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Marianne Richmond

Check-ins vs Traffic and Why the Difference Matters to Your Restaurant

by Marianne Richmond on September 18, 2010

in Social Media

You probably have seen this by now: MacDonald’s Ups Foot Traffic 33% on Foursquare Day. Everyone loves these seemingly huge social media success stories and this one had the winning buzzwords: Foursquare, casestudy and 33% traffic increase. Econsultancy had the story direct from the mouth of Rick Wion the brand new Director of Social Media [...]

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Three Ideas to Add Value to Your Discounting

by Marianne Richmond on August 22, 2010

in customer experience,Email,Facebook,Social Media Marketing,Yelp

“You are what you charge for”* According to a recent NPD  restaurant industry survey, traffic declined for the 7th straight quarter but the declines are not as steep as they were in 2009. So, it has come to this: the good news is that things are not as bad as they were. Well, the NPD [...]

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E-Mail is Still Very Relevant & Very Social

by Marianne Richmond on August 9, 2010

in Email,Essential Utensils,Social Media Marketing

As we noted in a previous post, we consider E-mail marketing one of the Serving Social™ essential utensils. Sure, it often seems like social media marketing is all that is being talked about and if you read the latest Nielsen report you may have noticed that email dropped from #2 to the # 3 most [...]

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Planning Social Strategies? What is Right for YOUR Customer?

by Marianne Richmond on August 6, 2010

in Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing channels are not one size fits all. There is a lot of advice being offered about which social media platforms are “the best” or which social tools are “the only ones that matter.” Or worse yet, don’t pay attention to, for instance,  Yelp, Urban Spoon, or local search because they don’t “matter.” [...]

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Your Service Staff Must Serve Social

by Marianne Richmond on August 2, 2010

in customer experience,Customer Service

Recently I’ve seen a few links to a post with the headline, Chili’s – Training Servers About Foursquare. The post highlights that Chili’s provided instructions for their servers within the Foursquare promotional language; what they saw looked like this: @ Chili’s Grill & Bar: Check-in @ Chili’s & get free Chips & Salsa on every [...]

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5 Social Media Essential Utensils for Restaurants (Besides Facebook)

by Marianne Richmond on July 27, 2010

in Essential Utensils,Facebook,Social Media,Yelp

Facebook officially hit 500 million users last week….you probably already know this. Lately, it seems like Facebook is the world’s 3rd largest country –  apparently, it is as populous, based upon the number of mentions online and offline. In fact, when you think about it in that perspective, how many times did your kids, your [...]

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5 Ways to Turn Groupon Customers Into Your Restaurant’s Customers

by Marianne Richmond on July 9, 2010

in Customer Service,Loyalty

Groupon, the online “deal of the day” coupon collective is available in about 40 cities at the moment and growing.  If it hasn’t made it to your city yet, here are the specifics: Groupon subscribers receive an email offering them a deep discount from a local business that they purchase and will be able to [...]

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Is Your Restaurant Serving A Great Customer Experience?

by Marianne Richmond on May 30, 2010

in Customer Service,Facebook,Social Media,Twitter,Yelp

Is your staff consistently serving the kind of customer experience that you want them to? Serving Social encompasses offline as well as online customer interaction. Every one of your employees, including the one who answers your telephone, is part of your customers’ experience. Each has the power to enhance or detract from the success of [...]

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Facebook f8 & Your Restaurant Business

by Marianne Richmond on April 28, 2010

in Facebook

Facebook announced major changes this week that have been characterized as everything from pact with the devil to simply ambition to the socializing of the entire web. If philosophizing about the changes is not your thing and you really just want to know what it means for your restaurant business,  that can be summed up [...]

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4 ways to use social media to keep your restaurant top of mind

by Marianne Richmond on March 30, 2010

in Loyalty,Social Media

First time diners. A “blind date” with your restaurant. They came in because friends recommended your restaurant or they found you on Yelp! or maybe they simply saw your sign as they walked down the street.  They enjoyed the dinner; the service was great. You did everything right while they were there, but when they [...]

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