Comments on: A business website is not advertising, it’s Customer Service!

By: turkey roaster

turkey roaster — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 11:05:20 +0000

Your use of such emphatic words in your article shows an intense excitement in what you are trying to convey. Keep up the good work! I will most definitely insert a link to http://joecascio.net/joecblog/2009/11/25/a-business-website-is-not-advertising-its-customer-service/ on my site.

By: Josh Bob

Josh Bob — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:36:27 +0000

Looks like somebody wants to learn more about Textaurant!

Great rant, Joe. I agree with most of what you said, although I highly doubt you’ll ever find a restaurant that will publish their busy/off hours. They want you to drop in and find out first-hand when those are, or at least commit a bit of time by calling.

At Textaurant, we want to change the way you wait for a table, by automating what Dan and you mentioned in the comments – we text/tweet/email you when your table is *almost* ready, giving you time to return to the restaurant and claim your seat. We also have plans to show the wait times of every Textaurant-enabled restaurant, so you can choose the one that’s right for you.

If you’re interested in learning more, drop me a line!

Thanks,
– Josh

By: admin

admin — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:02:24 +0000

Real-time is just a matter of time, I think. As more people become constantly connected and have their mobile device with them all the time, it will (should?) become commonplace for the hostess or maître d’ to notify people by twitter or text that their table is ready using their personal device.
Why have to sit in crowded waiting room or lounge when you can be out and about anywhere? In fact, I’ve always thought a restaurant should have an on-line waiting list that you could monitor on your phone, so you always know where you stand. This would actually be a cost reduction for the restaurant if they could get rid of a purpose-built flashing pager systems.

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:23:44 +0000

Though I agree with much of what you are saying and I lost track of the number of times I found an outdated website that gives completely wrong information, I think its a bit unrealistic to expect a restaurant to provide information in real time on Twitter.

However, I like the idea of customers tweeting with a hash tag while eating there, certainly that’s user generated content and others can search that content later but I would rather have the restaurant staff focus on cooking me a nice meal.

As far as a map and directions go, you can do a Google map search using the actual name of the restaurant (no address needed) and city it’s located in (either via the web or the iphone or other mobile app) that is fairly accurate not having to rely on the restaurants website for that information.