 Several of our restaurant clients have had terrible experiences with various food delivery services. Here's an inside look at the reason some of your favorite restaurants are not participating in UBEReats, GrubHub, Postmates, etc., as well as some solutions YOU can use as a consumer. Dear Delivery Service, There is a lot more involved in proper delivery of our menu items. 1) The fleet needs to be prepared to immediately exit the premises and drive directly to the diner's location. We have experienced drivers from various services getting comfortable at the bar, and delaying their deliveries. 2) Based on the Yelp reviews we have received from diners who received their meals from delivery services like Postmates, other events are happening between our restaurant and the food's destination. I'm not sure what events this could entail, but it is not conducive to our customers' expectations. 3) The other problem is tipping. Our hard-working staff has no incentive to service delivered meals, and in fact, is often penalized for it. The IRS withholds based on the total sales, not on the total tips. So, a delivered sale will be taxed as if the server is receiving a full tip, but in reality, the tips are often small--as consumers don't understand the extra work involved in packing a to-go meal, and it's being split with the driver. How Postmates can help:
Our hope is that Postmates will take this feedback seriously and enact immediate changes. If your system changes, please let us know! We would be happy to reconsider participating in your platform.  Recently, a not for profit organization had a change of Directors. This change was not foreseen as the Director was diagnosed with a terminal condition that quickly took her life. The organization failed to keep a record of passwords and other pertinent information that were necessary to edit their website, check email messages and access bank and credit card information.
The Director probably had all that information saved somewhere, but where? So not only was the organization suddenly scrambling to keep up on the day to day activities the Director had been doing, they also found themselves in the dark as it related to all the technology that had been part of the organization. That is one reason to make sure the organization's website has a maintenance plan with your web designer. Some businesses try to save a few dollars by having a staff person manage their website. Every owner or board of directors should consider engaging their web company to maintain the site and keep access for edits and changes even if the employee is making some edits. That is like an insurance policy against having an employee quit or otherwise leave the business wondering how to manage the site without them. At the bare minimum, a hosting and maintenance plan should be included with your web company.  There is no doubt that how we do business has changed dramatically since the world wide web presented itself. We have seen the demise of brick and mortar businesses all across our country. The last Blockbuster Movie store just closed as a good example. Changes in how we buy goods and services have impacted the traditional process. How we find companies to do business with has changed as well. Phone books and Yellow Pages have been replaced with web domains. Almost every business has some level of web presence these days if they want to stay viable.
When the time comes to sell a business, owners should consider part of the value of their company is their web presence. It is just as much an asset as inventory and real estate. That being the case, business owners that are thinking of selling should invest some effort in making sure their website is current and valuable and can be demonstrated as a generator of revenue. Some web designers do much more than host a site. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts are a good example of additional services that drive traffic and attract sales. Social media posts and ads directed to a target market can be shown to prospective buyers that your business is viable and current with today's marketing strategies. A discussion with the web hosting company should be part of the selling process to determine what is owned and if there are any contractual arrangements that would prevent a new owner from assuming the website terms and conditions. Your website can be modified to include a "hidden" page that can be shown to prospective buyers that give information not visible to the public that could include sales helps such as a history of revenues, profitability, cost of goods, recent evaluations of inventory, real estate holdings, etc. Tapping into the full potential of a website includes working with your web team to promote the value not only of your products and services, but your business as well.  Question: How can I expedite my online marketing through blogging? We received this question from a client that writes hefty proposals for multi-million dollar government contracts. When we realized that the client is an avid writer (they write proposals that dwarf most John Grisham books), we gave them the instructions on how to get writing, and GET RESULTS! Here is an idea task list to expedite your marketing efforts: Blog like a crazy person (blog as much as you can, as much as you want, every day and night)
DON'T WRITE DIRECTLY IN WEEBLY. Because technology.
BLOG CONTENT BANK (feel free to add your own key phrases!):
SOCIAL MEDIA BLAST
Now that you have your content ^, you can send it out to the masses. To post on Facebook or Twitter or Linkedin: Click on the Blog Title of your post. It should look like this: http://www.wakinggirl.com/business-proposal-writers/business-proposal-writers-in-san-francisco-ca NOT: http://www.wakinggirl.com/business-proposal-writers/ Copy & paste the link and include your opening thoughts. NOT just the link. You can include the opening paragraph or two: We are a content consulting company specializing in new business proposals. Our staff of writing, graphic design, and subject matter professionals work side by side with you to craft and price winning solutions. Or say something like: I had a lot of fun writing this article on the Top 10 Tips for Talking Trash. Somebody dared me to do it, and I did. And it was awesome. You'll never believe #7. Or: This is a must-read for business owners in the construction industry. Tag your construction owner friends (or just print it out and mail it to them, because they're not on Facebook). START THERE- and let us know how we can help! |
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