DineAid.Com Lists 4,300 Restaurants

Doug Watling-Downtown Fredericton, February 7, 2001

500,000 Hits: DineAid.Com president and founder
Wayne Jagoe says that in 1997, "I knew nothing
about the internet, but I wanted to create a directory
that listed every restaurant in Atlantic Canada.
That was the premise, and the Internet became the medium,"
In December DineAid registered approximately 500,000 hits

In a world of premature Internet startups and even faster failures, Fredericton's DineAid.Com is one success story that stands out.

President and founder Wayne Jagoe started the business in the fall of 1997 while working as general manager of BrewBakers. Jagoe says: "I knew nothing about the Internet, but I wanted to create a directory that listed every restaurant in Atlantic Canada. That was the premise, and the Internet became the medium."

Today, DineAid.Com lists more than 4,300 restaurants from the Atlantic region, and its Web site is a model of interactivity and useful information.

Visitors may search for restaurants, enter contests, buy gift certificates for specific restaurants, assess the merits of a showcase restaurant, pursue chef profiles, sift through recipes or scan food service news.

The site also features 108 preferred clients whose restaurants host their own Web sites within DineAid. Those clients list updated menus and provide other services like comment cards and the "Ask Our Chef" option.

As Jagoe notes: "Chefs are an integral part of the site. Their profiles are also critical as a pro-active component of what we provide."

Being pro-active is a key for DineAid. Jagoe says: "We're constantly seeking out information. That's why we're so different - we work directly with our clients. We're an extension of what they do. That includes providing clients with monthly updates and with up-to-date graphs of vital information provided by customer traffic on the site. Last month (in December) DineAid registered more than 50,000 page impressions or approximately 500,000 hits."

Comment cards are also a vital ingredient in customer feedback, both electronically and in the restaurants themselves. Gift certificates have been a big factor as well. Jagoe notes: "Seventy-six per cent of gift certificates are for people who aren't from Atlantic Canada. In Fredericton's case, 97 per cent of certificates are for people who don't actually live in the city."

With that sort of far-reaching response, it's not surprising that DineAid will soon be going national. Jagoe says: "We've never had an exit strategy. Our credibility is building because we're in it for the long haul."

With that in mind, DineAid already has 60,000 restaurants in its national directory. The national site will be unilingual at the outset, but bilingual soon thereafter.

The national launch will also mark the introduction of the Industry Resource Centre, which will offer advice and help on such diverse matters as food costs, accounting, and grocery control to independent operators who are also DineAid clients.

The move to a Canada-wide listing is a huge step but DineAid.Com is still innovating and expanding in Atlantic Canada.

The Hilltop Pub is about to introduce on-line ordering for pick-up or delivery.

BrewBakers is planning a gourmet-to-go service which will enable customers to order on the net, then pick up their dinner on the way home.

That sort of dynamism makes DineAid.Com tick. The site is invaluable for restaurants as a marketing tool, while restaurant and consumer faith in the DineAid approach is the lifeblood of the site.

Jagoe is aware of the relationship as he discusses DineAid's plans: "We're cautiously optimistic. We've come a long way, but we've got a long way to go. in the long run, customer service is just as important to us as it is to the industry itself."

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