The oldest North Indian restaurant in the UK a case study
The oldest North Indian restaurant in the country - The Punjab in Covent Garden, London, has been serving traditional Indian fayre to locals, celebrities and tourists from all over the world since 1946.
More recently (in line with Sikh values of 'Seva', or service to others), since March 2020, they have served over 180,000 meals to London food banks and the homeless.
Their challenge
For over ten years, The Punjab had invested heavily in magazine and tube station advertising.
Although this strategy helped raise awareness, it didn't get enough new customers through the door, nor were they able to measure its impact.
The Punjab wanted to review their marketing activity and get digitally savvy and up their online presence to better understand their customers' needs and wants and drive footfall.
Our strategy
Nowadays, most diners' journey to a restaurant starts online. The Punjab's loyal customers regularly post reviews and have created Facebook pages for the restaurant. The Punjab wanted to get involved in those conversations and have their say.
With a ready legion of die-hard loyal customers, we built our online strategy around enlisting their help to amplify The Punjab's voice online.
What we did
To boost word of mouth marketing, we developed online mechanisms to encourage customers to leave online reviews of their experience. We then found existing reviews, sparked up conversations with customers, and led them back to the website – which we also updated as an SEO optimised site to attract customers from all across the web.
One of our most effective strategies was to ensure we responded to every single review left online - good or bad - within 24 hours. This simple action led to a considerable uplift in bookings.
We hired mystery shoppers to gain micro-insights into our customer's restaurant experience, which helped us improve all of The Punjab's customer service.
Finally, we educated The Punjab's staff about the importance of digital and the vast impact online reviews can make on a restaurant business's success or decline. We trained them on quick, simple techniques – to help them manage their social media and keep on top of their online presence.
How we helped
The strategies we put in place helped us reach 5,000+ online reviews, which directly helped The Punjab become more profitable than ever before. The success of our work enabled them to cancel all of their traditional advertising and associated costs.
Today The Punjab continues with the online strategies we implemented. They actively gauge customer feedback online, which is fed back into the business and continually improves their service and keeps customers happy and coming back for more.
Here's everything else we have helped The Punjab restaurant with over the years:
Updated brand assets
Hatched a plan to paint the entire three-storey building in Royal Blue, to help them stand out
Overhauled their website
Implemented a procedure for responding to every single posted review within 24 hours
Ongoing local SEO campaign support
Planned all social media activity
Project managed all marketing activity
Creative ideas to celebrate The Punjab's 75th anniversary
Added and handled all of their online business listings
Promotional ideas around seasonal and annual London events
Donations to food waste charities
Implemented website booking facilities
Client testimonial
"We have worked with Sumwot for over ten years now. We wanted someone who we could trust with our historic brand. We have been trading since 1946 in London, and we felt it was vitally important to employ someone who understands our brand, what we stand for and can make a meaningful contribution to making sure our business is here for another 75 years.
Sumwot are always full of exciting and fresh ideas, and they have made a real, measurable difference to our business."
— Amrit Maan MD of the Punjab Covent Garden, London
