Develop a Powerful Answerphone Message

How many of you have a powerful answerphone message that forms part of your integrated marketing strategy? Remember, for many diners, the answerphone message is the first contact they may have with a restaurant they are considering dining at. And yet many restaurants simply don't have a message at all, or it lacks a call to action.

This hit home last week when I visited a restaurant owner. During our meeting, the phone rang 6 times, and four times, as soon as the person had listened to the message, they hung up without leaving a booking. That's a potential loss of business of more than $400 for this restaurant alone in the space of 2 hours!

If you have a great website (remember, it must really showcase your restaurant so that it builds trust in potential diners), then why not direct callers to your website in the first instance? This is very effective for people phoning and wanting instant information on functions or catering. If you direct these inquiries to your website, you are giving them the opportunity to find out more about you and your products immediately, without having to wait for you to phone back. They are also less likely to look elsewhere for the solution they are looking for.

If you have online booking on your website, even better - they can find out all about you and book online!

Here are three potential phone messages you could use today to improve your marketing overall:

Message one:
Thank you for calling [restaurant name].

Our trading hours are [trading hours].

If you wish to make a booking, you can do so after the beep. Or if you’d like to make a booking online, please visit our website on [www.websitename.com.au], where you can also view our menus, photos of our food and premises, function information and lots more.

Thank you once again for calling.

Message two:
Hi, thanks for calling [restaurant name]. Sorry we can’t take your call right now – you can hold and leave a message, or you can go online to [websitename.com.au] to see our menus, map, opening hours, photos and function options. You can even book a table on line if you like.

Message three:
Hello, and thank you for phoning [restaurant name]. We’re sorry we can’t take your call personally right now. If you’d like to find out more about us visit our website on [www.restaurantname.com.au]. You’ll be able to view our menus, photos of our food and premises, even information about functions and parties, and lots more.

You can even book a table online if you wish [optional].

Alternatively, if you’d like to leave a booking or a message by phone, please do so after the beep. Please remember to leave your name and contact details and we’ll be in contact very shortly.
Thanks once again for contacting us. We look forward to seeing you in the near future.

If you'd like to learn more about how to build an outstanding website for your restaurant, and really supercharge your marketing efforts, please phone (02 98888 440) or email us at any time.

Welcome to our blog

Hello to all our Eatout-Sydney subscribers, and welcome to our blog! I'm excited that Eatout-Sydney has grown so much in the last 7 months and for this I want to thank you for your trust and support. We now have 70 restaurants and cafes using our services to attract new diners to their venues. And demand only seems to be getting stronger!

A lot has happened behind the scenes in those 7 months since Sydney became the first Eatout dining guide in Australia. We've now opened in Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide. Malaysia is also up and running and our New Zealand site is as strong as ever. We've well and truly moved beyond being simply another Sydney dining guide.

Even more exciting is the product development itself. We're really moving away from just being an online restaurant dining guide and are positioning ourselves as a one-stop-shop for restaurant marketing. Central to this move is our emphasis on marketing integration. Too many restaurateurs simply have a website built and then park it, excluding it from all their other marketing efforts. Unfortunately, this approach doesn't work and the end result is a website that doesn't serve its purpose and only costs you money.

But websites that really showcase a restaurant, are easy to navigate around, and provide complete information on a restaurant can be a powerful marketing tool. When you start to integrate your website with your other marketing, results can skyrocket!

Over the next few months I'll be posting a series of simple ways you can all improve the return on investment your website is currently earning you (or costing you), along with other great marketing ideas. I'll also be keeping you updated on important things like Google ranking status and some of the other things we're doing to improve your results.

Thank you once again for your support.