Technology & Software Solutions
‘no shows’ with online reservation software No more
Technology is moving at lightning speed and every industry is trying to keep up. The restaurant industry is no different. Today, restaurants are dealing with diners who want convenience and speed when it comes to making restaurant reservations. Reservation software that enables online bookings doesn’t just make life easier for the diner, it also has numerous benefits for the restaurant.
Online booking software, like the Dineplan app, usually sends an SMS and/or email to the diner once the booking is made to confirm their reservation details. Dineplan also sends a reminder SMS on the day of the diner’s booking asking them to reply ‘Confirm’ or ‘Cancel’ to automatically update their booking status. How does that this feature translate into a benefit for the restaurant? According to a recent article in The Guardian UK, statistics show that restaurant ‘no shows’, which used to make up five percent of bookings could now be as high as 15 percent on some nights. Establishing this kind of communication channel with the diner means cancelling or confirming a restaurant
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reservation is as simple as pushing a button. This reduces ‘no shows’ and eliminates reservation errors from staff. It will also reduce the restaurant’s phone bill as they won’t have to phone guests to reconfirm bookings.
BROKEN TELEPHONE By saving the restaurant management and the general staff time they are able to rather spend their time on core tasks. If diners are trying to make a reservation for a meal via telephone, an unanswered phone can mean lost business. Let’s face it, it’s difficult to man a phone 24/7, especially during a busy lunch or dinner service. Using an online reservation system means you’ll never miss
If diners are trying to make a reservation for a meal via telephone, an unanswered phone can mean lost business”
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June 2018 | Full Serv ce
out on potential reservations and this improves guest service.
DON’T GET LEFT BEHIND Dineplan was launched in South Africa in 2011. Today, more than 20 000 bookings are made across the South African Dineplan network every day, 30 percent of these are made online. There are many benefits to using reservation software but Dineplan co-founder, Greg Whitfield believes the number one benefit is that any restaurant using Dineplan positions them well for the future and the ever-changing market. ‘Online booking forms a significant part to this as everyone and everything is moving online and restaurants simply have to offer instant online bookings if they are going to survive in the future,’ he explains. ‘The other significant area is building a database of their customers. Technology is advancing at such a rate, and to be able to benefit best from this you need data.’ Dineplan - www.dineplan.com