Last week, on a one-day road trip, we stopped in a French bakery for treats to take with us. As a slice of carrot cake was wrapped up for the journey, the woman behind the counter started talking about her favorite cafe near where we were headed. She encouraged us to have lunch there.
On our drive through the mountains, we looked up the restaurant online, click on the “Menu” button, and…. did not find a menu. Instead, they had a note saying that they use seasonal produce and that the menu constantly changes.
While I fully appreciate the use of fresh ingredients, the marketer in me thought:
“If I owned this restaurant, and had a rotating menu, I would still want to have something up on the ‘Menu’ page of my website, to give people an idea of what they could purchase. I’d likely take some gorgeous photos of past lunch and dinner options, and have a description of each meal accompanying several photos.
I’d say that ‘Our prices range from ____ to ____’, or ‘Meals start at ____” to give people a sense of what kind of bill to expect at the end of their meal.
Also, if a tab says “Menu,” but then doesn’t have a menu on it, customers may feel disappointed when a webpage doesn’t actually have what it says it has. This is why it’s so important to have an easy to understand display of what’s for sale.”
Later, upon going back to look at the website for this restaurant one more time, I find that there was in fact a menu!
But….it was hidden waaay at the bottom of the site, and was not easy to see on a smart phone.
From this experience, I was reminded of several things: Business owners should be bold about what they have for sale. Not obnoxious, but obvious about what they have to offer. It should be easy for the people who are looking at your business to find out how they can work with you, and what they can purchase from you.
© 2016 Ava Waits
Ava Waits is an inspirational speaker, business mentor, sales trainer, and author of the forthcoming book, A Woman‘sTreasure: Grow A Business Where Making Money Feels Like Bliss. She believes that making money should feel like bliss, and through her work, she provides innovative sales and marketing guidance to entrepreneurs and companies worldwide.
As a speaker, Ava has been interviewed on television and radio, and has been invited around the country to inspire and train audiences at business events, women’s organizations, and financial companies. She has presented at Rick Steves Europe, United Way, the Women’s Day of Empowerment, Mother Earth News, the National Association of Professional Mortgage Women, and many others.
Find out more about Ava at www.AvaWaits.com.
“If I owned this restaurant, and had a rotating menu, I would still want to have something up on the ‘Menu’ page of my website, to give people an idea of what they could purchase. I’d likely take some gorgeous photos of past lunch and dinner options, and have a description of each meal accompanying several photos.