Foursquare Mayor Offer

About Foursquare

I use Foursquare, all my friends are on it.  We use it to brag about all the funs things we’re doing and also to find each other on the weekend.  Basically when you walk into a restaurant, bar, gym, tennis court, etc you check-in.  The GPS feature in your phone finds your location and then you select it and check-in.  It then notifies your friends where you are located.  On foursquare’s latest edition you can add notes to your friends, tips for other Foursquare users, and access nearby Foursquare deals configured by nearby businesses.  You also earn points for checking in often, badges for accomplishing tasks, and become the Mayor if you check in often.  It’s this Mayorship that appeals to me…I haven’t the slightest idea why really as everywhere I am Mayor has no perks at the moment.  I would be more enthusiastic if they did.  Points and badges haven’t been that exciting in my social circle…although I’ve seen friends comparing their badges with enthusiasm.

Turning your Foursquare Mayor into Brand Ambassadors
So Nate’s suggestion is to turn your Foursquare Mayors into Brand Ambassadors.  There tends to be 3-4 people in the running for the Mayor title at any given time.  Find out who they are on Foursquare, track them down, get to  know them, offer them perks, and create competition.  These guys are obviously patronizing your business a lot, why not make sure they know your appreciate it and give them a free something here and there.   That’s certainly going to get them talking.  When Sagra Enoteca told me they were giving the Mayor a free pizza, I immediately added that as a note to my friends while checking in.  It creates a conversation piece…something worthy of posting on Facebook…and that’s where the value comes in as it creates word of mouth advertising about your business.    This is a list of Nate’s suggestions on how to identify, embrace, and honor your Mayor:

• Learn who your mayors are (you can do this by looking it up at www.Foursquare.com).  The mayorship of your business will most likely change hands between the same three to four people over time. Know all of them by name and face.
• Take the time to connect with your mayors across other social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. If they blog, read it and maybe even leave the occasional comment.
• Invite your mayor to meet with you in person. Take the time to have a real-life conversation.
• Ask your mayors why they choose to come to your location.  Learn why they buy from you and ask how you can improve.
• Offer to open an ongoing tab for your mayor.
• On occasion, comp your mayor’s purchase. As the mayor of your business, he or she likely already spends plenty of dough in your location. A pizza or appetizer on the house is a nice gesture of appreciation for their ongoing business.
• Give your mayors a book of buy-one-get-one-free coupons and ask them to bring their friends to your location.
• Find out when your mayor has a birthday or anniversary or any special event. Then, throw him or her a party and ask him or her invite friends.
• Make your mayor a VIP at your location. Does he or she have a favorite place to sit? Reserve it for him or her. Know your mayors’ typical orders and the times they come. Have things ready for them. Go the extra mile to appreciate their business.

So I was happy to see that Louie’s 106 owner Joe Elmiger shined once again with his multi-course menus.  Louie’s 106 has statistically outperformed all our other Austin Restaurants during Austin Restaurant Week.  I hate to give Joe’s secret away, but it shouldn’t be that hard to figure out.  Make really exciting menus!  It’s a contest for what menu sounds the sexiest, spiciest, and most succulent that wins new diners during restaurant week.  And that’s the whole point of Restaurant Week and Flavors of Austin!

For his Flavors of Austin menu Joe offered a 4 course menu with salad, sea bass, choice of beef tornadoes or Rack of Lamb, and cheese cake.  That’s the lame, flat, boring way to say it.  Personally he could have spiced this up even more, but check out this his Flavors of Austin menu for an example of something that sounds sexy and delicious.  And for an even more polished example of the difference in menus, try this article from Austin Entrepreneur Network blogger Bill Leake on his perception of two restaurant week menus from Austin favorites Roaring Fork and Green Pastures. He hit the nail on the head with that blog post and was the inspiration for mine…so rather than go into more detail here…I figured I’d give credit where due.  The only other advice I could to add to that is to avoid getting too exotic with your restaurant week menu.  I had a client feature an octopus entree on his menu one year and noticed their traffic drop considerably from the previous event.  Was that the exact cause?  I don’t know.  But I’m confident 80% of Americans are scared of Octopus in the kitchen or otherwise.  Only a fraction of us spent a couple of summers in Spain exploring things entrees like Pulpo a la Gallega.  The rest of them want to hear about Coffee Crusted Rib Eye and Prosciutto-Fontina-Asparagus Stuffed Chicken Breast.

The Initial Visit
First of all you have to make sure that they know about your restaurant.  Even if you’ve been in town for 20 years, they could be new in town and we recommend you assume they have never dined with you.  Concierges need to feel comfortable they’re sending their guests to a place that will satisfy their guests and that means they need to sample your offerings.  Send a charming member of your staff by to invite them into to dine with you.  When you visit a concierge, don’t come empty handed.  It’s a nice gesture to bring them a sample of the menu such as a good appetizer that keeps well.  But don’t stop there.  Bring them a gift certificate and whatever you do, don’t skimp with a buy 1 get one free type of coupon.  Give them a full $50 – $100 gift certificate so they can bring a friend and order well from the menu.   They know that they’ll get food critic service if they annouce their visit and some of them want to try you out secretly.  That’s why a gift certificate is better than saying “just come on in and we’ll take care of you”.  We’re assuming you’re already delivering great food and service and they’ll be impressed with every facet of the experience without having to announce their arrival.

Ask for Their Email Address
Tell them that you have a referral program and that you’d like to invite them to join Big Concierge where they can make money by sending you guests.  Also mention that you have periodic contests and you’d like to be able to email them the information.  Some concierges may hesitant to give you their email address, but most will be fine with it.

Leave Your Info Behind
As a back up to getting their email we suggest you also print an invitation to Big Concierge using the unique code that is available in your Invites > Concierges screen.  You can also use one of the ones we designed for you.  Don’t just print it in black in white or it will find its way into the trash can quickly.  Print it in color, even better…laminate it.  Ask them if they can leave it on the concierge desk for the next shift or post it in the break room if you’re dealing with front desk staff.  It is also wise to leave brochures, menus, and anything they can help convey the experience and price points to guests.

Send them an Invitation to Join Big Concierge

Invitations Screen

Entering their email into our system is the best way to invite concierges because our tools allow you to keep track of your efforts.   You can easily resend the invitation using the Resend button if they don’t sign up the first time around.  It also keeps track of when you sent it last and how many times you’ve sent it.  We recommend you invite them up to 3 times to join Big Concierge and wait a 2-4 weeks between invitations.  If you invite them too many times and they don’t join, they may find it annoying and you’ll risk alienating them…so don’t over do it.

Contests Screen for Concierges

Post a Contest
If you’re new to Reservation Genie and post a contest, make sure you do it for an extended purpose.  It will take awhile to get concierges to sign up and get in the habit of sending you customers online and you don’t want a weak contest showing.  The idea is to make it for 6 months and offer something compelling.  A $100 gift certificate to the restaurant isn’t that good of a prize…remember you’re already supposed to comp their dinner any way.  Cash is always best, but airline tickets, trips to Vegas, and gift cards are also compelling.  We’ll talk more about using the Contests Tool in a later post.  You can click on the image to the right to view what Concierges see in the Contest Screen

Stay in Touch
There are all sorts of ways to stay in touch, but we recommend sending that charming staff member on a hotel run every 3 months collecting emails and building rapport.  You can then invite all concierges who’s email you have in your system to come in and dine with you.  An easy way to do this is to simply send them all an email saying thank you and inviting them in.  Have them show your staff a business card to get dinner or lunch comped that week.  This has an added benefit as they will tell other hotel employees.  The more hotel employees you can reach, the better.  You can also use the Contest Tool referenced above in conjunction with your Concierge Reporting feature to offer a standing bonus to concierges who send you a certain number of reservations each month such as a $100 gift card bonus for every concierge that sends you 20 reservations a month.

Reservation Genie collects contact name and email of all parties making reservations.  That reason alone is enough to encourage customers to book online as you can use this information for your email newsletter in the future.  If you use our social media tools, VIP loyalty program, or Customer Relations Management module, there are even more reasons to encourage people to book through your website as these all help boost marketing and customer relations.  But the simple convenice of not having to make call backs alone is worth it.  So we thought we’d suggest ways to get more customers booking online.

1. Change your business outgoing message.  Have it say “For reservations, please visit our website at www.websitename.com”  If you use Reservation Genie to book only smaller parties, you can qualify that information here by saying “For reservations of party sizes up to 10, please visit our website and use the Online Reservations link.  For party sizes of 11 or more, please leave a message with reservations details and a hostess will return you call as quickly as possible”.  This eliminates the need for a call back, sends the customer to your website (always a good habit), and exposes them to the marketing components in Reservation Genie all at once.
2. Enter reservations that come over the phone into Reservation Genie using the Add Reservation tab.  This has the added benefit of decreasing your inventory and helps prevent getting traffic at times when you can’t handle it.  But the real value occurs when you add the customer’s email address as it will send them confirmation with a link to register to Reservation Genie.  If they do, it will give them credit for the reservation towards becoming VIP and allow you to add notes to their account that will be available to other staff members in the future.  And it has the added benefit of reminding them they can book online next time.  Just ask them if they would you like to receive confirmation via email and if they say yes, enter it in the system.  Our site does the rest.
3. Enable Perks! With the Search by Availability & Perk feature regular Reservation Genie users can enter a party size and time and see which restaurants are offering perks.  This may be a great way to boost traffic on slow nights with good perks such as free appetizer with the purchase of two entrees OR 50% off bottles of wine under $75.  Those are great reasons to try one restaurant over another.  Perks help your restaurant stand out to our regular users and since those reservations are free…you can afford to boost marketing there.
4. Enable the VIP loyalty program. Most of our new members come from our clients websites.  When they book a reservation it sets them up with a Reservation Genie account.  But people who hear about deals on Reservation Genie can also access that info without an account.  Anybody who sees the value in getting 10 – 20% off the check every time they visit may be inclined to pick your restaurant as a place to become VIP.  If you don’t use the program, you’re not appealing to these types of customers.
5. Use the Concierge Tools. We have a private site for concierges to book at our clients called Big Concierge.  Any hotel employee can join once they have been invited and make money sending you customers.  We have tools that help you build and maintain these relationship with concierges, but you have to actively use them.  We offer tips on courting concierges so that you have an organized approach.  Interacting with concierges is a subject that we’ll reserve for the next blog post as there are many ways to reap value here.   But the process includes inviting them to join your network, inviting them in to dine on the house, offering their guests perks, and posting quarterly or bi-annual contests.

Reservation Genie offers several valuable tools to help increase marketing and most of them are included in the $49 monthly fee.  But you have to actively use them to reap the rewards.   If you forgot to implement some of the items in this list, we highly recommend taking the time to do so.

Staggered Schedule

Using Your Regular Schedule
The idea behind table turning is to change your schedule during restaurant week (works great on Valentines, Mother’s Day, and New Year’s Eve too!) so that you only accept reservations every 30 or 45 minutes and boost capacity during those times to accommodate the higher volume.  How much time to make available between availability will vary based on long it takes your restaurant to get from seating a customer to delivering the man course.  The idea being that if you get a waive of tables at 5pm, how long will it take the kitchen to be ready for the next waive of entrees?  Try to set your schedule so that the waves come in the appropriate periods to help the kitchen manage the flow.  From a server perspective, it will help spread out their seating and help minimize getting sat four tables at once which can lead to bad service regardless how well they manage “the weeds”.    Using your schedule to bring traffic in waves can help both the kitchen and the front of the house do a better job which leads to happier customers and more word of mouth advertising.  Depending on your traffic patterns, you may wish to use this strategy on weekend nights as well.   View the full image above.

Schedule Override Tool

Using your Schedule Override
You can do this with your regular schedule or your Schedule over-ride (available from your Reservation Screen, see image to the right).  If you set it up in your regular schedule it will stay that way from week to week, so make sure you change it back after the high traffic period.  If its just a holiday, definitely use your Schedule Over ride tool so it’s just for that date in question.  It may be wise to simply configure all your restaurant week days using the Schedule Over-ride so that you don’t have switch things back to normal later.

Concierge view of Search by Availability

We rolled out new tools for repeat visitors to our main site and concierges over the weekend.  Previously we had only one way to make a reservation.  Users selected the venue name, entered a size and available times at that venue were displayed.  Now they can search all restaurants by availability and perk.  In this scenario, they enter a size and a time and it lists what venues are available and what perks they are offering at that time.   (View full image displayed above.) We wanted to let our clients know how we think it will affect their results when it comes to deal seekers and your reservation size limitations.

Deal Seekers
If people are interested in deals, they can use this feature to see where they can get a perk for booking through Reservation Genie.  The same thing goes for concierges booking through Big Concierge and their perk settings.  So if you want your restaurant to appeal to deal seekers, consider offering them a good perk to book through Reservation Genie.  You can create any perks you want using your Settings > Perks tab.  However, we recommend you give away something if something is purchased as opposed to a direct discount.  So instead of offering 20% off the tab, try offering something like 50% off wines under $100 with purchase of 2 entrees.  You are still likely to make money on the wine and and won’t be discounting the food.  If the perk is 20% off and they could just order an entree and a water…reducing your margins significantly.  50% off wine gives them the effect of getting a good deal and encourages them to spend more.  They may not have purchased wine at all without the perk.  So this guarantees you get your margin on the main product and still gives customers an insider deal.

Max Party Size and Schedule Inventory Effects
If your max party size is too low OR your schedule numbers are too low at the chosen time, you will not show up for large party searches.  Some of you may wish to boost these numbers and use the auto confirm settings to require manual confirmation for large parties so that you don’t miss out on large parties.  This is of course dependent on your size and whether or not you have a laptop at the hostess stand for easy confirmation of pending reservations.  A laptop at the hostess stand is still the best way to manage things, refurbished ones are going for about $300 – 350 on www.buy.com