When I started at Urban Hearth as General Manager, I was tasked with maintaining the website for this thriving farm-to-table restaurant. While the restaurant was doing well, the website was out of date and hard to navigate, often leading users to book on the wrong date or for the wrong experience and adding extra hassle to my role due to long, back and forth email exchanges or phone calls. Sometimes the confusion would even lead people to show up on the wrong day or think they had booked for the Chef's Counter when in fact they only had booked for a la carte. Managing guest expectations is so important to retention so I knew something needed to be done and set my sights on a full website redesign through Wix.
I knew the site had to be mobile friendly, as more than half the users were using mobile to book. I also knew that we needed clearer pathways to booking a reservation and we needed to highlight these pathways on the home page to avoid drop offs. I knew we needed to optimize all pages and content to be searchable, sharable through their social media channels, and easy to update with a clean, modern looking design that showcased the core values of the restaurant and featured stunning photos of Chef Erin Miller's cuisine, her team, and herself.
I took a look at the guest behavior and realized most users were being redirected from the home page to a page that didn't even include a link or widget to make a reservation. So I put a button that linked to the reservations page front and center in the header of every page. I then redesigned the reservations page to direct people to book an a la carte experience or book a chef's counter experience. This small change dramatically reduced guest confusion and lead to higher cover counts with less back and forth problem solving.
I added a blog filled with engaging, creative content to bolster their special menus, events, news and happenings. Each post acts as a landing page for guests to have all the information about the special event with clear links to book seats or purchase online ordering. Since SEO rules the online world, I made sure all posts are keyword searchable and sharable through social, thus expanding their reach and boosting their online presence.
Since the design, Urban Hearth has seen a rise in cover counts and a drop in confused guests as well as higher traffic and lower bounce rate. A big success for this small business.
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