Customer Feedback Form

Great Kirkland Restaurant

Another great visit to George's. Always friendly, fast & inviting atmosphere. Extensive menu, including breakfast. Recommend it without hesitation!

in reference to: George's Place - Kirkland, Washington (view on Google Sidewiki)

Should we dance? No, let's chat!

The other day I came across a new service called ChatToText.

Take a look at their 5-minute video for details.

The concept behind it is pretty simple - it's a service that allows you to chat from your computer. Certainly not a novel concept, but what makes this unique is that you can chat with the person who isn't on the Internet, who may not be anywhere near a computer. How? Via SMS (aka text messaging).

Here's how it works. You get on a web site and click on 'Text Me On My Cell Phone' button (like the one you see here). You see the usual chat window, where you type your short message and click to send it. Within a few seconds I receive this message on my cell phone, click Reply and enter a reply in my phone and hit send (no need to select where it goes - it already knows it). Within a few seconds the chat window shows my reply and you're ready to enter another message, if you wish and the process repeats.

So, essentially you are chatting, although a little slower than usual, but you are chatting.

Since everyone nowadays has cell phones, and all of them have SMS messaging (texting) - ChatToText service could be very useful. For example a restaurant could have such button right on their web site and their customers could ask a question like 'What's today's special?' and get an immediate reply. Or they could ask if you had an opening for 20 this evening.

Of course the question one might ask - couldn't they just pick up the phone and call? Of course they could, but then there's a chance of getting a busy tone or being placed on hold or being unable to understand someone on the other end (no disrespect intended to anyone, I'm one of those people with an accent myself). So, I think it does have possibilities.

Another interesting side-effect of this is privacy. If you wanted people to text you on you cell - you could simply give them your cell number and then they could. But for obvious privacy reasons - nobody would want to do so. So, this capability protects your privacy (since the person initiating the chat simply sees and clicks on a button), and it gives you the convenience of being able to receive such text messages on your cell.

Last but not least, you don't necessarily even have to use this for chat communication, you could could also use it as a simple way for someone to text you, right from your web site or blog.

For many restaurants, especially smaller ones, having computers infrastructure, Internet connections etc. is simply not an option they want to pursue. Whether it would be for technological reasons, financial reasons or any other reasons - we see lack of technology in many restaurants daily. But with this kind of tool - they can participate in interacting with their customers who do like and do use the Internet and its tools, via a cell phone, without missing a beat.

So, check out this 5-minute video and see if this kind of service would work for you. They only charge $6/mo for the service, which is pretty affordable for most, even in today's economic climate. To offset/eliminate the cost - you might want to participate in their incentive program, certainly not mandatory but something to consider.

Kindle2 for Online Ordering? Why not?

Amazon announced the new Kindle2 today and from the initial reviews it looks like a worthy follow-up to the original e-reader.

After reading yet again about its free wireless access to the Internet, ability to have relatively large storage (when it comes to books and blogs, anyway), nice display and pondered the possibility of using such device for restaurants to receive online orders.

Takeout Online has been providing online ordering via fax (for vast majority of our clients) and some via computer/printer environment (where Internet connectivity was a must).  The reason vast majority of restaurants we serve do get orders via fax is because most of them don't have computers and Internet connectivity and certainly aren't about to spend the money to have such just to be able to receive online orders.

But Kindle2 offers built-in Internet access from anywhere, as well as a nice display and one could easily set up either a private blog where orders would be shown or just a web site.  Each restaurant would have their own feed of orders.  All of the benefits of Internet access without the monthly fee.

Even though this approach is doable, reasonably simple to implement and should work very well - it does have some drawbacks.  First, the cost of the device, something most restaurants would have a hard time justifying.  Although that could be countered with the monthly Internet access fees, which would make it pay for itself in about 6 months, but still that's one drawback.  The second drawback is employee use of such an expensive device.  That might also be an issue, since so many employees are not very savvy when it comes to technology or taking care of someone else's $359 device.  Then there's the theft issue, it's mighty easy to walk away with one of these or leave on the counter and have someone else walk away with it.  And last, but not least - the lack of print functionality, which many prefer - they want to have a paper in the kitchen from which to make the orders.

Clearly, this device wouldn't be for any restaurant, but I think some better class restaurants might benefit from such an arrangement.  If nothing else - one could always use it for something esoteric like... I don't know... reading books :)

We are NOT in eating recession

Image via Wikipedia

Just read this article, submitted by Jeffrey Summers via Twitter, that concurs with our own experience on Takeout-Online.com, which in essence indicates that people are still busy, they still need to eat, they still don't have time (or don't want) to cook and therefore ordering takeout is as popular, even though recession is all around.

I'm sure the impact is there and there are restaurants that are hurting and going out of business, but, at least at this point, it's a minority. We haven't had a single restaurant on Takeout Online go out of business in recent past and haven't heard from anyone that they would be, although some have indicated that the business has dropped a bit, for some.

Geographic location and local economies are certainly a big part of this mix as well, but as the article points out - people are ordering takeout, which is still something that every restaurant should offer, with the convenience of online ordering of course :)

People with no life... ordering takeout

A few days ago at 3-4am there were a few takeout orders that came in for hundreds of items, clearly bogus. Obviously someone has no life and wanted to test their form-filling skills.

The bigger question though - what to allow on a restaurant web site, in terms of information that would be considered acceptable. Certainly one could check for short name entered, but some Asian names are 2 characters long, so that wouldn't really work for all situations. One could limit the order to 10 or 20 items, but then again, when Microsoft places an order for a gathering - that's not going to be sufficient. So, in the end it makes sense to just ignore the losers who have nothing better to do and concentrate on real improvements to the service and support of normal, legitimate customers.

Of course this isn't only a situation with online ordering, I'm sure there are pranksters who call on the phone and do the same thing, although they'd have to use different tactics.

In the end online ordering is still a better alternative, because the restaurant doesn't waste time dealing with bogus orderers, since online ordering service handles the order part on their behalf.

What's your experience? Comment here or tweet @takeoutonline

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• Online Food Ordering System: It's All About Time! (articlesbase.com)

Economy Tanking but People ARE Eating Takeout

Looking at the only orders, an interesting development.  Seems like online takeout orders dropped when the whole economic woes news broke out, which was expected and not surprising to see.  However, as time progressed and more and more bad news is coming out, without visible end (at least so far) in sight... and yet the orders have picked up and continue to come in at a decent clip.

Anyone else noticed a similar effect?  No question that some restaurants are going out of business and clearly times are worse, but perhaps the fact that people still need to eat and still want the convenience of online ordering (i.e. don't want to cook, but do want to eat at home) explains it somewhat.

Thoughts anyone?

Takeout Online Business Opportunity (details)

Note that I'm not asking for your name or e-mail to get this info, as seemingly everyone else does. 

Here's the skinny... let's say you decide to take advantage of our business opportunity and join the Takeout Online effort.

The first thing that'll happen - we will sign a mutually beneficial agreement, where the details of our relationship will be fully spelled out, so both you and Takeout Online can know precisely what is expected, what will be done and how each will be compensated for the effort.   Then we proceed to training, where we spend some quality time with you (phone, online) and show you precisely how we made this happen.  This isn't rocket science, nor do we insist you use our approach, simply sharing with you what has worked for us over the years.  The rest is up to you.

The business involves doing face-to-face with restaurant managers/owners.  If you're not a people person - we don't recommend you jump into this opportunity.  If you are (and you don't need to be a salesperson btw), then you have what it takes to succeed.  You simply present the concept of online ordering as a possibility to the restaurant & ask them if they have a fax machine while you're at it (vast majority of restaurant do, but it helps to make sure).

The above approach takes us about 2 minutes or less to complete.  It's not rocket science, it's not something blindingly new, even non-computer folks understanding the concept of ordering online and ordering takeout online isn't a stretch from there, so describing it doesn't take much time at all.  If the person you're talking to likes the concept and wants to talk more - simply schedule a 15-20 minute gathering, at their convenience (many times they'd want to do it immediately, since it's so short).

In that 15-minute meeting you go through specifics of how our system works, if you/they have a computer - you can show them right then and there (although not mandatory).  To me - this is trivial, but people like to hear the details, so you take them through the steps.  Explain the benefits (there are a number and to help you - we have a flyer that you can use and hand to them) and drawbacks of traditional approach (there are a number as well) and explain the financial end of exactly how much we charge etc.  Very basic stuff, anyone can do it (ANYONE).

If they see how great of a deal we're offering (and considering the fact that they could have it at little or no cost to them, considering all the benefits they get, and that we charge based on our performance) - it's a no brainer for most restaurants.  However, some may reject it (which is ok, there are unreal untapped potential without them), the main thing is to just move on without dwelling on it (but don't be surprised if they call you later to say they reconsidered and want to be on Takeout Online after all... happened to us).

The next step is you gather some basic info, such as hours open, payment methods accepted, specials and any other relevant info and last (definitely not least) - don't forget the menu :)  And you send us this info, along with logo, photos.

We proceed to put their menu together and put it online, invisible to the public at this point.  You show them the fully functional menu and once they approve it - it goes live for public consumption.

We then provide you with some designs for doing in-store promotion via business cards, post cards etc. to get them going and you help them with some marketing ideas to promote the service, and of course any effort you can project locally to promote your restaurants would also be beneficial and speed things up, but not mandatory... most restaurants advertise, so you simply have them point out in their ads what to say.

One more things we encourage is to augment their web site to offer online ordering with a simple click.  For those restaurants that have web sites - we can make the needed changes, at no cost to them.  For those that don't - we can build one for them at little or no cost.  Again, this is something we handle, so you don't need to worry about any of the technical aspects.

Once their orders start coming in - you get a percentage and we get a percentage... and continue to do so for as long as we have a relationship with you.  If you are now asking what else is there to do?  I'm getting paid for all these orders coming in from now on and there's nothing to do?  And you're right - you WILL BE getting paid just as stated from that point on, from every single order coming in, from every single restaurant that you helped to put on Takeout-Online.com!

Well, there is one more thing we'd like you to do - continue to be a liaison between your restaurants and us.  In other words, check with them perhaps once or twice a month, just to see if everything is ok.  We mean that literally, once in 2-4 weeks you either drop by or call or e-mail (depending on their prefences) and just say 'hey John, is everything ok?' and they'll say 'yes' (since we'll know if there are any issues when those occur) and that's it.  Typically once or twice a year a restaurant may want to change their menu.  So, you get the new menu and e-mail it to us.  We make the changes - done deal.  We bill them, and if they are slow here and there - we may want you to intervene and see what the problem is.  Out of many dozens of restaurants we dealt with - this problem happened once and the restaurant was taken offline, certainly irritating their customers and diminishing their takeout possibilities... so it's not something any restaurant of value would want to do.  They might open another restaurant and would obviously want to talk to you about getting that onboard as well... simple enough.

That's really it.  Initially you put some legwork into going around and talking to many people and getting many restaurants onboard.  As time goes by - you do less and less of that (since clearly each local area only has so many restaurants), but continue to get more and more income, since more and more people find out, order and continue to order.

We will help you with every aspect of the business, as much as you'd like to be helped.  What we won't do, since you're a business partner and not an employee of ours, is tell you how to live, if you will.  We won't tell you where to work, when to work, whom to sign up and whom to reject - that's entirely up to you.  With a certain volume of business, after 2 years we would be sharing the revenue 50/50.

So there you have it - the business opportunity on a plate ;), no gimmicks, no signups, no purchases of how-to tapes or e-books.  Just the details spelled out.  Obviously, the details involving info on how to sign up restaurants, and the compensation details are between you and us, so we'll deal with these details when we discuss them directly, but you should have a good idea of what this is about and how it works.

Feel free to contact Takeout Online if you have any other questions and/or if you would like to put your local restaurants online.  You can e-mails here or Google 'takeout online', we'll be showing respectably high on Google (and thus all of your restaurants), in fact try it with "I'm feeling lucky" option to see just how respectably high we (humbly speaking) are.

Business Opportunity (the real deal)

I was doing some browsing on the web and it's astonishing how many people want to sell you a way to make money on the Internet and yet practically none of them give you any details.  Being somewhat educated on the fine art of selling, influencing people etc. - most of these offers follow the same pattern.  Some people form JV (joint ventures) and cross-promote each other, build lists of buyers, share lists to some degree... anyway, after watching many of these - it's the same old same old.

You might ask - why?  Why, if I know this - I still read them, follow them etc.?  Because some of them do have something of value once in a while and because some of them do appear (and that's the key word) genuine.

But, regardless - I don't want to play that game.  Takeout Online certainly has a valuable business opportunity to offer and I'll spell it out here and now without anyone needing to submit their blood type to get details (or even name/e-mail address).

Takeout Online has been around (about 8 years and counting) providing simple, hassle-free, fully hosted service, that can benefit every and any restaurant.  Well, let me qualify that by saying - almost any restaurant.  Restaurants that have so much business that getting more would be impossible for them to handle, should NOT participate in our program.  It's only for restaurants that can stand some improvement in their bottom line and lucky for us - that's vast majority of restaurants out there.

The service we offer provides restaurants with ability to offer their customers online ordering for takeout (and/or delivery), without the restaurant having to make ANY changes to their infrastructure, staff or anything else.  There are many benefits for the participating restaurants, but this is about the business opportunity, so I'll stick to that.

The customers get a simple and convenient one-stop shop where they can browse various menus in their local area, order from a restaurant (or restaurants) of their choice, conveniently online (or even reorder via their cell phone with extreme ease in a matter of seconds) and pick it up (or have it delivered, depending on the restaurant).

The only problem with that approach for us - we're here (i.e. Kirkland, Wa) and this service can (and does) work anywhere, as evidenced by our small, but still presence, in Nevada & Texas.

That's where the opportunity comes in - you could run your own Takeout Online business by partnering with us!  We'll handle all of the technical aspects and you would handle the people aspect, ie be a liaison between us and your local restaurants.  Interested in details?  Coming in the next post.