Luigi’s had a clear requirement for the standard features of any restaurant website; a menu, a contact form, some pictures, and some information about the site. Luigi however, had also decided that the website should not only offer this as a standard, but also provide a great many other features.

Extra Features:

Directions to the website were provided, by utilising Google maps. This meant that people could easily see on a map where the restaurant was located, and print directions as required, and the website would automatically enter its own address for the customer.

Online ordering was one function that was required, the difference between this offering and other online shopping websites is that it has a clear requirement for a delivery or pick up option. Furthermore, Luigi planned to use the computer in his back office, and let his waiting staff run the orders. This was compounded by the fact that none of the staff were keen computer users, and there was a psychological barrier to overcome.

Overcoming the issues:

Ugly Fashion Media were able to negate this issue by providing an auto-printing feature which allowed online orders to automatically print out near to the waiting staff. They were then only left with the simple task of running the print out in to the chef and phoning the customer to confirm the order. Once this part of the site had been designed, the task of taking pictures of every single dish in Luigi’s restaurant was undertaken by Ugly Fashion Media, with the images then uploaded.

The benefits of email marketing:

Luigi had also requested an email marketing campaign to go with his new website, and ensure he could keep contact with his customers. Often his offers were seasonal and needed to be timely, which meant that email marketing was ideal for the scenario. This functionality was set up and delivered to Luigi’s website, with an online subscription available. It was also easy to unsubscribe via the emails, and met with current anti-spam laws and best practices. As part of this set up, it was possible for Luigi to obtain customers birthdays and an automated email was sent out offering them a birthday treat at his restaurant.

As a final step a staff member was trained to update the site, the menu’s and update seasonal offers, as well as updating the email marketing campaign.

Summary

The end result was a highly functional website, with a large amount of content, which was optimised for search engines. The site instantly started attracting business, despite having a high level of competition for both the terms Italian Restaurant, and Luigi’s Italian Restaurant. The site had also been optimised with social media in mind, and had Facebook integration, which Luigi started to take advantage of by starting up his own Facebook profile.