Why You Should Break From Tradition When It Comes to Building Your Leadership Team

Nearly every company in the world is being shaped by new waves of technology, communication, and interaction with customers. Digital forces in particular are a huge concern for every one of the companies we work with at General Assembly. Leaders know they need to boost their digital readiness. But there remains the question of how to actually transform their organization, and what that can mean for their customers, employees, and shareholders.

During my 30-year career, I led Procter & Gamble’s Baby, Beauty, and Asia businesses, culminating with running P&G e-business — everything from helping to architect the digital transformation, to the incorporation of virtual tools, to develop breakthrough products and supply systems to digital marketing and eCommerce. I’ve harnessed my insights from three decades in the field to help companies answer that question of “How?” One clear way to make it happen is by improving leadership skills and creating digital leaders.

Skilled, forward-thinking digital leaders aren’t necessarily going to come from traditional places or even traditional schools. And for a company that is not on the leading edge of digital knowhow and technologies, they may not even come from inside your company (at least until you actually train them on these critical capabilities).

You may need to look in more unconventional places.

While in Asia, I was fortunate to have a young associate director with an uncanny ability to manipulate large amounts of data, understand it, and connect it to real business insights that drove business growth. As P&G’s business leader of Asia, I saw that data was becoming ever more critical to our business. However, my lead team, while filled with excellent business leaders, did not have the kind of data savvy and analytic capability I felt we needed to drive the business.

So, I asked the young AD to join my lead-team business meetings, even though his position was technically several levels below the others on my team. In a company where tenure and experience are nearly always paramount, this was a highly unconventional move. However, it enabled an entirely new and critical ability for our business. From this experience, I began to shape how the company was evolving digitally, meaning we could be better positioned for the future.

Here’s the bottom line: In the digital age, talent and tenure do not go hand in hand. You have to be ready to break with traditional sources of talent to bring in new abilities from wherever they are to get the job done.

Find untraditional talent and build your team.

Evaluate skills and identify talent.

The post Why You Should Break From Tradition When It Comes to Building Your Leadership Team appeared first on GA Blog.

Even The Flies Avoid The Food at Old Neighbourhood! | Kitchen Nightmares

Best Practice In Hiring New Wait Staff – What You Need To Know

Your wait staff has your customers’ happiness in their hands.

Waiting tables is a tough job and requires a person with a certain mindset.

According to scientists, being a waiter or waitress is more stressful than being a neurosurgeon.

The same group of scientists also found that wait staff have a 22% higher risk of stroke than people with lower stress jobs, and that figure jumps to 33% for women.

Perhaps these are just a few of the reasons that turnover in the hospitality industry is so high.

There are ways to fight the turnover trend and hire employees who’ll excel in your restaurant. The best way is to hire your staff right the first time.

To help you, we’re going to look at the best practice in hiring new wait staff and what you need to know to hire your new employees right.

Make a Plan

Your first step in hiring new wait staff is to make a plan. Create a list of what you’re looking for so you can hire the best people for the job. Let’s look at a few things to consider when making your hiring plan.

• Think about who you want to hire. What characteristics are you looking for? Consider the rest of your staff and the traits that make them successful at your restaurant.
• Define the culture of your restaurant and write it down. Don’t know? Ask your staff. Ask them what they like best about working at your restaurant and what they like least. Find out what characteristics are important for an employee to be successful at your restaurant.

Identify Character Traits

You made your plan, so you should have identified the skills and traits you find essential for your new wait staff.

If you have a mission statement or a set of core values, this can help you identify the right person for your open position. (tweet this)

Look at what makes your restaurant great. When interviewing, ask yourself, “Will this person help me my restaurant succeed?”

To identify the right person, you also want to have a very detailed job description at the ready. Look at your high performing wait staff and list the skills and traits that make them good employees. Use them as a role model when fine-tuning your job description or creating interview questions.

Refine the Interview

If you’re like many small business owners, you may throw out some job postings and call a few people in for an interview.

You ask the standard questions and try to make a decision.

Yet, there is a better way to go through the interview process to find just the right wait staff for your restaurant. Here’s a list of how-tos when it comes to the interview process:

• Conduct a dual interview. Have two managers interview each candidate. This means you have two people to weigh in on the potential of the interviewee. This also ensures that all of your managers are on board with the decision to hire.
• Create a set of interview questions. Sit down with your team and brainstorm a set of interview questions. Then, standardize them so each candidate is asked the same questions. This helps you avoid the haphazard interview process and keep it professional.
• Take notes. You’ll never remember everything, so this is a good plan for all of your  interviews. Afterwards, each interviewer can compare notes in case something was missed. Taking notes also helps keep you from getting the candidates mixed up.
• Watch for attitude during the interview. You can teach a person how to be a good member of your wait staff, but teaching a person how to have a positive attitude is nearly impossible. A perfect resume is great, but if the interviewee doesn’t fit in with your company culture or has a bad attitude, they won’t be good for your restaurant.
• Look for physical cues. Teach your managers what to look for. Eye contact and an open interview posture are usually positive signs.
• Ask candidates how they feel about customer service and why they think it’s important. If they have experience, ask them how they handle upset customers. While it can be taught, you’ll find out how empathetic or nurturing your candidate is with questions about service.

Doing a test run gives you insight into your candidate’s strengths.

Check References

Do not neglect this step.

For every candidate you are seriously considering, ask them for three professional references. This doesn’t mean mom or Aunt Jane.

It means three respectable professionals.

Let your potential new hire know that you’ll need to hear back from two-three of them in order to move forward.

Again, check references every single time so you don’t miss a red flag.

Additionally, background checks are always a good idea in the restaurant industry.

Give Personality Tests

After the first interview, you can consider giving your most impressive candidates personality tests.

You may catch core competencies as well as areas of weakness. These tests help you identify honest, hard-working employees. If the candidate passes the personality test, then it’s time for the second interview.

Do a Second Interview

Yes, that’s right. Do a second interview.

Involve other members of your staff.

Hiring right the first time can help boost your restaurant profits, so invest the time to do it correctly. By interviewing a second time, you’ll also let the candidate know how important their position is to your restaurant.

Have a Test Run

This is a terrific way to see your candidate in action.

If your potential new hire has made it through the second interview, assign them to one of your top performing wait staff for the day. Let them wait on tables and work with your top employee. Watch them in action.

You’ll soon find that their strengths and weaknesses are revealed. You’ll get a chance to see how they interact with your employees and your customers.

Final Thoughts

The best practice in hiring new wait staff involves hiring competitively and finding winners for your open positions. (tweet this)

Your goal is to attract and then retain the top wait staff.

To do this, work on your company culture. Be warm, fair and inviting. Treat your staff well and foster an atmosphere of open communication and team work.

Consider the benefits and incentives you can offer to attract the top talent. While insurance or tuition reimbursement may be out, get creative and come up with some smaller perks. Here are a few ideas:

• Monthly massage
• Comfortable athletic shoes to work in
• Monthly drawings
• Membership to athletic club
• Free meals

When it comes to what you need to know when hiring, you can use this article as your guide to hire the right wait staff for your restaurant. Conducting a thorough, well-thought hiring process can also decrease your turnover rates and increase the happiness of your employees.

How do you go about hiring new staff? Do you have any tips and tricks for finding the best wait staff? We’d love to hear your comments below.

Images: Alex Robert and Toronto Eaters

5 Reasons Adults Fear Going Back to School — and How to Get Over Them

Taking a class can be a step toward that promotion you’ve been angling for, or lay the foundation for a full-on career change. But for many adults, committing to weeks, months, or even a day of lessons can be nerve-wracking.

It’s true: The back-to-school jitters are real at any age. Committing to learning new skills often involves rearranging your schedule, planning for additional expenses, or combating the nerves that come with venturing out of your comfort zone. But if you can overcome these barriers, your potential will skyrocket.

Skilling up has innumerable benefits: It can give you a competitive edge in the job market; increase your value within your company; and of, course, keep you ahead of the curve in a rapidly changing tech environment. On a personal level, it can boost morale and give you creative inspiration. There’s truly nothing to lose.

Here are five common reasons you may be hesitating to return to a school environment. To help debunk them, we spoke with Suzanne Abate, who teaches various product management courses at General Assembly’s Los Angeles campus. She’s also a co-founding partner of the product design and development agency The Development Factory and CEO of the time-management app My Time Blocks.

Abate gave us her best advice for getting over the back-to-school jitters — so read on, stop holding yourself back, and give your career a boost.

1. “I’m too busy — now’s not a good time.”

We get it: Balancing a day job with family, a social life, and/or any other high-priority adult responsibilities is hard. But you aren’t going to transform your life by simply thinking about what you want your future to look like. It’s up to you to carve out the time to make changes.

Learning new skills doesn’t have to be a full-time commitment. It can be, but there are less time-intensive opportunities too, from weekly courses to one-off classes and workshops. And don’t forget about online courses and tutorials that you can tuck into your schedule where they fit, without the commute to and from a classroom.

Abate suggests looking at it this way: If you have a goal — like strengthening your skills, making a career change, exploring a subject you’ve always been interested in, or getting a promotion or pay increase — then you should have something on your to-do list every day that’s in service of that goal.

“What you’re actually doing is setting yourself on a direct course toward that goal you want to achieve,” she says. “If [your procrastination is] based on this idea that in some future time you’re going to have more bandwidth, you’re never going to have more bandwidth.”

---

71% of in-demand skills are required in two or more job categories, says a study by @bentleyu
Click To Tweet

---

2. “Taking a class is too expensive.”

Cost is a valid barrier to education. With bills to pay and, often, families to support, many adults struggle to make ends meet as it is. It can make the cost of a visual design class feel like an indulgence or a financial sacrifice.

If advancing your career is truly a priority, you can focus on free or low-cost workshops and tutorials, or work the cost of a class into your budget: Try packing your work lunches instead of buying them, or cutting back on Uber rides and bar tabs, for starters. Looking into financing plans or asking your employer to cover the cost are great options, too.

But for those who physically have the funds — even just barely — and are still hesitating, Abate recommends looking at it from a cost-versus-value perspective. “What you really need to be asking yourself isn’t ‘How much is it going to cost?’ but ‘How much value am I going to yield from this investment?’” she says. “What is the value of getting that job you want, and getting that salary, and is the expense of a class worth that investment?”

If the answer to that last question is yes, then what are you waiting for?

---

If you have a goal, put something on your to-do list every day for that goal, says @suzanneabate
Click To Tweet

---

3. “I’m intimidated.”

Venturing out of your comfort zone is, well, uncomfortable. But that’s normal, and you won’t be the only one with nerves on your first day.

“It’s 100% natural to feel very vulnerable walking in [on the first day of class],” Abate says. “I think a lot of the time people feel vulnerable because they think, ‘Who am I to be here?’ or, ‘Everybody else is going to know more than I know.’”

Abate says she starts her classes by acknowledging the nerves — but she also salutes students for the courage it takes to say, “I want to go out and be better,” and commit to being in the class.

“Don’t worry about what you don’t know,” she says. “Be confident in the experiences you do have, and know that every other person is in the exact same position as you. It takes about five minutes for all of that to dissipate and the fun to start.”

4. “I’m not convinced that taking a class will help my job or my career.”

Fast Company called 2016 “the year of the hybrid job,” which means employers are looking for candidates with skills that overlap across different fields. A study commissioned by Bentley University found that 71% of in-demand skills are required in two or more job categories.

Even a basic understanding of a subject outside your current day-to-day role — say, learning web development fundamentals if you’re a product manager — can give you a competitive edge in the job market. It can also strengthen your ability to communicate with other stakeholders and give you a wider view of your company or industry.

“[Learning new skills] inherently makes you more valuable as a job candidate because now you can come into a role and you can support on either side of that role,” Abate says. “Even if you’re hired specifically as a marketing person, or specifically as a developer, the more you understand about the way other departments operate, the more valuable you become to the team.”

---

“Learning is a journey. You’re never finished” –@suzanneabate
Click To Tweet

---

5. “I don’t know if I’m signing up for the right class for me.”

Sometimes you know you’re ready to take the plunge and get learning, but you’re not sure which course will give you the most benefit. Abate says that’s “absolutely natural.”

A chat with a mentor, HR manager, colleagues, or the organization through which you’re considering taking classes can help you determine a track that fits your aspirations or interests. But chances are, wherever you land is going to be valuable, even if it ultimately points you in a completely different direction from where you expected to end up.

For example, Abate says, many students in her product management courses — which touch different parts of technology, user experience design, and business fundamentals — leave knowing they want to pursue a career in user experience or business.

“It provides them with a point of departure to go and pursue their skills further, whether it’s through more courses or more independent learning,” she says. “Learning is a journey. You’re never finished, and if you do it right, you’re always hungry for the next thing.”

Whatever it is that’s keeping you from getting back into a classroom, there’s a way to get past it. Overcome your hurdles, start learning again, and reap the benefits.

Find a Course for You

The post 5 Reasons Adults Fear Going Back to School — and How to Get Over Them appeared first on GA Blog.

Gordon Ramsay’s Spontaneous Trip To Vegas! - Kitchen Nightmares

8 Tips For Improving Staff Morale And Punctuality

Happy employees serve your customers with better care.

Customer service is one of the most important aspects of your restaurant.

One study even shows a restaurant’s customer service levels and satisfaction are directly linked to high levels of employee motivation and engagement.

This is why it’s so important to improve your staff morale. And, with improved morale usually comes better punctuality.

Yet, as a busy restaurant owner or manager, it can be tough to spend the time necessary for increasing your employees’ happiness.

So, in this article, we layout out eight tips for improving staff morale and punctuality so you can also provide the best possible customer service to your guests.

First, let’s look at ways to improve staff morale.

The morale of your employees is fundamental to your restaurant because the satisfaction of your guests begins with good staff and a team with high morale.

#1: Enhance Communication

One of the best ways to improve staff morale is with a real open door policy.

Don’t just tell your employees that you value their thoughts, opinions, suggestions and feedback. Show them through your actions.

Employees are happier at their place of work when they feel like they can talk to their manager. Not only are they more comfortable with a boss they can talk to, but they’re more likely to have a better work ethic when they feel you’re on their side.

Engage with your employees. Give them feedback and ask for theirs. Then, really use it. Take their suggestions to heart and consider implementing them.

When it comes to expectations, be clear with them. Your employees can’t rise to the occasion if they don’t know how high the bar is.

Take the time to learn about your employees and engage with them in a positive manner to improve staff morale.

#2: Provide the Right Tools

Your employees’ tips depend on how well they know your restaurant and your food.

To keep your employees less-stressed and happy, make sure they have the right tools to do their job so not only are they happier, but they can get higher tips:

• Teach them how to provide customer service.
• Train them on your daily operations.
• Help them learn the menu – let them sample your items.
• Provide the proper accessories they need.
• Provide checklists to help them stay organized.

#3: Hire Competent Managers

The biggest reasons employees are unhappy at work is because of bad leadership.

To improve employee morale, make sure you hire great managers. Ensure that they have all the training they need to be good leaders.

Your managers have a huge impact on employee morale.

#4: Recognize Good Work

Reward your employees. This doesn’t always mean with perks and benefits.

Sometimes, it’s simply a kind word. Let your staff know you appreciate their hard work.

Call them out at staff meetings for the little things you notice. For example, Susie always delivers ribs with extra napkins. Bob adds an extra flower on the table, or Robert is so good customers request him.

Notice hard work daily or at least weekly. Praise is a huge motivator. (tweet this)

You can also add in tangible rewards if you’d like.

Next, let’s look at ways to improve staff punctuality.

Good communication helps your employees thrive.

#5: Identify the Problem

Before you can improve the punctuality of your staff, it’s important to first identify the problem.

You want to remember that there is often an understandable reason if your employees are late once in a while. But, if they are chronically late, you have a huge problem on your hands.

Talk to your employee. Find out if weather, traffic, unforeseen circumstances or their kids are contributing to their lateness.

While those aren’t excuses, it will help you figure out how to solve the problem if you know what’s causing it.

Late arriving employees are a problem for your bottom line. They are showing disrespect to you, your restaurant and to their co-workers.

By learning what is causing the problem, you can take steps to help.

For example, if your waiter is always late for his 3:30 shift because a factory down the street lets out, and traffic is horrible, consider adjusting his shift times. If this helps, great. If not, you may have to take disciplinary actions.

#6: Make an Action Plan

You ask and you ask, but nothing seems to change.

First, don’t let your staff member’s lack of punctuality go on for so long you are steaming with anger. You want to deal with the problem calmly.

You should also deal with the problem immediately. Don’t let it fester. Schedule a meeting with your employee to discuss his tardiness.

The two of you can then come up with an action plan. The most important thing during your meeting is to assess they “why” of the problem. Then, you can make a plan for fixing it.

#7: Outline Consequences

Employees who are chronically late may need a set of consequences.

We’ll assume you have a policy in your employee handbook that deals with tardiness. Don’t be afraid to use it.

You might ask your employee to make up missed time. Or, if he is consistently tardy, you may issue a written warning, deduct from his pay or delete any bonus he may receive.

When do you have to take more drastic actions?

• If after following through with your restaurant’s policy, the employee doesn’t change
• If it hurts your restaurant. For example, you don’t have enough staff to cover the dinner hour.
• If it contributes to a lack of punctuality in your other employees.
• If it affects your bottom line.

Don’t let one employee’s bad actions affect your restaurant or your staff. Deal with it promptly so it doesn’t snowball.

#8: Reward Success

Reinforce your employee’s good behavior if he shows up on time for work for a specified period of time.

This can simply be in the form of praise. You might say, “Ed, I noticed you’ve been on-time for your shift six days in a row now. I’m glad to see you’re trying. Keep up the good work.”

By offering positive, verbal praise, you’ll incentivize your employee to keep showing up on time. (tweet this)

It’s amazing how far a few kind words can go. Your employee will appreciate your words and continue to move forward.

Final Thoughts

A restaurant staff with high morale is much more likely to provide excellent service to your customers.

When you work to improve staff morale, your restaurant reaps the benefits. You’ll enjoy less turnover, better service and employees who feel secure in their job because they know you value them.

Work on improving staff morale for the good of not only your staff, but your restaurant and your customers, too.

Finally, when it comes to shift-based workers in your restaurant, you want to define your expectations upfront. If your employees aren’t there on time, your restaurant won’t function properly.

Your staff needs to know this and recognize that being punctual is vital. They must be at your restaurant at their scheduled time.

Do be flexible with your staff and ensure that you have an open door of communication. This is the best way to not only improve staff morale but staff punctuality as well.

How do you improve staff morale? Do you have chronically late employees? What solutions work for you? We’d love to hear your comments below.

Images: Epicurrence and Tim Arterbury

Stubborn Owner Refuses To Change - Kitchen Nightmares

Foodie Trends For 2016 – Uber Does More Than Commute

On-trend restaurant delivery is good for your business.

What is Uber?

You probably answered to yourself, “Uber is a super convenient, inexpensive, safe way to get around. It’s summoning a private driver to pick me up in his or her own car and take me where I want to go, all with the tap of a button on my smartphone.”

Congratulations. That certainly is the right answer, but it isn’t the only answer.

Uber does more than commute, and as we look at foodie trends for 2016, we’re going to tell you why Uber does more than drive people where they want to go.

Then, we’ll look at a few more trends when it comes to ordering food from your restaurant.

Uber Moves Anything

According to Wired, Uber isn’t a taxi company. It’s a delivery company, moving people and products.

Uber’s mantra is to make getting anything in your city more convenient, affordable and reliable than picking it up yourself.

They are ready to help not only the consumer, but small businesses, like your restaurant, move their products in a cost-effective and efficient way. Their desire is to unclog the roadways and make getting what people need easier.

To this end, you now find Uber delivering food from restaurants straight to your customer’s door through UberEATS.

Take a Look at UberEATS

This powerful app for iOS and Android users makes it easy for people to enjoy food from your restaurant without making the effort to get dressed and leave the house.

The dedicated app offers this delivery service in many cities across the globe with more adding soon.

You might even call this new service provided by Uber as the delivery revolution. It allows customers to order their favorite food from your restaurant without ever leaving the comfort of their sofa.

Now, let’s look at how it works for you.

Uber for Your Restaurant

Uber says their drivers are the fastest way to get food to your customers.

First, you sign up for UberEATS. They feature your food in the app where new customers can find it for the first time, and loyal customers can come back again and again and dine with ease.

Then, once your customers order from you, Uber quickly delivers the food. How can they do it more quickly than you?

It’s simple. They have hundreds of couriers on the road, while you may only have one or two delivery drivers. On the UberEATS website, they claim they can deliver food in an average of 14 minutes.

This is ideal for maintaining the quality of your food.

Another bonus of the app is that you can track the orders from your restaurant right to your customer’s front door. So, you know exactly how long it took for the order to be delivered.

UberEATS helps you set up your account and promote your menu. They also work with you on pickup and delivery times are find ways to improve them if needed.

They are dedicated to testing, learning and revising to boost your sales volume, make your customers happy and keep everything running smoothly and quickly.

The UberEATS service allows you to expand your virtual dining room with the end goal of an increase in sales and profits.

It’s also a positive for your customers. When they order, they’re given a delivery time. They can then track their order as it’s being prepared, learn when it’s ready and find out when a courier picks up the order from your restaurant. You are then able to track the driver much as you can in the regular Uber app.

Delivery options mean you meet the needs of more customers.

Downsides of UberEATS

While this trend in outside restaurant delivery is sure to continue as others, like Amazon, jump onto the bandwagon, there are a few downsides.

First, you have no control over your food and the provided customer service once the meal leaves your restaurant.

Second, you need to stay on top of the system constantly evaluating it for weak links and working to solidify the process.

Third, your customers are paying more for your food as you’ll have to build in the Uber cost into the price of your customers’ meals.

Lastly, UberEATS isn’t available everywhere yet, so to utilize the service, you’ll need to reside in one of their current cities.

Now let’s look at a few other foodie trends that involve food ordering.

Online Ordering Overtakes Phone Orders

More than 70% of customers prefer to order their food online than over the phone. This rising trend means that in the very near future, your online orders will overtake phone orders.

Why? It’s just that much easier for your customers.

They can take their time perusing your online menu. They aren’t rushed.

They don’t have to wait on hold or try to hear what your staff member is saying with the background noise in your restaurant.

For you, online ordering means less mistakes. Your customers have control of their orders, so this means less problems on your end. (tweet this)

Online ordering is also cheaper for you as it saves staff time.

Delivery Ordering Increases

As online ordering increases, it only makes sense that delivery ordering increases right beside it.

This is just one reason we’ve seen a rise in companies like UberEATS. Delivery companies saw a need, and they filled it. This delivery phenomenon is driven especially in large cities because of the convenience factor.

So, the question to ponder is whether you use UberEATS, another service, or you deliver it yourself.

Whichever way you choose, delivery allows you to expand your market and meet the needs of more customers. (tweet this)

Delivery Goes Driver-less

This is one trend experts see on the horizon. With the creation of driver-less cars in our very near future, it could be that cars could delivery your menu items with ease.

The driver-less car just might make the roads safer and streamline the process.

Are Drones a Possibility?

Amazon is delivering packages with drones, so is it so far-fetched to think drones might start delivering food from your restaurant?

It is possible and most likely on the horizon when it comes to foodie trends. It sure would be a quicker way to get your food delivered quickly and efficiently to your customers.

Final Thoughts

We are a society of convenience. The digital age has led this charge.

With people wanting things with a sense of immediacy, it makes perfect sense that the foodie trends of 2016 would involve near-instant delivery of restaurant food.

Yes, Uber does more than commute, but you can expect others in the marketplace to follow suit and develop their own food delivery options.

If you want to stay on-trend, food delivery is one area for you to look into.

Do you have a great website with an online menu for ordering? Is it user-friendly and enticing to your website visitors? If not, or you’d like a website tune-up and refresh, contact us for your free website consultation. We’ll make sure your website works for your site visitors and is the centerpiece of your marketing.

Images:  Why Kei and Paweł Wojciechowski

'Thin Crust Pizza' Actually Has Massive Crusts - Kitchen Nightmares

Domain Name Selection – Choosing The Right Name Makes All The Difference

Domain names provide the foundation for your website.

You’re ready to create your restaurant website, and it’s time to choose a domain name. Does it really matter what you pick?

Yes, it does!

Your domain address (this is your website address) is something you’ll have to live with for a long time, so you want to choose wisely.

Your website traffic, branding and restaurant website search engine optimization all depend on your domain name.

In this article, we look at domain name selection and how choosing the right name makes all the difference.

What’s a Domain Name?

Before we get into how to choose the right domain, lets first define it.

Your domain name is what an Internet user enters in the browser address bar to reach your website.

You can purchase your domains from a domain registrar. When buying yours, you want to purchase it from a great provider who offers support. This is important in case you ever have problems with your domain and need help sorting it out.

You register domains on a yearly basis. If it expires, you’re in trouble. (tweet this)

Make a Good Impression

Your domain name is likely the first thing people see when accessing your website, so consider your domain name the front line for your brand awareness.

We know that first impressions count, so here’s your chance to do it right.

You don’t want to confuse your restaurant customers. You want your domain to be as succinct as possible and not to stray from the name of your restaurant. If they’re looking for Bella’s Italian, your website should be aptly named, www.bellasitalian.com.

Choose a domain that lets your customers know exactly what they’re getting.

Because your domain is important, you also want to stay away from hyphenated words and numbers. Those certainly aren’t in the name of your restaurant, so they hold no place in your domain name.

You also want to steer away from domain names that are strung together with keywords. Those aren’t going to be something people remember.

There is a fine line between domains that are too generic and domains that are too refined.

Be Brandable

Remember that your brand is important, and your domain is the foundation of your brand. For example, your street address is the foundation upon which your home is built. This is true of your website as well. The domain address is the foundation upon which your website is built.

From social media to email marketing and search engines, your domain name is the way website users identify your restaurant.

It’s worth noting that Google likes brands much more than they like domain names stuffed with keywords. Google wants to see domain names that include your most important keyword, and that is the name of your restaurant.

Keep It Short

When contemplating your domain name, you want to pick the shortest name possible, but you don’t want to abbreviate it so much that people won’t remember it.

Short domains are easier to remember, easier to say and most importantly, easy to type. (tweet this)

Aim for one or two words for the best results. Of the top 100,000 websites on the Internet today, on average, they each have nine characters in their domain names.

Stick With .Com

You’re sure to find many options for domain extensions, but as a restaurant, you want to stick with .com endings.

Why? Simply because .com endings are what people know, recognize and remember. Again, you want to make finding your restaurant online as easy as possible. Don’t put any stumbling blocks between your customer and your website.

If you can, always shoot for the default .com ending. But, if that isn’t available, there is one other extension you might choose, and that is .net.

It can be option if and only if the .com isn’t available.

Domain names let people know who you are before they enter your site.

Be Memorable

When choosing your domain, make sure it’s memorable. You want your customers to be able to find you quickly.

In addition, make sure your restaurant diners can pronounce your domain name. If they can’t say it, you can bet they can’t spell it. And, spelling your domain is incredibly important.

Your diners will be more apt to remember your domain name (and your restaurant) if they can easily say and remember your it.

Don’t Infringe

Before you register your new domain name, check the Who Is database. You don’t want to infringe on another business’ rights.

In an instance where you might choose a .net extension because the .com extension is taken, you’d do well to do your homework.

You might even consult an attorney to see if they think it leaves you open to legal action. Alternatively, you could contact the business owner and ask for something in writing that says they are okay with it.

The other problem with domain names that are too similar comes with the confusion it could cause.

If you’re just starting your restaurant, you might consider the domain name when you are choosing the name of your restaurant.

You also want to check and make sure your chosen name isn’t bound by a copyright. You don’t want to get into a messy legal battle.

Register the Domain

When registering your chosen name, you want to be sure to register the domain in your name. Don’t let your staff members or web company register it in their name.

Why? Think of your domain address as you would the address of your own home. You want to be listed as the domain owner and administrative contact.

Additionally, if you aren’t listed as the owner, it technically doesn’t belong to you, and you can’t sell it should you ever need to.

Final Thoughts

Now that you know that choosing the right name makes all the difference when choosing the address of your website, we’ll leave you with one final reminder.

Many a restaurant owner has forgotten to renew his domain name only to find it bought by someone else. Without ownership of your domain, you not only lose your website, but you most likely lose access to your restaurant’s email as well.

Consider registering your domain for multiple years. Or, it also pays to set up an annual auto-renew on your account. You’ll also want to keep your credit card on file current, so the card listed isn’t an expired one when it comes time to renew.

This way you don’t risk ever losing your domain. If you do, buying it back can cost your restaurant thousands.

Lastly, by following the tips listed here when it comes to your domain name selection, you’ll maximize search engine referred traffic and keep your website top of mind with your customers.

Do you have a great website with a superb domain name? Is it user-friendly and enticing to your website visitors? If not, or you’d like a website tune-up and refresh, contact us for your free website consultation. We’ll make sure your website works for your site visitors and is the centerpiece of your marketing.

Images:  Toronto Eaters and Blake Parkinson