As we turn another page and enter a new decade, I find myself thinking about technology and restaurants. As a customer, how do you see handheld technology being used to enhance your dining experience?
I captured this bit of video while trolling the aisles of the BC Hospitality Expo in Vancouver late last year. The video shows a handheld (iPhone) app that servers can use to be more efficient at handling the orders and billing of their guests.

I am also reflecting on how restaurants can use QR Codes to tell the behind the scenes stories of the meals they deliver to folks in the dining room. One really creative restaurant in New Jersey recently began using QR codes to link to videos showcasing the Ethiopain cultural connection of some of the meals they serve. The diner, clicking on the QR Code links to the video and watches the short Youtube Video. Nice. The restaurant doesn’t even have to create the video content, just has to make the connection for their diner.

How could a brew pub showcase their pride in craftsmanship or educate the customer on how their product is made? How could you give behind the scenes access to your kitchen recipes or showcase where your local food is purchased by filming a short video with a local farmer?

How do you think restaurants could utilize the power of handhelds to enhance the dining experience for their ideal guests? Have you seen anything innovative in this space?

Restaurant Ratings and Reviews have been popular for some time now, but the new TripAdvisor iPhone app, LocalPicks makes it easy for diners to post reviews and even include a photo before they even leave the restaurant.

Consumer-generated mobile restaurant reviews will become an important marketing tool for restauranteurs in 2010.  Are you ready?

To refresh your memory, I’ve written about handheld review apps with Goodrec back in February,  and the free LocalPicks app when it first appeared in the iTunes store in July 2008.  I rely on this handy app to find decent places to eat whenever I’m traveling.  The user-generated review community at TripAdvisor hasn’t steared me wrong yet (although I’m sure I’ve missed out on some good places that have gotten lousy reviews by Tripadvisor diners).

What’s New and Interesting in LocalPicks by TripAdvisor

The new version of TripAdvisor’s LocalPicks app provides a filter of nearby restaurant suggestions based on user reviews, cuisine style, distance and price so I can suss out the best options for me and my growling tummy.

And of course each restaurant listing features restaurant phone number, so with I click I can dial and make reservations.  I can even get directions and use the built-in gps to navigate my way to the maître d’.

The Little Button that Changes Everything

While some applications like Goodrec have given diners the opportunity to make restaurant reviews on their iPhone before now, these apps had little chance to make an impact without dropping the reviews into the well-known, well-populated  TripAdvisor database.   The “Write a Review” button on the latest version of TripAdvisor’s LocalPicks app feeds handheld user reviews directly into TripAdvisor’s already burgeoning ecosystem of Traveler-generated reviews.

Writing Reviews on LocalPicks is possible right in the Restaurant

Like the TripAdvisor Website, the app gives users a variety of categories to rate restaurants including overall, food, service, value, atmosphere and the opportunity to answer a simple yet vital Yes/No question: Would you recommend this restaurant to a friend?

App users can even upload a photo from the restaurant.

Can you feel the power shifting to the consumer?

Are you excited or anxious now that your restaurant guests have the ability to rate or review your restaurant in the power of their hand?

As a consumer, the new power excites me.  As a tourism operator, the new power excites me even more!  As a restauranteur, you can choose to be threatened by this new wrinkle in the power of social handheld media or you can rise to the challenge and benefit from it by encouraging reviews by your patrons while they are still in your restaurant.

How your restaurant can benefit from the emergence of handheld ratings and reviews:

• Provide great service, serve great food and deliver value for money.  Educate waitstaff and kitchen staff that their job security may truly be in the hands of your patrons.
• Listen to the reviews and stories told by patrons and adjust your products, services when they aren’t up to guest standards.
• Leave a note on your receipts encouraging folks to leave a review.  Have your servers be on the lookout for handheld toting guests and offer an invitation to review your restaurant.
• Encourage regulars to take a moment to tell others about your restaurant on TripAdvisor – even if they do it from home, the reviews will show up for others who rely on TripAdvisor for advice.
• Offer bonuses to wait staff who succeed in encouraging their dinner guests to leave reviews.
• Print business cards with links to TripAdvisor or other relevant review sites your clients use.
• Create a community of caring customers by becoming social on sites like Twitter and Facebook.
• Print your Twitter handle on your receipts – and provide special value to your fans.
• If you are a DMO, CVB or other agency that supports tourism in your region, help your restauranteurs to understand the new power of the handheld consumer to influence their business.  Get them excited about offering great service.

The opening of Apple’s app store for iPhone is only a little over a year old and it has taken a bit of time for applications to catch up to the promise of the “Here and Now Handheld Web” – now that it’s here, all marketing is social.

What do you think? Will mobile ratings and reviews be as big as I think they will be in 2010?

Imagine you are traveling and you’re at an awesome restaurant or hanging out in a great resort and you become a FAN! You’ll want to tell everyone about it. Your mobile phone and the new app from GoodRec (Good Recomendations) makes it simple to bang out a short review on your phone and share it with other travelers.

While many folks travel and dining experiences are guided by the recommendations of others, its been just too much effort for travelers and diners to write reviews themselves. Until now.

The free application Good Rec for iPhone is based on the twitter norm of 140 Characters and will definitely appeal to folks who post status updates on Twitter or Facebook. The website for GoodRec also lets users push their recommendations to Twitter and Facebook.

While the vast majority of people wouldn’t take the time (especially on their handheld) to post a review, the GoodRec application simple interface driven by the universal “thumbs up/thumbs down” and 140 character burst of advice-giving, might sway many folks to remark on their great or not-so-great dining experience.

For me, Trip Advisor’s Restaurant finding app, Local Picks has been a godsend when traveling. A big part of its value is that it taps into existing restaurant reviews in a very large database of reviews that has been developed on Trip Advisor over many years. When looking for a good place to eat, I often rely on this tool to find me a local restaurant with good reviews.

140 character restaurant reviews could be a great thing once the volume of recommendations grows.

I think the best way an application like the free iPhone App, by GoodRec can make an impact is:

• make a traveler dedicated version with focused recommendations that appeal to travelers: restaurants, hotels, attractions and the like. (currently the app supports wine and book reviews)
• merge review results with an existing review database and by pulling short forms of existing restaurant reviews into its database – from/with TripAdvisor for instance.
• partner with existing review sites and merging your technology to make it easier for folks to post reviews on existing / popular review platforms

Robert Scoble interviews founder of Goodrec’s CEO, Mihir Shah about the company’s mobile recommendation service.

Related Articles:

• The value of recommendations to a traveler can’t be underestimated.

If you are wondering what makes a great restaurant Web site, consider visiting http://www.letseat.at/

The free Web site for restaurants offers some really interesting tools for those in the food biz:

• uploading your menu
• daily or weekly specials
• creating online coupons
• post reviews and link to media articles on your eating establishment
• even automatically creates iphone ready versions of the web site

The Web site becomes completely yours and it’s completely free at LetsEat.at/YourRestaurant

Clever!

The site makes me wish I had a restaurant.  If you’ve got friends in the restaurant biz, let ‘em know about this one.