Exit41, a company that powers the food-ordering experience for a number of big-name restaurants, just announced that it wants to make Facebook Fan Pages more useful &8212' for both hungry customers and restaurants looking to measure the value of their social networking presence.
Most big restaurants have built Fan Pages on Facebook, but those pages dona4ぎa4д usually offer much in the way of features. For example, the Dominoa4ぎa4г Pizza page includes some basic restaurant information, some promotional photos, and a coupon, but the only way to actually buy a pizza is to follow a link to the Domino&'s website.
With Exit41, restaurants can build food ordering into their Fan Pages. While Ia4ぎa4ёe seen food-ordering capabilities on Facebook, they&'re pretty rare. Exit41 doesn&'t just let you order food &8212' it also offers some nice integration with the social network. Once a restaurant is up-and-running with the new service, users can just click on the a4ぎAOrder Onlinea4ぎ tab, where theya4ぎa4ll be presented with an interactive menu. You can say that you a4ぎALikea4ぎ a specific menu item and broadcast that message to your Facebook friends. And you can see how many other users liked a specific menu item.
The experience isna4ぎa4д perfectly tied into Facebook &8212' once users select their items, they get sent to the restaurant website where they have to complete the order.
As Fan Pages become more important, there are a number of tech companies offering to improve them. For example, Get Satisfaction allows companies to manage a customer support tab.
Joseph Gagnon, CEO of the Andover, Mass.-based company, said one of the big advantages that Exit41 offers restaurants is a direct way to measure the payoff from their Facebook Pages. Since adding the Exit41 order feature, restaurant chain Wow Bao said its orders went up 10 percent in five weeks. The Facebook ordering feature will be a part of Exit41a4ぎa4г standard subscription price, Gagnon added.
Founded in 1999, Exit41 says it has processed more than 20 million food orders. Its investors include GrandBanks Capital and Dace Ventures.
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Companies: Exit41, Wow Bao
People: Joseph Gagnon
Companies: Exit41, Wow Bao
People: Joseph Gagnon
Anthony is VentureBeat's assistant editor, as well as its reporter on media, advertising, and social networks. Before joining VentureBeat in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. (All story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com) You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.
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