From the movie “Field of Dreams” farmer Ray hears a voice telling him “If you build it, he will come.” Meaning, the ghosts of eight dead White Sox players banned for throwing the 1919 World Series will appear. In true Hollywood form, tada, they appeared! Thanks to Hollywood, people are still coming to see the “Field of Dreams” and as I am from Iowa, I too have seen the “Field of Dreams” and let me tell you, you have to really want to see this to get there.
Fast forward from 1989 to now, 2010 and from what I see so many businesses see Facebook and social media in general as a field of dreams and if they build it, the customers will come. Many are seeing the benefits of social media however would many are not getting the results they expected.
For a food service operator there are marketing opportunities in every step of the way of the and many times those are over looked. Chef Larry Canepa and I talked about “where does marketing begin?” for an operator. Is it in the parking lot? In the paper? On Facebook? At the front door? At the table? Is it the food? The location? If we think about, yes to all of the above.
Right now we live in a world where social media makes “us”, our businesses transparent. If a customer has a negative experience they can easily find 15 places to tell the world about it; are you listening? What does a business do about it? Of course many of us might get defensive as hearing bad things about your business isn’t easy to hear. I know I always welcome feedback no matter how harsh it might be to hear it, I know I only benefit from hearing it.
Facebook is a big piece of the social media pie but how does it serve you? How does it serve your customers? A person can only take so much of push marketing; you know, when a business is trying to sell you on something. I don’t like being sold to however I do like buying something I’m sold on and for a restaurant to sell me they better have great food, great service, good people but that’s just the basics.
Just like anything else you do in life and in business, you need a plan. Plan your work and work your plan. Do you have a plan? I am starting a series of ”Next Step” on building your social media and I will make a commitment of blogging “10 Next Steps” over a 15 day time span. Sure, 10 in 10 sounds much sexier however I have a lot going on and want to make these really informative so “10 in 15″ is what I have to offer.
Let’s see if these steps can help your business. Of course if your food sucks, service terrible and your restaurant isn’t all that wow, well you’re going to need a lot more help than just Facebook which, we can help you there too. For now, think about what you would like to see happen with your Fan Page; why would you like your customers visit your page? Why do your customers keep coming back to your restaurant? What would you like your customers say about your restaurant to others?
It’s my “Field of Dreams” to have great customer experience with my clients and I hope it is with yours as well. The one key element about the move that is clear is his passion, commitment and belief that if he built it they will come and they did. The same applies with all of us but it is going to take a lot of passion and commitment for success. With that I say “bring it on!!
Restaurantmarketingpartners.com madonna@restaurantmarketingpartners.com @restaurantmkt voice 602.492.8419 mobile 602.692.1135
Tags: customer service, facebook, food service, Marketing, restaurants
