Managing a restaurant isn’t an easy job. There are a lot of tasks and things to keep track of all the time, to give your customers the best service and food there is to offer.
First of all, having the option of handling and managing your bookings is the most important feature to look for in a booking system. You may want to get notified via SMS, email or perhaps an automatic robot phone call when customers book a table at your restaurant. The second most important feature for a booking system is being able to integrate it on any type of device. Whether it’s a phone, tablet or computer. Whatever works best for your restaurant!
To be able to give the best experience to your customers, and, at the same time, make the most out of your business, is the end goal. An important feature that reduces restaurant no-shows is important. Having the option to overview and keep track of guests who don’t show up to their scheduled booking reduces the potential loss of revenue.
Another one of the must-have features you should look for in a booking system is to take pre-payment for all or some of the bookings. To book a table at your restaurant, a guest has to pay a fee. Being able to turn it on and off for certain times or areas in your restaurant is also something that you should look for!
Keeping track of all of the bookings that have been made at your restaurant can also be a struggle. Therefore, having multiple options on how to keep an overview of your restaurant bookings is a must-have feature. Choosing between seeing all the bookings in a month or a day, viewing it either as a list or as a floor plan overview. With the visual table planner, you can easily set up tables that reflect how your restaurant looks in real life. This will make it easy for your staff members to keep better track of which tables are booked at which times and with what names.
Having the possibility to integrate social media platforms into your webpage will make it easier for your guests to book a table and can increase your bookings! With a booking link on every social media platform that your restaurant has, your customers will find the booking experience a lot easier than if they have to spend too much time looking for it. And on the same line, another feature is easy communication between your restaurant and your guests, so that there won’t be misunderstandings and can reduce no-shows!
The last two must-have features in a restaurant booking system are focused on guest feedback and tracking. Asking for guest feedback, and tracking/analysing your existing feedback, overall helps you improve and optimize what guests appreciate about your restaurant. Most people look for ratings and reviews of an eatery before visiting it. And this is exactly why encouraging previous guests to give input on what they thought about their experience is crucial!