There are something like 18 bazillion restaurants in the universe, I know because I think I've eaten at all but 3 of them! As a business owner, I'm starting to see an obvious trend with restaurants (and all businesses) that I believe is driving new customers to restaurants all around the country. They are discovering that video on their website is becoming as important as their chefs working hard behind the scenes, and the hosts and hostesses greeting people at the front door. Sound crazy? Indulge me for about the next 2-minutes and I'll try to explain myself. A restaurant can have the best chef in the world and amazing service at wonderful prices, but if nobody knows about any of it what good is it?
Restaurants are all about the food, the ambiance, the "vibe," and the experience of sitting in a comfortable place that has great food and fits your mood. That isn't breaking news. What is fast becoming obvious to anyone paying attention though is that whether people are traveling or sitting home on a Friday or Saturday night, they no longer look to the yellow pages to see if there are any Thai or Mexican restaurants, for example, nearby that they may have missed on their way home from work. People who are hungry nowadays looking for something different go directly to the web to see if there's some hidden gem out there that can serve up their dish of the day and serve it well.
Don't get me wrong. I know there are certain places (Subway, McDonalds, etc...) that people will go to and they could care less what their website looks like. I get that. But if you're in San Francisco, LA, New York, or Cincinnati, Ohio, for that matter, and you're looking for a place that has great food, some ambiance , and maybe a dance club upstairs, you're going to the web looking for answers. That's why restaurant owners are fundamentally changing the way they are being perceived online. They are now featuring video of various menu items instead of just showing still pictures. They're showing video of what the restaurant looks like instead of an image of a menu. They're featuring testimonials from chefs, customers, and ownership on what makes their place special. They're making a bold statement on the web about why their places are a "must stop" for customers looking for their specialty foods. The fact is, people today expect to see video----even on a restaurant website. They don't log on to a site and "hope" video is there.
Video is not only being used to help show the world what a restaurant offers and what it's like to walk in the doors and eat, it's also being used to tell the restaurant's "story" and what they stand for. One example of a restaurant who is serious about taking this approach is a place called 360 Gourmet (www.360gb.com), based out of Northern Californa. They're in the process of changing the way people see restaurants online. They're in the early stages of preparing their new web presence with video and it's really going to be something!
They have several restaurants at airports and cities around the country and are expanding as we write this. What's great about them is that their food is delicious, you can get it hot and fast or take your time if you like, and eat "healthy" burritos all day long and feel good about it. Besides the great "gourmet food on a humble tortilla" what I like most about this group is that they are spearheading a project called "meal for meal" where they donate 100-percent of the proceeds from their kids menu to feed hungry children around the world. Wow. Having met the owner, Wafi Amin, I know that he's doing this because it means something to him. It's not a gimmick. The point is, if I'm a consumer and I can go to a website simply lookng for food, and stumble across a place like this that shows me that they not only have great gourmet food at great prices---but they're also acting in a socially responsible and humane way--it only makes me want to do business with them that much more. I think most of America feels the same way.
It's a pleasure to see that today's technology can help tell those wonderful stories that are happening in big cities and small cities all around this great country. These are stories that frankly might have gone unnoticed if the story was just told with simple text and still pictures.
When used properly, isn't today's video technology (and people like Wafi Amin) great?
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