Customer service is the best kind of restaurant PR

I am nearing the end  of my internship and I can’t believe it’s gone by so quick! As mentioned in my first blog post, What restaurant PR brings to the table, I am interning at a restaurant in Jakarta. I’ve learnt a great deal over the span of four weeks in Jakarta’s restaurant industry. There are many challenges revolving the restaurant business, first and foremost the financial aspects of the business.

One of the key things I learnt is the importance of excellent customer service. Today, a great restaurant is more than just food. Customer service plays a significant role in the overall dining experience and is necessary to build a positive restaurant reputation. When you are able to give your customers an amazing and distinctive dining experience, the customers will do the PR for you. Satisfied customers will spread positive word of mouth about the restaurant and bring in new prospects. Customer service is therefore the best kind of restaurant PR.

For example, there’s been an increase in the number of expatriate customers at my workplace. Most of the waiters understand basic English restaurant terms. However, I’ve noticed that with expatriate customers, especially those who come alone during their lunch breaks, enjoy having conversations that require waiters to have more than a basic level of English. Often they ask about the restaurant’s background. And since the start of my internship, my supervisor has asked me to have casual conversations in English with the waiters in order to improve their English. Although it is a simple task, it goes a long way to improving customer service and the overall dining experience for our expat customers. Moreover, the restaurant will gain positive reputation for being expat friendly. 

Photo credit: urbanouteaters.com

Over the past four weeks, I’ve been very fortunate to have had a very hands on work experience at the restaurant. Having spent most of my break at the restaurant, I’ve been able to make new associations and new friends. I been able to observe and absorb many teachings and lessons through experience in Jakarta’s restaurant industry as a PR intern. The only downside to interning at a restaurant is the weight you put on from eating so much good food! Other than that, it’s been a great experience.

#foodstagramming

Foodstagramming is a continuously growing trend in which people posts photos of their food on Instagram and Twitter. With that said, my Instagram feed has turned into a constant stream of photos of other people’s food and I know I’m not the only one. 

Indonesians in particular, are up to date in almost all social media trends thanks to the popularity of the Blackberry and affordable internet mobile plans. I Googled and found that 95.7% of Indonesian netizens are active on social media. And as an Indonesian myself, I know firsthand the love affair my country has with social media, predominantly twitter.  

As mentioned in my first blog post, What restaurant PR brings to the table, I’m currently interning at a restaurant in Jakarta. As I spend much of my internship at the restaurant, I’ve been able to observe patterns in customers who follow a variety of social media trends. As expected, it is generally the young female adults aged 17-25 who spend the few good minutes uploading photos of their meals online. It therefore becomes essential for the restaurant to present their food, drinks and desserts in an artistic way that entices customers to take photos and upload online. A clear advantage of the foodstagram trend is the awareness and interest it creates online that will help in attracting future customers to the restaurant.

#parc19bistroterrace

Social media is a powerful PR tool that has become increasingly important in the restaurant scene across the world. Restaurateurs have altered their business models to integrate social media. Evidently, proactive use of social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram can significantly improve the business in terms of public awareness and interest, customer loyalty, profit and so forth. However, we should never forget the risks involved. Restaurants run the risks of having negative comments posted on their Facebook wall, which calls for constant monitoring. Burger King recently suffered a hacking incident which brought negative impacts on its brand reputation. A restaurant and other establishments must take the necessary actions in order to mitigate social media risks.

They will come to you

In PR techniques and PR media, we learnt how to create and assemble a media kit that would be sent off to various media outlets. We learnt that in order to get media coverage, we, as PR practitioners must go and seek for it. Surprisingly, this is not the case at my work placement. 

As mentioned in my previous blog post, What Restaurant PR brings to the table, I am currently interning at a restaurant in Jakarta, Indonesia. Instead of delivering media kits to relevant media outlets, often writers, PR and/or marketing officers from different media outlets would contact the restaurant. It is therefore important for restaurants and other establishments in Jakarta to draw attention from the media in order to gain coverage. The greater the hype a restaurant receives, the more interested the media is and thus, the greater the media coverage.  

Recently, a writer from a website visited the restaurant with two others equipped with their cameras and photography accessories. My supervisor and I greeted them to a table where we briefly discussed the restaurant’s background and ordered them the specialties. They then freely took photos of the food, drinks and restaurant. 

However, they don’t always come to you. My supervisor said that for special events, he would personally invite people from the media, approximately 10 people, whom he has established a strong relationship with. He does not expect them to write about the event, however just to have a good time. The purpose of this is to create a stronger relationship between the restaurant and the media.  And as studied in this degree, developing strong and positive relations with the media is a key component to the success of a business.

What Restaurant PR brings to the table

As you would have already suspected from the title, I am in fact interning at a restaurant. I am currently in my 7^th day of internship at Parc 19, a restaurant situated in the heart of the entertainment district within Jakarta, Indonesia. Parc 19 is owned by PT Globaltama Maharasa, a company with vast experience in Indonesia’s restaurant and entertainment industry.

Obviously a restaurant isn’t your typical PR work placement and the term restaurant PR is something that most of us have never come across up until now. So why is restaurant PR important?

With greater competition within the restaurant industry worldwide, particularly in large cities like Jakarta where new hotspots seem to pop up each week, standing out is a challenge. That’s where PR can help. Cost effective PR strategies can be implemented to turn an empty restaurant to a full house and differentiate its establishment from competitors without having to spend on elaborate advertisements. 

One key component that PR brings to the table is a publicist’s, practitioner’s or PR consultancy’s strong, existing relationships with the media, industry and community. With these strong relationships, there is greater ease for a restaurant to execute its promotional strategies as well as greater chances for media coverage. 

Today, the importance of restaurant PR is growing with increasing number of PR consultancies in the US and UK specialising in restaurants.

Ayu Gunawan.