The Networking Blog

Bringing customers to a cafe or a restaurant requires good food, a nice setting and good service among other things. When I sat in a cafe and sent a tweet about it, I discovered a new way to bring returning customers: responding to the tweet in a creative way.

Picture credit: Chris Brogan

I sat with my laptop at Tazza D’Oro, a nice cafe-restaurant in Tel Aviv, best know for its excellent breakfasts. As I was waiting for a meeting, I sent out a tweet about sitting in this cafe. Reporting from everyday life is common amongst geeks, and I’m no different.

I was surprised to see a reply from Yotam, the owner of the place, that asked me to ask for him, since he couldn’t recognize me from my picture. Well, the waiter called him and we had a nice chat.

He told me that he’s looking for creative ways to get more people to his place. The method that he chose wasn’t advertising or special offers. He chose networking.

Why should I come to his cafe rather than the one next door? The reason. as Yotam explained to me was the people. Now, when I sip a cup of coffee or have lunch at Tazza D’Oro, it’s not just sitting at the place, it’s sitting at Yotam’s place.

The personal touch is what will make customers return. This is an ancient method. The technology is new Twitter. By monitoring mentions of his place on Twitter, he can see what people are saying, respond to them, and also approach them physically if they’re there.

This is a great example of using the networking technology to network in real life. The place also hosted a tweetup recently. This might have been the trigger for him to start using Twitter.

Twitter isn’t the only tool around, and it might not always be suitable for everyone. We’ll later review another place that uses Facebook to keep in touch with customers. Bon appetite!