My first venture revealed...

[canadiangal]

I have to thank everyone who has helped me with advices on this website since last year.
i have officially launched my (not so)web-based business two months ago and need more advices from all of you.
Checkout my website at www.hungrybay.com and let me know what you think of the design, layout, ect.
I have started really slow with just a few orders a week.
I need more orders; in fact I need tones of orders but am not sure how to proceed.
I have a facebook page and spent lots of money on Facebook ads; we also have a twitter account, pinterest, a youtube video; got the car wrapped with advertisement. Got some flyers out and that wasn't cheap to distribute.
How do we get people to actually place orders instead of just liking us on Facebook? I spent a lot of money and really would like to see things moving.
We have one competitor in town, but other canadian cities usually have more than one and business seems to be going well for them.
Please provide feedback on the website and also advice.
thanks!
CG

 

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[CryptO]

Overall Impressions of website layout and design

The Menus etc and the order systems are good and easy to navigate.

The design and fonctionality is clear and appealing.

It is not cluttered.

I like websites that offer live chat, especially when it says online!!

Content

You have a wide range of cuisines

Menus - Generally something for everybody. Clear and easy to order. I like the fact that a comment can be added to an indivitual order.
There was one restaurant menu I saw that must have bugged. Chinese Village (or something like that). I looked at it once and only half the items were there, then second time ten minutes later the whole menu came up?? Perhaps my browser.

Pricing - I can't comment on this one. Have you added comission on top?

Payment processing and delivery time - cant comment either. I do like the choice of delivery time.


Conclusion.

I like it and I would genuinely use this service because its convenient, but on this occasion unfortunately I live France!

There is only one thing that bugs me slightly, please bear in mind that it is just my opinion so don't take offence.

Whilst I love the site and think the concept is very appealing. I don't instantly like the name HungryBay, but, that wouldn't stop me using the site.

You could add a Q and A page using something offered at Qhub.com. They offer a great alternative to sending comments and can be adapted to anywebsite.

Out of interest if you don't mind. How do you make money from it? Do you process the orders manually yourself?

Good luck with you business!!

 

[socaldude]

Maybe you can team up with the businesses and have them put you on their menu! so that way when someone has the menu on their fridge they can call you or they can refer you!

 

[hedgehog757]

Maybe you can team up with the businesses and have them put you on their menu! so that way when someone has the menu on their fridge they can call you or they can refer you!

Good idea!

 

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[Likwid24]

I think the site looks great and is very easy to navigate. I just have a couple of questions.

-Who does the deliveries? Do you do it yourself for now? Do you have a delivery guy waiting around all day? Is it 24/7? What happens if you get bombarded with calls all at the same time?

There might be a simple solution but I'm just not familiar with how sites like this work.

 

[damien275x]

I like it. The page scales well and is viewable on a tablet device. Viewing on a tablet is VERY important as by 2015 more than half of us will be accessing the internet Via a tablet with no keyboard, mouse or scroller.

I would get rid of the red perhaps and make the page white, as it's easier on the eyes, at least for me. Also on the landing page, get rid of as many links as you can and put them under a hover menu. If you have a landing page with only one buttong "CLICK HERE TO START ORDERING" you will draw more people in, I think it's a little busy and people have very short attention spans today!!

Good luck mate!

 

[canadiangal]

I think the site looks great and is very easy to navigate. I just have a couple of questions.

-Who does the deliveries? Do you do it yourself for now? Do you have a delivery guy waiting around all day? Is it 24/7? What happens if you get bombarded with calls all at the same time?

There might be a simple solution but I'm just not familiar with how sites like this work.

I wish I can get bombarded with calls... I need more orders to start coming in.
I prefer that the customer orders online and doesn't call me. When they call me, I charge them $2.50 on top of their order (on the phone order fee). They don't seem to mind.
The idea is that I don't leave my room the whole day, long term and only dispatch these orders through my laptop. But I lost the 2 drivers that I had hired because i do not have enough orders yet. They get paid by the customer, for every order they deliver. So: no order, no pay. I am doing the deliveries, and my brother does some of the deliveries as well for now. I got many drivers applying for the job but I won't hire anyone until I start getting enough orders daily.

I like the idea of having one button saying: to start your order, click here. I'll add that and remove all fluff.
Someone else told me they don't like the name: hungry bay .... uhm, it's not particularly easy to find an available website with an appealing name. It took me over two weeks to have something that was available. Any other name idea?
The service is NOT 24/7. My restaurants have to be open 24/7 for me to be able to deliver 24/7, not that I will be particularly excited to stay awake. That's wasn't the point of getting the business going.
My partners have our menu guides in their restaurant and also a window decal. Getting them to include my logo in their menu guide seems like too much to ask, as they will have to pay for the re-print and distribution of those menus.
The promise was that I will bring them customers they didn't have, not them handing over their customers to me.
I see this service as being a need in this area, but maybe I am not just doing enough advertising... not sure what's going on. I need more orders...:icon_super:

 

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[CryptO]

Someone else told me they don't like the name: hungry bay .... uhm, it's not particularly easy to find an available website with an appealing name. It took me over two weeks to have something that was available. Any other name idea?

It doesn't have to be available. You just decide on a name that you want. Then go to whois directory or directly to site and contact the owner and maybe they will let you take it off their hands, for a price depending on percieved value of domain and the owners previous interest in the domain.

eDine.com

DineOnline.com

DeliverTo.me

TastyDelivery.com

Etc Etc.

 

[Likwid24]

Yea that's how I figured it worked. They had something like that in my area. I'm not sure how it worked out. I'm going to do some research for you to see if it's still around and how their doing.

I agree with most people here about the name. It seems like your only looking to provide service in your area. That your not looking to scale the business. What happens when you get busy and want to expand your area? The name might not work as well in other cities as it does in your.

 

[canadiangal]

I wish I listened to my hubby about the name.
It won't be easy to it change though: My car is wrapped with the logo, and all menus also have that name.
I am planning to expand to other cities and even franchise at some point. But it has to work here first.
What's really killing me is the advertising cost: designing, printing, distributing, and even facebook or radio, all of these are expensive. Radio was not a good idea because the ad was on on odd times (8.50am, 2.50pm, 1am, 3am). I even thought of doing an arrow ad on busy hours then thought that I have spent enough already.
I was hoping that my car would do the trick but...
If anyone knows an owner of service similar to mine, maybe they can provide some good advices. Or maybe i just need to be patient and hope that people find out about us and decide to buy...

 

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[CryptO]

I wish I listened to my hubby about the name.
It won't be easy to it change though: My car is wrapped with the logo, and all menus also have that name.

I have got no track record of creating a business and making money so I'm perhaps not the best person to give advice but.

I think you have to aim at getting your business to work and profitable in your area using your current name that you seem committed to now and then when you have made some money, make the investment and change it before trying to expand.

 

[Milkanic]

Couple ideas. You need to go hit the pavement and hustle.

1.) Print a high quality one page flyer and try to get in every hotel room binder in the area.
2.) Get you name on hotel key cards
2.) Take donuts/bagels into office buildings and see if you can get the receptionist to put them in the break room and send a company wide email "Donuts in the break room courtesy of Hungrybay.com". Get your flyer in every office break room in the area.