This blog post will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of various restaurant reservation methods, and will give some top tips for restaurants when considering how to take table bookings.
Should you take restaurant reservations at all?
Firstly, lets look at some pros and cons of taking restaurant bookings.
Disadvantages:
- Absent customers / no shows lead to loss of revenue
- Holding tables when customers are late for reservations also results in revenue loss
- Changing party sizes involves reshuffling tables around to accommodate them
Advantages:
- Special occasions often wish to book ahead
- Planning bookings ahead often leads to better customer service as staff are prepared
- Customers get a sense of good service if they are greeted and seated quickly, rather than enduring a long wait
- Taking table reservations allows you to naturally build a valuable customer database
- Accommodate large parties which often leads to more revenue directly; and even indirectly via word of mouth
Overall, I’d say taking table reservations is important, but there are various methods you should consider, which we’ll be discussing now.
Walk-in bookings
Although most reservations are done over the phone or online, during
busy periods it may become necessary to maintain a waiting list.
The benefits of keeping a table waiting list include
reducing table turn around times, which both increases efficiency and
believe it or not, can encourage new customers to give your restaurant a
go. This is unofficially referred to as the “busy restaurant theory”,
which applies to many walks of life; customers assume that the
restaurant must be good if it is busy, and others are willing to wait to
be seated. It’s all about psychology I guess. Or is it simply logical?
The disadvantage of keeping a waiting list is the management and
floor space required to keep customers entertained. Finally, if poorly
managed, uncertain / inaccurate waiting times can often irritate
customers and cause them to leave. This may lead to customers never returning…
Online Table Reservations
One of the main concerns with restaurant owners when it comes to the
use of online restaurant reservations is whether or not it encourages
no-shows.
Based on a recent study carried out at a popular Mediterranean
restaurant in Sheffield, we found that in fact no-showing customers, are
not a major concern.
Often restaurants request deposits or credit card details to reserve,
however, this can discourage even those who are genuinely looking to
reserve online, or by telephone. This problem is particularly the case
for smaller, less well known and independent restaurants.
How can restaurants discourage / prevent no-shows?
One method which has been adopted by many restaurants now days is to
replace credit card details upon reservation with other customer
information such as:
- telephone number
- postcode
This is said to discourage customers from not showing up for table reservations, or at least it encourages them to give the restaurant notice of the cancellation in advance.
Online table reservations are the perfect way to build a customer database, excusing you from the laborious tasks involved in maintaining a list of customers manually. This of it like this:
The customer is providing their data entry services AND bringing you custom to your restaurant.
It also reduces the chances of spelling mistakes, which are too common when taking telephone bookings.
One thing to consider when using an online reservation tool is that
you need to ensure that you have tables available to accommodate the
party at the time they have reserved. Teapot Table offer a solution to this problem with their restaurant management system and online table booking module.
Online table booking enquiries are completely different to online
reservations. Flat form enquiries should be discouraged as they require
staff time, and require lots of work for a relatively low conversion
rate.
Instead, the customer should be able to see if a table is available on a given date for a given party size at a given time on your online booking module. Teapot Table’s booking module provides just that.
Telephone reservations
Telephone bookings are necessary, but can often result in miscommunication in terms of spelling customer names, telephone numbers, dates and times.
It is recommended that the customer is reminded about their booking
via a confirmation email at the time of the booking, followed by a
reminder a day or two before the sitting. This allows the customer to
double check the details are correct, or contact the restaurant if
necessary to amend them.
Teapot Table’s dashboard provides restaurant employee with a simple
data entry system which automatically populates customer specific fields
if it detects that the customer already exists in the database. The
advantages of this are:
- Speeds up the telephone reservation process
- Clearly shows availability to staff so they can advise over the phone
- Checks spelling
- Validates emails, telephone numbers etc
- Sends the customer an automatic confirmation email.
One of the most important things to remember when it comes to table reservations, is that it is all about customer service and satisfaction. Building a customer database is just one of the perks…
