Website up and runing

W

wa_dave

New member
We finally have our website up and running
It’s not pretty - bold and in your face

After a lot of research and general asking customers what they look for in a website we came up with the following
a) Ease of use with minimal clicks to get to where they wanted
b) Fast opening - not wanting to wait while it loaded heaps of pictures etc
c) infomation directly to what they wanted

What I wanted was
a) a web address that blocks out a major chain’s catch cry (similar to ours) and which will direct any queries from their catch cry to our site - Real Pizzas
b) a site that we could develop further down the track from where we are now
c) our menu downloadable and printable in an easy read format
d) a blog site to get interaction with our customers and to pass on information / advertorial

Customer feedback has been really positive especially on minimal clicks. They are saying they open the page, see the menu button, press it and it’s there - really quickly. The menus is easy to read and prints out in an easy to read format. The coupons and VIP Loyalty card sections are deemed to be what thet see as positive additions and a benefit to them.

As we go forward we will be adding the feature of when they hover over the menu items a picture of that item will appear. We have just finished photographing the entire menu (as they were made in actual working conditions) and will have this feature added in the near future

Most pleasing point is we are drawing people into the shop already from the site as it has front page listing on Google and Yahoo
http://www.realpizzas.com
Dave
 
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Nice site. One thing that stood right out was the size. Have you heard anyone refer to ‘the fold’? Read this, you will learn everything you need to know and more.

With just a small bit of formatting, you should be able to fit every page there onto just one screen, saving your customers the need to scroll down. If you look at the big 3, they all do that.

Why insist your customers print the coupons? You know you have them, they know you have them, and your drivers should know as well. It feels good when I get a deal and the deal giver doesn’t require the coupon. Your customers feel the same. If you just tell them to mention it on the phone, every one wins.

Do you guys really not have set business hours?
 
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Thanks for the input

We will look at some of the points uoy made as we further develop the site

As for opening times we are in a unique postion, situated in on the outside of a medium shopping centre with the only passing trade of those going to the cinema just down the outside of the centre near us. Good films bring the crowds and we stay open longer. We always clsoe at the times I indicated but if there is people around we close. We are really flexible with our closing - after the times we indicate.

Where we are there is not a lot of usual trade late at night and we don’t do a heap of deliveries. We are in a middle to upper middle income area whre take outs are not as prevealent as lower socio economic areas.

Coupons - this is new to us hence why we “printed”. Gives us a firm indicationof web users, but this can and will probably be changed as we go along.

Dave
 
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Coupons are an awesome sales generator. They can just as easily be a curse, I am sure you read Big Dave’s article on the topic? I actually made that post, then checked my RSS reader and there was a blog post by Seth Godin that jumped out at me. Take a look at Pennies and dollars.

Judging from your reply, it looks like you guys don’t have any problems with coupons yet. That is a good thing. I remember the ‘good old days’ when coupons were more important than cash at a lot of shops.
 
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I’m sorry, but the number one biggest mistake any website can have is a high contrast red/white on black background. I had to close your site after only 3 seconds and my eyes are still screwed up as I type this. Dreadful.
 
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Dave

I think its a great start.

Red & Black ain’t a great one IMO it is hard on the eyes. You may want to look at this again. The menu for example is pretty big and not very easy to read.

Re ‘download speed’. I’m on an 18Mb broadband and I notice that the toolbar at the top of the screen, the coupons, the VIP picture and the jump to the blog were a couple of seconds loading so you might want to look at that as well.

Apart from that I think its great!!

Wiz
 
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Thanks Wiz

Just went on myself and had instant opening from all buttons, but point taken.

As far as the colour scheme it is in line with our menu - black background with red & white print on the outer pages and black and red print on white background for the actual menu items on the inside.

We went out on a limb to be different to everyone else with plain and traditional “safe” menus and websites. The response from our menu (which is really big 230mm deep x 34.5mm wide) has been unbelievable. Our main client age bracket is 30 - 50 and the latter ones reckon it is great to be able to read it without their glasses 🙂 That is exactly what we planned for. The response from customers has been “WOW. Man you won’t miss this”.

Also being different to all others makes us stand out from the pack and having this bold website is the same. We will be noticed from all the others.

I’m not saying what we have done is right or wrong just that we are different, in your face and memberorable and if people tell others “hey you should see this bold, intense, horrible website” and they do then we are hitting the mark.

Anyway it goes this is what we are living with until we redesign it, but all comments will be noted and if we can take one little bit from it to make it better then you guys deserve a big thanks. Keep the comments coming … I’ve got a thick hide … once I stop the insane crying and tantrum throwing 😛

Dave
 
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I think the speed issue you are seeing is that you’ve got the images cached. Once I’d been into each of the pages then out and back in again the images came up straight away. I’m no IT expert so I’m not saying that why but it would be my guess. I clear everything when I close my browser and it took a second or two when I tried it again.

Its not long but then again I’m on a fairly quick broadband set up.

Hope it helps.

p.s. what a small world it is! One of my friends (who doesn’t post here) recently became a fan of your FB page. Bearing in mind we’re both in a different country that’s gotta be quite unusual!
 
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Wizzle Wassell:
I think the speed issue you are seeing is that you’ve got the images cached. Once I’d been into each of the pages then out and back in again the images came up straight away. I’m no IT expert so I’m not saying that why but it would be my guess. I clear everything when I close my browser and it took a second or two when I tried it again.

Its not long but then again I’m on a fairly quick broadband set up.

Hope it helps.

p.s. what a small world it is! One of my friends (who doesn’t post here) recently became a fan of your FB page. Bearing in mind we’re both in a different country that’s gotta be quite unusual!
Click to expand...
It’s a small world indeed thanks to computerisation.
Get in contact with them and tell them to come for a complimentary pizza.
PM the persons name so we know when they come in.

As far as IT expertise I missed the intelligence boat on that part - and most others as well. Tha’s why I’m a pizza guy :oops:
 
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sorry my message wasn’t clear. They’re also not in Australia so doubt they will pop in even for a free pizza! I’ll bear it in mind in case I ever fly over! :lol:
 
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