalizing description of why they should come to your door. You can also choose to set up a mini-website within the Dineaid.Com site. Customers can see your restaurant, purchase on-line gift certificates and enter any contests you may be running. You can show menus, coupons, a profile of your chef… whatever you choose to promote. And if you already have your own site, you know that half the battle is getting traffic to your site. DineAid’s hyperlink program will maximize your exposure to an even greater audience and link you into the entire DineAid.Com community.

Front to back and back again
DineAid.Com offers programs for both your front and back-of-house requirements. Programs that will keep your customers coming back. Front-of-house benefits include convenient online reservations, coupons, gift certificates, and comment cards to track customers and encourage return visits to your restaurant. As well, you can take advantage of value-added window decals and sugar packets, plus great food service ideas, advice, and information.

Back-of-house benefits include the vital maintenance of your restaurant’s web presence, a toll-free support line, and monthly traffic reports. There are also a number of staff incentives, a wealth of industry resources and information, food service contests, and vendors’ product showcase.

The last word
“DineAid helps restaurant operators to manage business better and improve sales,” smiles Mr. Jagoe, “and best of all to create loyal customer relationships.” 

To find out more about DineAid.Com, contact your Gordon Food Service representative. Or call 1-800-268-0159.

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