Do you know? Optimizing your reservations management can save you up to 20% in sales by switching to an online reservation solution for your restaurant.
Here’s how this type of tool will have a positive impact on your business, your teams and your profitability. And discover the functionalities of our dedicated module.
Why reservations are a must in the restaurant business (for those still wondering)
Restaurant reservations are a service used by 50% of consumers. Yet only 47% of restaurants offer it. Either by choice, or by lack of time to offer an ideal experience.
Some restaurateurs choose not to allow their customers to make reservations. They want to avoid no-shows and/or retain a certain degree of freedom in their day-to-day operational management. However, booking does not prevent freedom of action, and when it is managed with a dedicated tool, it actually makes it easier to avoid no-shows and their impact on business.
Others require no reservation at all, as they are fully booked for every service. These remain a minority. And let’s face it, on the customer’s side, this can create frustration that won’t help build loyalty. Who likes to wait for a table, only to be disappointed? Unless you’re THE trendy new establishment not to be missed, your customers will go to your competitors.
Offering reservations doesn’t mean we can’t keep tables available for passing customers. Allocate a portion of your tables to reservations. And by using an online booking tool, you can manage this allocation automatically and adapt it to your needs.
So offering reservations is a solution to a number of problems:
- Optimization of fill rate.
- Anticipation of stock levels.
- Reducing food waste.
- Better management of your team schedules.
These are key points in a context of inflation and staff shortages.
Why should you set up online reservations in your restaurant?
When reservations are received by telephone, you expose yourself to the risk of errors and omissions. Customers either call in during the service, which creates stress for your front-of-house team.
Otherwise, they’ll call when your business is closed; you’re simply missing out on a sales opportunity. 18% of reservations are made between 10pm and 10am (source: Zenchef).
When you manage them via e-mail or social network messaging, this implies a processing time during which your customers can book elsewhere. They will consume at the store that accepts the reservation fastest. What’s more, this solution requires a high level of organization, with access to several platforms, which makes delegation difficult.
Online booking and our dedicated module offer you nothing but advantages, which we explain below.
Already convinced? Ask for your free demo of our dedicated module.
Advantage 1️⃣ : Efficient room management
Room management is an important part of a restaurateur’s business. As you know, increasing your occupancy rate is one way of maximizing the profitability of your business. And one of the most effective ways of filling your venue is to book online.
Because it allows you to :
- Fill your room in advance,
- Receive reservations 24/7,
- Assign a reservation to a table automatically.
Setting up online booking with our tool offers you a number of operational advantages:
- Visualize at a glance how full your room is, before and during your service, to better welcome your visiting customers,
- Track table occupancy in real time, so you can improve table rotation,
- Swap tables or group them as required.
You optimize all tables, whatever your reservation/non-reservation split, especially for small venues where each optimized table can have an impact on your sales.
Advantage 2️⃣: You’ll have an easier time fighting off no-shows
No-shows are the main obstacle to online restaurant reservations. The use of a digital tool offers functionalities that act directly on the reduction of this problem:
- View delays and no-shows in real time on your tool, so you can reallocate tables to passing customers,
- Activate deposit or pre-payment to discourage customers from not honoring their reservations. Otherwise, you reduce the impact of a no-show on your sales by ensuring a minimum income.
Advantage 3️⃣ : You receive bookings even when you are closed.
An online reservation solution for your restaurant lets you receive booking requests no matter whether you’re open for business, in the middle of a fire, or closed. Technology at work for you!
What’s more, you can choose whether you want to automatically validate bookings, or retain control over their acceptance.
Our module is easy to use, both for you and your customers.
For your customers :
- A simple form, with a choice of day, time and number of guests. They can also indicate allergens,
- They receive an e-mail confirming their booking, and have the option of modifying or cancelling it.
For you :
- The reservation is automatically applied to your seating plan. You decide how many tables you want to reserve,
- You still have the option of cancelling a reservation that has already been confirmed, either by e-mail or by telephone, thanks to the one-click call function.
Advantage 4️⃣ : Your customers book directly from your Google Business listing
At a time when 80% of consumers look at customer reviews before choosing a restaurant, your Internet presence and Google Business listing are powerful levers for filling your venue.
Did you know that your Google Business listing is displayed 10,000 to 150,000 times a month? Offering online booking directly from this channel is a definite advantage.
Our online restaurant reservation module is a Google Partner. This means that we integrate the “Reservation” button directly into your listing, free of charge – where other solutions charge for the functionality.
Advantage 5️⃣ : You centralize all your reservations
You have a personalized link that you can affix to any medium: your website, your DOOD e-shop, even your shop window or flyers via QR code!
Our digital tool allows you to centralize all reservations for better organization and to avoid any errors or omissions that could impact your customers’ experience:
- Automatically, for bookings coming from your personalized link and your Google Business listing,
- And you fill in the other requests coming from the phone or other media not linked to your personalized link.
Advantage 6️⃣ : You get to know your customers better
Catering is all about gastronomy… and customer relations. So being able to offer a personalized experience, or at least knowing that they’re a loyal customer, will make all the difference!
Online booking should therefore be seen as a means of building customer loyalty. Thanks to your online restaurant reservation tool, you can access the following information:
- Customer listings,
- Booking history and future bookings by customer,
- Information on diet and allergens by customer,
- Star rating to identify your VIPs.
And if you complement this with an email communication approach, you’ve got it all!
Advantage 7️⃣ : You increase your sales by 20%.
We estimate a 20% increase in sales thanks to the use of our online restaurant reservation module:
- Because you reduce no-shows and the impact on your sales,
- Because you won’t miss any more bookings than you would over the phone,
- Because you increase your table rotation, you optimize them all,
- Because you gain in organization and efficiency,
- Because you know your customers better and build loyalty.
The advantage of our solution: the call platform connected to your reservation management tool
Turning to digital technology to optimize your restaurant’s reservations management doesn’t necessarily mean abandoning the telephone, which may still be popular with your customers.
At DOOD, we give you the opportunity to couple your digital tool with a call platform based in Lyon. Because customers who call to make reservations often do so when you’re open for business but in the middle of a shift, or after the break when you’re no longer on site or have nothing to write down.
How does it work?
- Your callers are transferred seamlessly to our platform,
- Our operators, connected to your management tool, register the booking for you.