Online Table Reservations – A Tool to Upscale Your Restaurant Business
Managing a restaurant is no cakewalk. While your diners may be creating some of the best memories of their life in that restaurant of yours; you, as the restaurateur will have to make sure that they are able to create such lovely memories. Ensuring the best customer experience is among the basic aims of any restaurant. And one of the ways that you can make that happen is by allowing online table reservations.
I understand that you may not have been attaching too much importance to this particular area previously. But if you have to make it big in the restaurant business, this is something that needs to be taken care of and you will see visible changes in your profit margins for sure. The process of table reservation is advantageous for both – the host and the guest.
Importance of online table reservations
So first up, lets understand what are the reasons that you need to focus on the table reservations of your restaurant.
- Makes the customers happy – on the one hand, everyone loves to dine at a restaurant every once in a while; on the other hand, customers hate waiting. This becomes an ideal situation for a restaurateur to enable as well as encourage online table reservations. The restaurant management systems such as Gleeca prove to be of great help in implementing this. The facility reduces the wait times of customers drastically, thereby giving you happier customers. This has a direct effect on the rate of customer retention and following it the increase in your business. Moreover, an accurate wait-time can also be determined, which allows you to give proper information to the customers so that they do not have to wait unnecessarily.
- Helps in organizing staff – because the reservations are done beforehand, you are aware of the number of guests that you would need to serve. This helps you decide how many staff you will need to have at hand. Based on that you are able to inform your employees beforehand and avoid any possible roster confusion. Along with that you will also be saving labor costs because you will not be over scheduling.
- Reduces the no-show – with the automation of operations and online table reservations coming into the restaurants, the customers are sent SMS alerts from time to time about their reservation. This reduces the chances of customers forgetting about it and not turning up. If, however, they do not wish to come for some reason, they can easily cancel the reservation. This gives you the option of taking another reservation in its place, thereby, warding off empty table scenario. This technological addition to the restaurant business has helped restaurateurs keep their business wheel turning. In short, reservations are maximized.
- Helps customize services – who does not enjoy a little attention? Everyone does. So do your customers and the table reservations are a tool in being able to provide such services to them. The customer’s data that is collected through the online reservations is used to understand the requirements and preferences. This then becomes the basis of how the customer needs to be treated to give them an enhanced experience. This data will comprise of things such as the important dates, eating preferences as well as the dietary restrictions that they have to follow.
When given such special treatment, the satisfaction of the customer is guaranteed. With this, the natural outcome is the word-of-mouth promotion of your business; which as I always emphasize, is by far the best form of advertisement.
- Assists the branding process – Since the Covid-19 disaster and the digital shift of the world, having an online presence is like having a license for your restaurant business. This has in a way boosted the need for online table reservations. The ease with which customers can book a table for them is what draws them more towards this. But as a restaurateur, you too should know that encouraging online reservations for your restaurant seating is a great means of branding for you. I’ll tell you how. The moment you have a website for your restaurant and you are enlisted with Google, that’s about it. You no longer have to worry about telling people you exist. Every time anyone searches for a restaurant that has the features that Google identifies with your restaurant, your restaurant’s name will appear on their screen. There you go, you have your advertisement in place; getting new customers no longer remains a thing of worry. The subdomain that Gleeca, the free restaurant management software offers to you on signing up with them, makes exactly this benefit available to you.
- Keeps errors far and accuracy close – the automation of operations is always a healthier option for your restaurant business. It adds speed to all your processes as it reduces the chances of mistakes and increases efficiency. Taking orders for table reservations will no longer go wrong because of the way it has been organized within the software. Also, if double reservation entries trouble you, with Gleeca’s restaurant management system, you will be able to view and manage all your table bookings on a single dashboard. And the best part of this is that anyone can operate this system, no specialized training is required. Nor do you need any extra hardware to get this system in your restaurant operations. All you need is a regular smart phone or a computer and you will be good to go.
- Cuts down on food wastage – a big responsibility of restaurants these days is to maintain sustainability. That is to help protect the environment even while you conduct your business. A big part of being sustainable for any restaurant, is to ensure that they reduce the waste coming out of it. Food wastage is a very normal occurrence within a restaurant; and though you cannot entirely eliminate it, you can at least find out ways in which that can be reduced. Having online table reservations gives a heads-up information on the number of dishes that need to be served, approximately. The cooking team is hence given information according to it and that is how food wastage is reduced drastically.
I am sure you have now got an idea of how many areas of your restaurant management will be benefitted with the inclusion and increase of online table reservations. Once you begin to accelerate this mode of sales using India’s only free restaurant management system, Gleeca, your success is guaranteed.
