THE GOUK BLOG

URBAN REEF BOSCOMBE

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Fantastic experience! Highly Recommended.

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We dined at Urban Reef on Sunday 30th October at 12.00 and had a great experience. Urban Reef really had a challenge to impress on this day as we dined with friends each of us from 4 and 5 star Hotel Management including The Mayfair Group of Hotels, Devere , Hilton, Guoman Hotels.

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We booked online using the website, the minute we entered the perimeter of the Restaurant we were immediately greeted by a member of staff who was dressed nicely, warm and welcoming. He asked our name and led us upstairs to the main Restaurant.
Our reservation was checked and taken to our table, satisfaction checked and given menus. We were then greeted by our waitress and drinks order taken which arrived promptly. We ordered a bottle of White Wine which was served in a clean wine bucket and served at the correct temperature by our waitress in to clean and polished glasses.

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Our order was then taken and satisfaction again checked. I ordered the New Forest (Nanny Williams’) blue cheese & beetroot soufflé with smoked paprika oil while my wife ordered the Slow braised Dorset rose veal shoulder on onion risotto with rocket pesto & truffle oil and friends ordered the Baked Somerset camembert served with herb oil, homebaked focaccia bread & house chutney to share.

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For the main course I ordered the locally caught Fish and Chips while everyone else opted for a Beef Sunday Lunch.
The starters arrived, served on clean plates again our satisfaction was checked and wine topped up. There is no way to criticise the food it was simply great, we all enjoyed every mouth full.

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Once we had finished our plates were cleared and satisfaction checked again. We were again asked if we would like any more drinks, water or bread. We attempted to pour our own wine and told "put it down it is Sunday, relax" and the wine was poured. Great Service!

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After a nice break between courses of approx 15 minutes our main courses were served and once again very difficult to find any fault, each dish was served on a clean plate nicely presented on warm plates and each tasting absolutely great. Again satisfaction checked, wine topped up.

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Main courses were cleared and desserts offered, we ordered a couple of desserts which again were great and served promptly. Once we had finished we were asked if we would like anything else at which time we asked for the bill which was presented to us, our satisfaction again checked and we paid.

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The Restaurant itself is presented lovely in a great location with Sea Views with well thought out decor. The Restaurant is clean and all staff presented nicely with branded tops.

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The toilets are kept to a very high standard with paper towels, scented and maintained throughout. I have struggled on this occasion to find any fault with this Restaurant and congratulate the owner on a well deserved score.

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Great Service, Great Food, Great Atmosphere and Clean! Well done.

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Start building your database and get more bums on seats! The best way to do this is to automate the process allowing you to get on with your business.

There are many reasons why it is difficult to build a database however lets concentrate on the way forward. This is what you will require...

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Your Website
Ensure that you have a sign up form (created with email system) which is linked to your database, where possible include Birth Dates! (& give people a reason to sign up such as a competition) Also include an instant coupon or offer which can be claimed using a Text form (created with SMS system) they can show their text to claim the offer. Mobile numbers will be stored in your SMS database.

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Mobile Website
64% of internet usage is now done on a mobile device, make sure that your website is mobile enabled which has a click to call, text button and a way of claiming an offer or entering a competition of which they will need to submit their details. This will go directly in to your SMS Database.

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SMS Short Code
This is a code such as 6VCARD which people can TEXT to. Create some business cards with an offer of a competition or another incentive, all your customer needs to do is TEXT 6VCARD (your own short code) & their Email Address to 88802. Hand this out with the bill or keep it as a permanent feature on the table. Their details will be automatically stored in your SMS database.

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Incentivise the staff to get customers to sign up. Staff members can ask the customer to include their name on the text, at the end of the month the staff member with the most sign ups will win a bottle of Wine, £50 or something similar.

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Include the short code in all of your marketing & print so you can tell if you marketing is working. If people interact with the code then you know that it is working.

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Each time a customer signs up you will receive an email with their details and their details will be stored in your database. What also happens is that your customer will immediately receive a text back along with an email, this means that you have another 2 opportunities to upsell your Restaurant and guide them toward your Facebook/Twitter page, maybe an offer. You could also promote an upcoming event and provide a link to your booking system for them to book their table right there and then.

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Use your mobile database to send emails with exclusive offers, last minute deals. Again this can be scheduled to send at a time you want.

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Email Marketing System

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Now you have got a database! You need to keep them up to date with what's happening. All through the year you know that you have got different events such as Valentines, Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Bank Holidays, Concert Days and so much more. Now what you need to do is create your email with the details of your event and schedule it, the system will then send your email 2 weeks or 1 month (which ever you choose) to your customer automatically.

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You can also create your own Birthday Club, create one email with a Birthday offer and your customer will automatically receive the email at a pre defined date before their birthday, yes automatically you do not even need to think about it!!

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On each of your campaigns you will also add a link with an incentive for your customer to send it to a friend, growing your customer base.

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Do you want to get some customer feedback? Then schedule a customer survey and monitor the results.

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The system will allow you to monitor and track everything from how many people opened the email, how many people forwarded it to a friend and which links they clicked on, how is that for measurable!

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Printer
All you need the printer for is your competition/offer cards!

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Marketing Package

- Mobile Website
- Short Code
- Email Marketing System
- 10,000 Competition Cards

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For more info about an automated package click here

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One last thing, although its not automated, how would you like an extra 30 covers in your restaurant at lunch time? Get your staff talking, put someone outside your restaurant with Menus and a big billboard and ask passers by to come and eat at your restaurant.

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Average spend £10 per head?! 30 customers that's £300. Cost of staff member £21 (3 hours at £7)

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Deploy a Human Billboard for more info about this CLICK HERE

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Marketing your Restaurant is key to its success by keeping your customers up to date and encouraging them to recommend your Restaurant to their friends and family. There are many many ways to market your business but when it comes down to it the most important part of your marketing is database! If you have a large database then you can keep your customers informed and they can tell their friends...

Your marketing needs to include a way for people to find you and interact with you however you must have a call to action, even if you advertise in the local paper you must have a call to action, something that people can interact with and allows them to send you their details. However you need to give them a reason to do so!

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Your marketing should be measurable, if you have no call to action then you have no idea if your marketing works and you could be like so many other owners who invest week after week in the local paper but have no idea if it works.

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There is one question which I like to ask!

Q: Why are Groupon & Living Social so successful?

A: Database

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If you have a database then you have power, you have a captive audience and the most important part of all is a customer database that want to hear more about your Restaurant!

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Here's another question!

Q: How many people eat in your Restaurant every day?

Lets say you have 100 customers a day and you ask them to sign up to your database, you manage to get 50% of those customers each day to sign up. Lets say your open 6 days of the week, that's 300 people a week in your database!

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That means that by the end of the year you will have a database of 15,600 people that you market to on a regular basis, imagine how your Facebook & Twitter page would look and how many of your customers would tell their friends. Even if 10% of your

database told a friend to visit your Restaurant that's 1560 new customers!

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Q: How do I build a database? I am too busy.

A: Automate it and incentivse your staff.

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If you want to know how you can automate this then Click Here!

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We visited Cafe 21 on a Saturday night in July with friends, 6 of us altogether. On arrival we were offered a seat in the bar area and offered drinks which came promptly. We were given menus to browse while we waited to be seated.

After 10 minutes we were shown to our table and offered the wine list. Unfortunately our chosen wine was not available however a more expensive alternative was offered and price matched on the unavailable bottle.

The service was excellent and all food was on time. Each of us ordered a starter and main course, the food was presented nicely and at the right temperature. Drinks were replenished. The food was great although the chips which were served with my fresh haddock were not the best and let it down just a little although this was never going to distract from the taste of the main dish which was great.

The Restaurant atmosphere was nice and we had a great night, the Restaurant was clean and the staff dressed nicley. Our satisfaction was checked on each course.

I would certainly recommend Cafe 21 , the food, service and staff were great. The Restaurant is nicely presented and maintained.

Date: 21/07/2012 Time: 8.00pm

Standard Achieved: 100% | Customer Satifaction: 98.2%

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We made a booking for 13.00 but we arrived a little early and we were seating straight away (we thought we may have had to wait until 13.00). We were offered drinks straight away along with free prawn crackers which were lovely.

The restaurant was quite busy with some large parties but we were not ignored with their only being 2 of us. The staff were very attentive and took our order once we had closed our menus. We had the lunch time special it is a 3 course meal for only £6.30 which we thought was very good value.

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We ordered chicken and sweetcorn soup for starters you get a large bowl delivered to your table with 2 smaller bowls which the waiter puts some soup in for you. There was more than enough soup for us as our starter, we also requested some more prawn crackers which came with no fuss or charge. For our main course we had chicken sweet and sour, with egg fried rice. These also came on seperate plates both more than enough food for us. The main course was lovely lots of chicken and the sauce was very light. For pudding we had a fruit plate with melon and sliced orangs on, this was a nice refreshing way to end the meal.

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The food and the staff was lovely and we would definately go back for lunch and for an evening meal.

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Date: 22/02/12 Time: 12.45

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Standard Achieved: 93.8% Customer Satisfaction: 96.4%

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We went to the Hill Top for Sunday lunch, we got a small portion but was still a large meal. The vergatables tasted very fresh and there was plenty of chicken on the plate for a small portion.

I did ask for extra gravy but that was brough straight to the table no fuss made. We also got a pudding of Strawberry Pavlova which was gorgeous, strawberries were fresh and the meringues were very light. There was plenty of choice of meat if you didnt want chicken and plenty of choice if you didnt fancy a sunday dinner.

It was very busy in the restaurant there was a small queue to order the lunches but the staff were attentive in the service. Staff at the bar were very friendly and brought our drinks over quickly, all glasses and crockery were clean.

Customer Satisfaction 82.1% | Standard Achieved 68.8%

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Interacting with passing trade is a great way to increase your footfall for lunch or dinner.

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Marketing with a difference...

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In the current climate, you need to do whatever it takes to bring customers in....

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Restaurant review of Babucho in Newcastle on Sunday 11th December 2011 at 4.30pm.

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Great launch at the weekend in Glasgow, although a little wet at times! We have had a great response - check out a few of the photos.

 

 

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Going Out UK out and about in Glasgow City Centre today. Our promo team are out in the City offering the opportunity to win a meal for 2, get our App and Virtual Card...

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