Mapping Consumer Digital Journey - Research Paper

Introduction

David's Prahran is an award-winning restaurant located in Prahran. It provides a modern take on the traditional family recipes. Its menu is largely inspired by cuisine from Zhou Zhuang a local town on the Shanghai Rivers. The restaurant has been at the 4 Cecil place since 1999 having undergone four renovations since the time to date. Its dishes are known for being flavoured with ginger, cloves of garlic, whole chilies, soy and sugar among others. The restaurant is designed to give its customers a relaxing and homey feeling and resembles a Shanghai river house that brings out the traditional aspect of the restaurant. David's Prahran has a culture to cut down on food waiting time, as the customer is their most valued asset as it understands the significance of culture in business success. The food is served as soon as it is ordered as fresh as possible and the customers are encouraged to supplement the service with some self-service that will help in improving the experience at the restaurant. One can help themselves drink the freshly served and clean water on the tables as well as add sauces readily provided with various tastes as per the customers' desires.

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David's Prahran uses various advertising platforms including Facebook where they use David's Restaurant as the main domain. The restaurant targets mostly the tourist in Melbourne city, as well as the locals in Melbourne. It promotes online services through channels like Facebook where they communicate to the potential customers of their schedules and the types of meals they offer at all times. David's Prahran website is also a critical platform as customers return to give their feedback via the website, as well as make bookings for their next scheduled visit at the restaurant. The restaurant uses the services of Google-owned AdWords that helps most businesses to reach potential customers interested in their services from the comfort of their homes, at an affordable price. The online platforms reach mainly the young generation the youths as well as the company's staff meetings schedules which are ordered online via the administration team.

Purchase Process

The purchase process involves various stages where consumers have to be attracted to the services offered by David's Restaurant via referrals and advertisements. They then get to accesses the website for information. The customer takes the responsibility to book a slot on a specific day and has the option to increase the number of members to accompany them. This is in regard to the possibility of business meetings or family parties. The customer is then prompted to give their credit card details as a security measure to represent the customer's commitment to the booking details. One is prompted to read the regulations of booking withdrawal so as to prevent inconveniences for both parties involved. After booking, the client can then browse the website searching for the specific meals that attracted them to the restaurant for them to make special orders in advance. From the restaurant menu, the customer is able to select any meals of their choice as per their dietary needs.

After the customer has made their decision on the specific meals they would like to be served with, they choose the method of delivery or specify if the meals will be taken at the restaurant premises. One is able to make a home delivery or an office at work delivery, and press the confirmation option on their delivery or service they have opted for. The customer receives a confirmation email to their placed order and booking. The post-purchase services involve prompting the customer to sign up as a member of the restaurant fraternity for the upcoming booked event at the venue and future updates in case of a repeat purchase (Robitaille, Denise 17). The customer is also prompted to follow their social media accounts as this will help them know of any general eventualities at the restaurant as they are always up to date. There are vouchers offered by the restaurant that the customer is mailed the physical certificate which includes an Online Certificate and the In-Store Gift Certificate. The amounts attached to the voucher may vary as one is eligible for amounts as from twenty dollars to a hundred dollars.

Mapping the Digital Journey

Awareness

• Via Referrals and advertisements Access website for information Decide to book a slot or slots at the restaurant
• Make a decision on the choice of meal to accompany the bookings placed Read and agree on the reason for submitting the credit card details Submit credit card details
• Choose a delivery option or select the restaurant as the venue for the booked meals Receive a final confirmation email about the placed booking at the restaurant Sign up for future updates via the company's website
• Receive gift voucher certificate via email

Critical Analysis of the Customer Experience

David's, Prahran restaurant opened in 1999 and has been consistent in the market in Melbourne city with time despite the opening and closure of other restaurants joining the market. The restaurant has engaged its customers with dignity and provided services among the best, earning itself the favorite tag among the locals, which is an imperative business exercise. David's is still popular due to its improved menu diversity as well as maintaining its originality to the consumer and improved physical appearance and structures. David's, Prahran restaurant has broadened its wings to the online community and it currently has a significant following by its members and customers across the globe. They have a company website with a clear symmetrical arrangement that attracts the viewers. The website has a dark blue background making the other website subtitles clearly visible. The restaurant engages its customers via the website, as the various services are outlined including booking, contact information, current affairs matters arising, functions and catering services among others. The website is linked to all their social media accounts including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. This makes it easy for their customers that visit the website to access all the other social media accounts.

The website is clear and does not have to push marketing techniques. These techniques used in the online platform to create curiosity by the consumers can be annoying hence their absence on the website is a plus for the customer. Presence of these pop-up advertisements can be annoying and discourage a customer from proceeding to make their initial orders. However, their presence would expose customers to their variety of products and hence could help some of them in the choices available in the restaurant. New customers may lack some critical information which could be passed to them via these pop-up advertisements. Instead, this customer could complete making their order forgetting some crucial items they may have needed to inquire, hence affecting the service they receive from the website. The website offers customization services as the customer is not limited to selecting fixed menus. The customer is flexible to choose from various food types to eventually present their favorite meal as per their desires and diet. A negative characteristic in the website is one where it logs one out when they spend some time in the inactive mode. This can discourage a customer from proceeding with their initial order as it might have taken them time to come up with the food choices. This is a disadvantage to the company and may lead to losses if such customers lose interest in proceeding to complete their order.

Recommendations

The restaurant can improve on its current e-marketing tools to improve the viewership and reach more clients. They should maximize the use of graphics and video design tool which in my view they have not exploited fully. The use of push marketing in graphic and video design is a crucial aspect of reaching out to the customer. Pop up advertisement can reach many customers if used decently. By this, the restaurant needs to employ the use of such kind of advertisements but ensure they are in a reasonable amount and not chocking to the customer. When pop-ups advertisements are used minimally, they are set to come up the user's screen in time interval hence giving the user sufficient time to decide as well as not to seem to be annoying and after increasing sales without considering the consumers' affairs. The Facebook platform of the restaurant is not fully utilized as the page does not make use of video advertisements. Such kind of advertisements can be used to create a positive perspective of the restaurant and engage the customers that prefer videos to pictures. This would be both beneficial to the restaurant as well as useful to the customer. The restaurant could employ the use of press releases in cases where urgent and critical issues of the company have to reach a significant amount of audience. It is a quick method to reach out to many consumers as well as the customers who may not access social media platforms. This will cover the older age groups as they are not consistent social media users. It will as well be useful as the older generation of customers are their main customers and they will be content to get the information at the comfort of their homes.

The restaurant can as well employ the use of automated inbound marketing. In this marketing tool, users can sign up to marketing newsletters and be fed with little bits of information as they move to the next level of engagement until hopefully, they send the users to a buying stage. Many current mobile phone browsers have adopted this marketing technique hence able to reach out to all their users. If David's, Prahran restaurant employs this method, chances are they will reach more customers at the customers' own rate, and finally, they will earn a significant following which will improve their market size. This technique is user-friendly as one comes across the advertisements at the comfort of their homes or workplace. The restaurant can as well use the tool of creating organized personal accounts. This tool serves the customers vision the website, by allowing them to record their details as personal accounts. This motivates the users of the website to feel safe as their browsing history is saved in a personal account and not left exposed. The restaurant should include an option for customers to tailor suggestion to an order selection. This will improve customer interaction with the restaurant as they will be able to give their opinions enabling the restaurant to improve on its customer service. This tool will be beneficial to the consumers as they will be able to suggest their own food diets and, in the process, feel appreciated by the company as, their opinion matters to the restaurant.

The restaurant can employ the tool for article marketing. To customers that spend most of their time reading articles online, it will be a convenient way to reach them. The articles can be based on the bio and by-line of the restaurant that includes references, and contact information of the author's business among others. This technique captures most of the young generation that loves reading constructive articles online. It will be an enjoyable way to access the information as well as access it at their own comfort. The restaurant can as well employ the use of affiliate marketing technique. This technique employs the reward system of the messenger. In this case, the business rewards the affiliate that brings traffic to their website. The customers will feel motivated to introduce their friend and family members to the restaurant via the website as they are guaranteed a token in return. As the chain expands, the consumer's referring their colleagues gain with the rewards as well as the business benefits fully by getting access to a...