CLIENT: The Signature Room at the 95th is a restaurant located atop the John Hancock Center in Chicago that offers diners exquisite food and a skyline view.
CHALLENGE: Concept, design and launch a new, complex website within three months that included an updated look and feel, easy-to-manage systems for Signature Room staff and improved functionality.
PROCESS: The Signature Room wanted to update the look and feel of their website by capturing the experience of dining and entertaining in their facility. Due to the multiple services and amenities they feature, we needed to create a way to improve the user experience and allow visitors to easily access their desired information. We included a splash page that allows visitors to select their destination from the three most popular pages of The Signature Room website: dining, lounge and menus. Additional web pages can be accessed from the main navigation along the header of each page on the site. We also added Adobe® Flash elements to the home page navigation to alternate imagery depending on the option that was selected. This added elegance and style to the website.
The Signature Room also wanted to be able to easily manage and control the website’s content. With menus and events constantly changing, they needed a very user-friendly function that could be used by Signature Room staff. We added content management to the website that provides the staff with formatting guidelines and allows photos, links and documents to be added when necessary.
We created an online inquiry form for guests to fill out regarding hosting a private event, as well as online application forms for employment and the Charity of the Month program. Applications to become a Charity of the Month are only accepted throughout a specified time period, so the site was created to switch out content based on an internal calendar. Depending on the time of year, visitors can either sign up to receive an email notification letting them know when applications are being accepted, or they can fill out the online form to apply for the Charity of the Month program. The inquiry form and online applications also include email auto-responders after submission.
The Signature Room wanted gift cards, merchandise and event tickets to be purchased directly from the site, so we created a custom shopping cart. The backend of the website, including building the program database, implementing SSL and a payment processing gateway (API), and creating a custom ecommerce shopping cart, was created to accommodate all of the site’s features.
After The Signature Room at the 95th launched their website, they wanted to consolidate their reservation vendors under one roof. It is estimated that they spent close to $25,000 annually with Open Table. This was not ideal as end users would have to leave The Signature Room website in order to make a reservation. This increased the possibility of losing the customer; not only would the customer leave the website in order to fill out a reservation, but it was also common for the customer to be told there was no availability, when in fact, there was.
Because Desert Rose Design offers technological solutions, we were able to develop a cost-effective Reservations Application. Potential customers who now visit the site simply fill out a form and this information is sent directly in-house. Since the information is real-time, the availability’s margin of error has significantly decreased. In addition, all the information collected from the database is streamlined to create a seating chart for the day’s activities.
RESULTS: The development of a customized web-based Reservations Application with a one-time fee from Desert Rose Design proved to be a huge cost savings.
Webstats: Since the development of a new, more professional and user-friendly website, The Signature Room at the 95th has experienced the following web results:
- Increased traffic by an average of 3,500 visitors monthly
- Average time on the site is over 3.5 minutes
- Over 75% new/unique visitors monthly
- Over 189,000 views monthly
Results for The Signature Room Reservation Database:
- Saved client an estimated $20K
- Consolidated vendors
- DRD web application was 1/5 of the annual fee they were paying with other vendor
WEBSITE: www.signatureroom.com