An excellent customer experience is the heart of hospitality, but customer care does not just start when a guest enters a venue. Instead, it starts the moment they get in touch with a brand.
In the food and beverage sector, customer care starts at the point of making reservations. While leading industry names have moved past simply writing down reservations, many brands are yet to enjoy the potential of a digital solution that manages reservations and venue capacity.
Restaurants that provide flexible reservation solutions and convenient booking processes are known to increase their revenue by 21%. Particularly in the fast-paced F&B sector, a table reservation system offers efficiency and a competitive edge with multiple benefits.
1. Attract new customers with novelty and flexibility
Implementing a table reservation system makes restaurants attractive to customers, especially those in a hurry with unexpected meetings or impulsive dining needs.
When diners can book a table online, they can oversee their seating arrangements and make a reservation at the desired table. They are far more likely to prefer a restaurant that offers this facility over a restaurant that does not offer the same flexibility.
On the other hand, a reservation solution also empowers the staff to oversee and manage the venue’s capacity, even during walk-ins. The staff can swiftly view the restaurant space and handle the seating arrangements to maximise the space.
2. Increase accuracy and enhance convenience
Manual reservations can impact a business’s brand, including errors in the number of diners, incorrect reservation time or even overbookings—often, these mistakes are not realised until the guest arrives at the venue and is challenging to mitigate or rectify.
These shortfalls are entirely avoidable with a restaurant table reservation module, especially as the automated system is far less likely to get a reservation wrong. Cloud-based reservation modules can save detailed inputs of walk-in and pre-booked diner details, providing a single source of truth that employees can track. Every staff member can view all reservation details and plan the space accordingly.
3. Maximise table turnover: reap better profits
An increased and satisfied clientele means increased revenue and profitability. Implementing a table reservation system can optimise table turnover by enabling customers to pre-order, ensuring a shorter yet satisfying dining experience.
With the elimination of time spent trying to get a waiter’s attention, placing orders, and waiting for food preparation, businesses can accommodate more reservations and serve more clients throughout the day.
Moreover, the table reservation system helps reduce waiting times for walk-in customers. Employees no longer need to regularly consult booking records to determine table availability, as all reservations are conveniently stored in the table reservation system.
4. Higher productivity with less effort
Manual reservation management requires several employees and demands repetitive tasks, including writing down names or going back and forth to find a clean, empty table. This can result in mistakes, employee dissatisfaction, and reduced efficiency, as they need help concentrating on multiple tasks simultaneously.
It may also lead to burnout and high employee turnover, causing more losses to the business.
Implementing a restaurant table reservation system that automates these routine duties can resolve most of these challenges. With a digital reservation system, employees can easily accept reservations with the simple tap of a button, freeing up their time and allowing them to focus on delivering the best possible experience to clients.
Provide the ultimate dining experience with smart reservation management
Today, customers prefer reserving their table with their mobile phone over the long waiting time to find a space that accommodates their dining needs. Restaurants must rise to the challenge, especially as socialising is returning to normal levels as it was before 2020.
IDS Next’s FX Book Your Table (FX BYT) is a table booking and channel management solution designed specifically for modern diners’ needs. It allows restaurateurs to manage table reservations, venue capacity for everyday dining operations, and special events with sophisticated meal plans and seating arrangements. FX BYT brings bookings placed from every channel into a centralised and user-friendly interface and is integrated with Reserve with Google, enabling restaurants to receive bookings directly from the Search and Maps.