Good job with Wine Imbiber ” Our First Day in Chianti. restaurant take reservations are the best….

Great blog post! I couldn’t agree more. Affiliate marketing is taking the net by storm….

Ray Schiel
The Global Social Media Network

The first is consumer driven - it’s easy, convenient and free. Instead of having to wait until the restaurant is open to make a phone call, or to wait for someone to answer the phone when they are open, you can reserve 24/7. As you mention above, many consumers are making a decision about where to dine online. It’s only natural that by offering a booking service at that decision point in that medium that you’ll get the reservation.

The second reason is restaurant operations driven. From our own experience at Livebookings Network of delivering online bookings to restaurants, we can see that 18% of bookings made on our system are generated outside normal opening hours (10pm – 10am) and 44% of bookings are made during busy service times (12pm – 3pm and 6pm – 10pm) - taken from an average booking month. These are times when you are either unable to take a phone call because you are closed or unwilling to take a phone call because you are busy. By offering online booking you can provide a better service to dining guests and to prospective bookers. In addition you can grow your own customer database for future email marketing and customer retention.

Allen Taylor

After reading this post, I am not sure I understand what you are trying to relate. Please expand on your thoughts a little more. Thanks…

Six Apart started a working group in February 2006 to improve the Trackback protocol with the goal to eventually have it approved as…

I am 25, so I have lived my adult life with the internet as a reality that me and all my friends take for granted. I would no more think of looking something up in a paper directory, or look in a local newspaper than I would think of going to a Neil Diamond concert; although I know from my work each day that I see life differently to most of my customers, the fact is THEIR customers are increasingly like me! I read the other day that 97% of 18-24 year olds begin every internet ‘experience’ on Google or Yahoo! - I certainly do- and surely everyone will do this soon. Businesses NEED to be found on these vital search engines if they are going to attract customers and leads.

From my perspective, the tougher the economy gets, the more important my job is in helping businessmen and women see the amazing results they will get by getting their name and phone number in front of potential customers EXACTLY when those customers are looking to buy. I almost feel that I am there to HELP them, although of course in the end, I want them to buy campaigns to promote their business. Yes, I sell them things, but I really can see the benefits in what we offer, and nearly all of them renew every 6 months or each year because it works so well for them.

I spend a lot of time talking to Dentists, as I work mainly in this area, and this sector has really understood the value in promoting themselves online. Implants, whitening, and all forms of cosmetic dentistry are actively marketed online. However, if I contrast that with less modern, more traditional areas of business, we seem to still be talking to people who don’t have a website, or those that do have one don’t promote it or look for customers to visit it. It’s like having boxes of leaflets in the back room, but never giving them out to any customers!! Also, I know that the vast majority of consumers LOOK online, but ACT offline- they pick up the phone and arrange a visit or ask questions before coming in to buy locally. At £5.50 a gallon for petrol, I see local buying getting more and more popular, so I see my role of advising my customers how best to spend their money to maximise their returns as ever more important.