For cafes, restaurants and hospitality
The place they choose before they leave the house
Cafes, restaurants, bars, bakeries and caterers. Your next table is decided on the couch: they search “brunch [suburb]”, look at the photos, check the hours, read two reviews and choose. You win or lose the table before they have put their shoes on.
What I look for first
- Wrong hours on Google. A family drives over, finds you closed, and tells everyone.
- A menu that’s a photo of a printed page: hard for Google to read and hard to use on a phone.
- Five photos from opening day, two of them of the sign.
- Reviews unanswered for a year, including the one that deserved a reply.
- Bookings sent through a third-party app that charges you for every table and keeps the customer’s details.
- AI tools answering “best coffee near [station]” with whoever is described most clearly and consistently online, which is not necessarily the best coffee.
What I do, in order
- Find out where you stand. The Diagnostic when the answer isn’t obvious, including the enquiry test: I ring to book, and try your website as a hungry person would.
- The Google profile, made the way people use it. Hours right and kept right, the menu as text, dishes and drinks as items, fresh photos, the booking and ordering links in the right places, and a post every fortnight.
- A site that works on a phone at 6pm. Menu, hours, book, call and directions in the first screen. Your own booking link, so the table and the customer are yours.
- Reviews answered, every one, in your voice. Routine replies within two business days, hard ones as soon as you’ve approved the reply (up to 40 new reviews a month; more is quoted), and a simple way to ask every customer without ever paying for a review.
- Found by the people nearby. Apple Maps and Bing matched to Google, the directories that matter for food, and pages for the things people search: brunch, functions, catering, dietary needs.
- Described clearly where the AI tools read. Then “where’s good for a family dinner in [suburb]” has a clear, consistent answer about you to find.
What I don’t do
Social media management, photography and influencer work are specialist jobs. I’ll tell you when you need one and give you a name I trust, and I don’t take referral fees. If I recommend someone who also refers clients to me, I’ll tell you.
What it costs
For a venue, I’d start with Presence, $1,250 a month plus GST: the core, Google and maps, and reviews, because that is where a venue gets chosen. Every price is published, and nothing starts without a fixed price in writing.
Where to start
A free thirty-minute conversation. Then every client gets a clear look at where they stand: the Diagnostic when the answer isn’t obvious (a day finding out exactly where you stand, including a real test of what happens when a customer calls you), or a written plan in the proposal when it is. Book a call, or tell me your business and I’ll email you three things I’d fix, free.