Tonkotsu is a renowned UK restaurant chain, famed for their homemade noodles and authentic Japanese ramen. Tonkotsu has gained a loyal following over the years and have been fortunate to expand to 18 locations across the country. With expansion comes a need for operational efficiency and continued commitment to excellent, consistent customer service.
With a desire to welcome and serve customers online ahead of their in-person dining experience, Tonkotsu sought the expertise of Cloudsdale; web design experts renowned for delivering custom digital solutions in the food & hospitality industry.
Tonkotsu’s challenge: limited by website capability
Tonkotsu approached Cloudsdale with a specific challenge. While they were satisfied with the visual appeal of their existing website, they were bound to the limitations of its functionality. They needed an experienced website expert who could custom build solutions. These website solutions aim to deliver an extension of their in-person experience and empowered customers with information at their fingertips, ahead of their visit to their nearest restaurant.
Our initial brief to Sean was to improve the back end of our website to ensure it was functioning properly from a technical point of view. He rebuilt the website to a brilliant standard and then provided some great ways to improve how we were presenting our brand with a new homepage to highlight everything we do at Tonkotsu as well as individual location pages to support our visibility on search.
Jaime Keeble – Head of Brand – Tonkotsu
Cloudsdale’s Solutions: bespoke functionality
With a clear idea how to achieve Tonkotsu’s unique goals, Cloudsdale rebuilt the website, complete with custom functionality, and leveraged WordPress for user-friendly content management. This new website mirrored the original look & feel they felt happy with while introducing bespoke functionality to elevate the online experience without sacrificing ease for content level updates.
A Visual Menu Display
The first custom solution Cloudsdale introduced to the Tonkotsu website was this online menu that integrates high-quality food photography and detailed descriptions alongside vital dietary information for each dish. The new menu layout not only entices visitors visually in line with the traditional in-restaurant experience but also provides them with comprehensive information to make empowered and informed dining decisions.
Our new website gave me lots of new ways to talk about what makes Tonkotsu great, and all the cool things we’re up to.
Jaime Keeble – Head of Brand – Tonkotsu
Venue selector
With 18 locations across the UK, customers have ample choice around which Tonkotsu venue will best fit their needs. Recognising some parties choose where to eat based on accessibility, dietary or group requirements we custom built location pages that empowered and armed customers with all the information they need at first glance.
Customers can filter venues by needs, find their nearest venue and understand quickly what’s available to them there.
Localised Optimisation
Each Tonkotsu venue comes equipped with its own landing page. The venue landing pages pair pivotal informational about the facilities, features and location of the restaurant for visitors with local search engine optimisation. Each page has locally optimised copy, a map to the venue using a Google Maps integration and features local schema which allows for core contact and venue information to be indexed.
The Tonkotsu Business Benefits
For the Tonkotsu team, the new website introduces efficiency and ease. Custom solutions have not bound them to hard coded changes. The Tonkotsu team can log in, upload and remove new menu items, edit copy, amend features and adjust imagery with ease.
With a 185% increase in engaged time on the site, the additional level of information they are able to serve their customers means they are able to make empowered buying decisions around which venue to choose, dishes to select and sides to add on, without calling the chains directly.
And these new features and elevated online experience means more people are finding, choosing and loving the Tonkotsu chains.
Working with Sean is dream! He is incredibly easy to work with any flexible where needed. Always on hand with any small issues but also came with great ideas to improve our website.
Jaime Keeble – Head of Brand – Tonkotsu
