Why your flashy website could be hurting your bar business
If your bar or nightclub website is more than 3 or 4 years old, there’s a good chance that some “flash” elements were used to add a dramatic intro, flashy transition effects, to build your contact form or even to build the entire site.
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform that is popular for adding animation and interactivity to web pages.
Flash is commonly used to create animation, advertisements, and various web page Flash components, to integrate video into web pages, to make games and more recently, to develop rich Internet applications. But here’s the problem, as your bar customers become more mobile and tech savvy and more and more iphones and ipads flood the market, you are going to have a bigger and bigger problem, because these devices do not run flash which means that your website won’t show to anyone searching for your business on these devices.
But it’s only a matter of time before these devices run this software, right? Wrong. Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple stirred up a lot of controversy this week by announcing that his touch screen devices will never run flash. He considers it an outdated type of software and unfit for the functions Apple products are designed for. Specifically, he says, flash was designed for a mouse, with it’s fancy rollover effects, none of which are needed on a touch screen device that will never have a mouse attached.
Is this a big problem, you might ask?
Well lets assume you undertake some form of text message advertising and promoting to your customers. If they open these messages on their iphones or ipads and want to find out more by visiting your website, DEAD END! Your flash website which was once praised for having amazing animation and sounds, is now out of date and will display as a simple blue error box in the middle of the screen, so it may be time to review your site to make sure it can remain relevant and a key part of your marketing effort. Your competitors might be…
The Curse Of Knowledge
When was the last time that you entered your bar or restaurant from the street as a customer, keen to order or simply to find a table?
How easy or difficult do you make it for your customers to find what they are looking for? How hard have you worked at creating that all important first impression? Whatever the first impression is for your customer, it will take a long time and significant effort to change their opinion
As business owners, we are all extremely familiar with our own businesses. We know where everything is when we need it, we know where the toilets are and whether guests seat themselves or a member of staff seats them. We know if we offer table service for drinks or if guests have to order from the bar. This is the curse of knowledge. It’s the knowledge of our own business that blinkers us from seeing our business through fresh eyes, uneducated to the ways of our business and often leaves guests standing at the doorway or in the middle of the floor looking around while we and
our staff pass by at speed on our way to a familiar destination in the bar. I’ve experienced staff members passing me ten times without assisting me or directing me. What kind of an impression is this? If I can’t get the attention of staff when I enter, what chance do I have of having an enjoyable experience. I might even leave.
So how do you ensure the first impression is a good one? Here are some pointers that will help:
1. Don’t expect your customers to know what to do. Put a sign at the entrance advising guests that they may seat themselves. Foreign tourists often expect to be seated so might stand at the door blocking traffic indefinitely unless they are helped.
2. Go through the guest experience yourself and see how easy or difficult you have made it for your guests to do what you want them to do: namely to come in, sit down and order.
3. Check that you have appropriate internal signage such as “Toilets”, “More Seating Upstairs”, “Pay Here” and any other
directions that will help your customers spend more time and money with you.
4. Create a drinks menu for customers. Not every customer orders Guinness and not every customer know what they want. You know what you stock, so get this down onto a menu and have it readily available for customers that have no idea what you offer. This is a great opportunity for upselling too.
So remember, the curse of knowledge can cost you business, but only if you close your eyes to the needs of your customers. Open your eyes and you may find people are spending more money with you and coming back again and again.
Easy? I think so.
How easy or difficult do you make it for your customers to find
what they are looking for? How hard have you worked at creating
that all important first impression? Whatever the first impression
is for your customer, it will take a long time and significant
effort to change their opinion
As business owners, we are all extremely familiar with our own
businesses. We know where everything is when we need it, we know
where the toilets are and whether guests seat themselves or a
member of staff seats them. We know if we offer table service for
drinks or if guests have to order from the bar. This is the curse
of knowledge. It’s the knowledge of our own business that blinkers
us from seeing our business through fresh eyes, uneducated to the
ways of our business and often leaves guests standing at the
doorway or in the middle of the floor looking around while we and
our staff pass by at speed on our way to a familiar destination in
the bar. I’ve experienced staff members passing me ten times
without assisting me or directing me. What kind of an impression is
this? If I can’t get the attention of staff when I enter, what
chance do I have of having an enjoyable experience. I might even
leave.
So how do you ensure the first impression is a good one? Here are
some pointers that will help:
1. Don’t expect your customers to know what to do. Put a
sign at the entrance advising guests that they may seat themselves.
Foreign tourists often expect to be seated so might stand at the
door blocking traffic indefinitely unless they are helped.
2. Go through the guest experience yourself and see how easy
or difficult you have made it for your guests to do what you want
them to do: namely to come in, sit down and order.
3. Check that you have appropriate internal signage such as
“Toilets”, “More Seating Upstairs”, “Pay Here” and any other
directions that will help your customers spend more time and money
with you.
4. Create a drinks menu for customers. Not every customer
orders Guinness and not every customer know what they want. You
know what you stock, so get this down onto a menu and have it
readily available for customers that have no idea what you offer.
This is a great opportunity for upselling too.
So remember, the curse of knowledge can cost you business, but
only if you close your eyes to the needs of your customers. Open
your eyes and you may find people are spending more money with you
and coming back again and again. Easy? I think so.
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About Barry Chandler
Barry Chandler works with bars and restaurants to bring more customers in the door through effective use of social media, online tools and customer engagement.
Since 2004, more than 2500 bars, restaurants and hotels have used his tools and services to improve their bottom line.
TheBarBlogger.com contains daily tips and strategies to grow a profitable hospitality business.
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