Our Story: Why We Built UrbanBacon
I see restaurants join Twitter everyday, and that’s incredible news. Then it happens…that new restaurant begins tweeting nothing but specials. Their entire feed becomes a rotating spam bomb of happy hours and ½ off appetizers. No engagement. No personality. Just spam.
Tons of people have expressed this problem to me. They hate when restaurants only tweet specials, they even unfollow them. I agree. People join Twitter to talk and meet people, not to be bombarded with advertising. Is your restaurant making this deadly mistake?
A handful of restaurants fail at Twitter. They fail to see what Twitter is:
Customer Service
Your customers are on Twitter, and they are talking. By responding to complaints and praise you create customer service. People want to feel noticed, and Twitter scales those relationships. Stop treating it like an advertising platform, and start listening to your followers.
UrbanBacon is Your Advertising
For most of my life, I have worked in the restaurant industry. As a small boy my mother owned a small café/diner. I remember how hard she hustled getting that small lunch counter off the ground. It’s not an easy business, I understand that. My experience taught me respect for both sides, as an owner and customer.
At UrbanBacon we strive to create a “win-win” for both owners and customers. Owners run daily specials to get more customers. Customers love specials because they save money. UrbanBacon brings those two together.
We Grew Sick of Reading Countless User Reviews…
By creating UrbanBacon, we also solved a personal problem. According to the 37 Signals book “Getting Real:” (an AMAZING book for all entrepreneurs)
“A great way to build software is to start out by solving your own
problems…The key here is understanding that you’re not alone. If you’re
having this problem, it’s likely hundreds of thousands of others
are in the same boat.”
People talk…people talk a lot, and they are not 100% right. And who’s to say you won’t love a restaurant I hate? If I express that hate online, than that may sway your opinion. And if I sway your opinion, than that’s not fair to you or the restaurant. People have different tastes, and should try things on their own. Like I said, we grew sick of reading countless user reviews…
What’s Going On?
On top of that, we constantly found ourselves asking each other:
“What do you want to do tonight?”
Followed by:
“I don’t know, what’s going on?”
Ever find yourself in this situation? If only one website allowed all the restaurants/bars to post their specials/events/venues. That website needs to be fun, easy, and search-able. By giving the power to the restaurants, we eliminated all the guesswork. It’s the answer to the age old question “What do you want to do tonight?”
What Happens Now?
Right now in the game, we are highly local to St. Louis and Chicago. But our dream is to offer this service to the entire country. We need you to get the word out. If you want to see every restaurant in St. Louis and Chicago posting their deals than tell your friends, link us up, and tweet about us. Every bit helps. I will personally buy you a beer if you’re in the STL area, it’s the least I can do!
We appreciate all of our fan support, and please let us know if we can do things better. Thank you St. Louis! Thank you Chicago!
Phil Novara
573.424.8440
@UrbanBacon
Tags: marketing, our story, restaurants, urbanbacon, why