You snooze you lose

In South Africa we have a popular saying which is “You snooze you lose” which simply means; if you procrastinate about doing something someone else will get it done and you will lose out on the benefit of being the first. It’s with little surprise that you will find many South Africans have an engrained entrepreneurial streak in them…we don’t like losing, so we try not to snooze.

Now why am I going on about this…I will tell you why!

A few weekends ago I was at a well know karting track with a group of friends and the place was full of men aged 16 to 30+ (Bang on the mark when it comes to smartphone ownership and usage) doing what boys do and having a whale of a time racing karts.

As I sat there what I did notice was that the chaps not racing had mobile phones in their hands. Using the phone’s camera and in general using their phones presumably texting, tweeting….. What an opportunity to engage directly with these individuals and to get them to advocate this experience with all their friend, fans and followers by giving them an appropriate channel to do exactly that…..the answers is in their hands or in their pockets 24/7. Trust me 99.9% of these chaps don’t go anywhere without their phones …and 99.9% of these chaps have a smartphone (fact).

This place is screaming out for an app – a mobile web app and a dedicated app.

The mobile web app is the reactive channel – it's there for when people are searching for you on their mobile phones and

the dedicated app is the proactive channel - reminding the phone owner that you exist, what you do, what’s happening, giving them the ability to check and compare their lap times, take photos and log their experience to keep, to send you feedback directly, to contact you directly and provide them with a tool that facilitates them to share this awesome experience through their social network all in one place at their fingertips. A channel that you can send a push notification to reminding your app user of an event or rewarding them with an exclusive offer.

So now what was the response of the MD of this company when I approached him ….."We are a long way from making a decision on apps as our existing software house and web developers are planning a mobile web version of our site anyway and we will need to see if that suffices"

Guess what …YOU SNOOZE YOU LOSE!!

If you want to get ahead of the game NOW not when it’s crowded place then contact me nelson@realtimeseating.com or send DM me @realtimeseating

13/02/2012 permalink | 0 Comments »

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Subject: FW: Letter to David Cameron!

Dear Mr. Cameron, Please find below our suggestion for fixing the UK's economy.

Instead of giving billions of pounds to banks that will squander the money on lavish parties and unearned bonuses, use the following plan.

You can call it the Patriotic Retirement Plan:

There are about 10 million people over 50 in the work force.

Pay them £1 million each severance for early retirement with the following stipulations:

1) They MUST retire.

Ten million job openings - unemployment fixed

2) They MUST buy a new British car.

Ten million cars ordered - Car Industry fixed

3) They MUST either buy a house or pay off their mortgage -

Housing Crisis fixed

4) They MUST send their kids to school/college/university -

Crime rate fixed

5) They MUST buy £100 WORTH of alcohol/tobacco a week .....

And there's your money back in duty/tax etc

It can't get any easier than that!

P.S. If more money is needed, have all members of parliament pay back their falsely claimed expenses and second home allowances

If you think this would work, please forward to everyone you know.

Also………..

Let's put the pensioners in jail and the criminals in a nursing home.

This way the pensioners would have access to showers, hobbies and walks.

They'd receive unlimited free prescriptions, dental and medical treatment, wheel chairs etc and they'd receive money instead of paying it out.

They would have constant video monitoring, so they could be helped instantly, if they fell, or needed assistance.

Bedding would be washed twice a week, and all clothing would be ironed and returned to them.

A guard would check on them every 20 minutes and bring their meals and snacks to their cell.

They would have family visits in a suite built for that purpose.

They would have access to a library, weight room, spiritual counselling, pool and education.

Simple clothing, shoes, slippers, PJ's and legal aid would be free, on request.

Private, secure rooms for all, with an exercise outdoor yard, with gardens.

Each senior could have a PC a TV radio and daily phone calls.

There would be a board of directors to hear complaints, and the guards would have a code of conduct that would be strictly adhered to.

The criminals would get cold food, be left all alone and unsupervised. Lights off at 8pm, and showers once a week. Live in a tiny room and pay £600.00 per week and have no hope of ever getting out.

27/06/2011 permalink | 0 Comments »

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Customer Engagement-Secret of Successful Restaurants

When websites were first introduced the techy savvy restaurants were the first to adopt this new technology and soon they began to reap the reward of having an online presence. While others lagged behind the same technology savvy restaurateurs introduced newsletters, online bookings and more recently social media. And what’s it all about ….simply its all about customer engagement.

We work with hundreds of restaurants throughout the UK and the US and what we have witnessed is that there is a common factor which contributes to making a restaurant successful…successful restaurants understand the importance of customer engagement.

All businesses need new customers/business but the successful restaurants work extremely hard at getting customers to refer the new business and more importantly they make sure that their customers never forget them (they are always on the mind through the use of newsletters, direct mail and social media) and they reward them for their loyalty.

So what is the new trend….

At the current exponential rate of growth of smartphones, it is estimated that by 2015 over 80% of the people in the UK will have a smartphone. By the end of 2010 it was sitting at 33.6%.

The ITU (February 2010) expects mobile Web access – via laptops and smart mobile devices – to overtake desktop Web within the next five years.

It is a fact that 99% of people leave home with their mobile phones (people are more likely to forget their house keys than their mobile phone) and given that most people have a mobile phone (it is safe to assume that over 90% of people have one) the new trend is for "mobile marketing" and the future will be about having your own brand smartphone app. There is only one problem....the future now is determined in months rather than years!

To have instant access to your customers is an extremely powerful tool as it can constantly be a reminder of your existence; you can inform them of current and upcoming events, reward them instantly for their loyalty or fill available tables with a late availability/last-minute offer.

So the only reason you would not start thinking of your own branded app would be the cost of getting one developed and then hosting it. That is why we have introduced an affordable way to have an app within weeks. With our Share Package you could have a cutting edge app for as little as £49 per month and a one off setup fee of £150.

Email us and we will send you a free mock-up of what your app could look like. Alternatively fill in the form below and we will contact you within 24 hrs. Don’t hesitate as smartphone technology is here to stay so get ahead of the game.

24/06/2011 permalink | 0 Comments »

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Customised iPhone Apps for Restaurants

We at realtimeseating have partnered up with a US company ,menusgomobile, based out in California that specialise in producing customised iPhone apps (& soon Android Apps) for restaurants, night clubs and live music venues.

What we now have is the possibility for any restaurant in the UK & Europe to have their very own customised iPhone app (see examples below) that their customers can download for free from iTunes.

For under £50 per month and an initial £150 set up fee restaurants, gastropubs and night clubs can have their own branded iPhone app (and soon to be followed by the Android app). 

 The app is available in 3 different packages and all the features of each package can be found on our website www.realtimeseating.com. The cost to the restaurant is low as we have devised a subscription payment model over the 3 different packages that we offer.

As a restaurant not only would you have your own app but direct access to your customers. We build you a content management system that you can use to update your app real time and the ability to “push notifications” to your customers such as events, offers, new items on your menu etc. The app enables your customers to communicate, book and engage with you and to share your events, menu, comments with their friends via their facebook & twitter accounts.

With approximately 25% of all mobile phones now smart phones and the growth of smart phones exponential it’s just a matter of time before 75% of restaurant customers will have a smart phone.

So get ahead of the game and fill in your details in the form below and we will call you to discuss this further with you and answer all your question or call us @ realtimeseating on 0845 862 1062 or email info@realtimeseating.com

17/03/2011 permalink | 1 Comments »

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The first & only last-minute texting & booking system for Restaurants in the UK

It’s amazing how many times people say to us what a simple idea this is and why hasn’t someone done it before? The answer is simply I have no idea.

The concept is simple:

-    Text potential diners that have opted in to receive texts from your restaurant with a last-minute offer and complete the booking using text messaging for those diners that choose to take up the offer

The execution is a bit more complicated but with a state of the art database & texting platform and years of experience in structuring text messages, that evoke a high level of response, we are able to provide our clients with bookings when they are most needed. Be it on a quieter trading day or the early bird slot (before 7:30pm) or late night slot (9:30pm slot).

This is where the journey starts with our clients – this system quickly evolves into a direct communication tool with your loyal & regular customers.

Once our clients' customers are familiar with our system our text messages morph into messages that evoke engagement from customers. This assists us in building a profile for each customer with such information as who has children, who works late, who is on holiday and where, who plays badminton and what night they do so, and so on and on…..

The next stage is to engage with customers and receive feedback on what it is our clients do well & what they could do better? Further reinforcing the relationship between restaurant and regular diner until eventually we reach a point in the journey where the customer becomes the restaurants greatest evangelist (forwarding our texts to friends & texts with video clips of our client’s restaurant that become viral within this group of friends)

So it is unsurprising that our system has become a priority tool for our restaurant clients to engage directly with their customers.

Other Services provided by Realtimeseating:

Social Media Management System: Alongside our last-minute texting & booking system realtimeseating provides a Social Media management system where we help our clients develop, implement and manage a social networking strategy so as to gain the maximum benefit from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, foursquare & LinkedIn. .

If you would like to discuss how we can help please call Nelson directly on 07544 573872 or visit www.realtimeseating.com

22/01/2011 permalink | 0 Comments »

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Indian Zing, London W6

Sometimes, at short notice, we have spare tables at Indian Zing because our customers can’t make it for one reason or another. We’ve always wanted to let our other customers know about any spare tables we have at short notice – and reward them with exclusive offers for their loyalty if they are able to join us. Now we can!

We have teamed up with our friends realtimeseating and can now offer this free texting service and we can text you when we have unexpected availability @ short notice – with a special thank you if you decide to take up the offer of joining us on these occasions.

If you would like to sign up all we’ll need your name, mobile number and full postcode.

We respect the privacy of our customers. You will never be charged for receiving texts from us. Just reply STOP if you no longer wish to receive our texts, and you won’t.

12/10/2010 permalink | 0 Comments »

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UK Election: It’s a Hung Parliament?

It is Election Day and all the commentary and talk is about the possibility of a hung parliament and that the last time the UK faced this situation was 36 years ago. Polls suggest that this is the closest run election in a generation. So what does this actually mean to me?

Simply put governing will come down to negotiations and compromises; and how different is that from life itself? Well not much really as everything around me is a negotiation or a compromise; my relationship, my business, my children (oh yes my children now that is definitely negotiation at the highest level) even the decision of where to go out for dinner becomes a negotiation and eventually leads to a compromise.

But life is too valuable to dwell on these matters but no matter how often I remind myself of this I can’t help falling into a negotiation. Except now in our house there is very little negotiation about where to go for dinner because that decision is made at an executive level. No not by my partner but by my local restaurant offering me up to 50% off my food bill when they have availability and this decision is delivered to me by text to by realtimeseating. So if negotiations forms part of your daily life and now and again you just want the decision made for you just sign up at www.realtimeseating.com and choose your favourite local restaurant to receive offers from.

So off to the vote ……..could be an interesting day but it will definitely be a great evening dining!

06/05/2010 permalink | 0 Comments »

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