With the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions easing, eateries and restaurants are reopening and welcoming diners after a hiatus of almost a year. The pandemic year has taught everyone that safety matters and reservations for dining in are the best way to go about this. It is where a reservation system or reservation software comes in. A reservation system enables a way to control the flow of diners and ensures that guests who have reserved seats are not kept waiting.
Restaurant reservations and related technology are essential enough that the government organizations such as The American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) recommend adopting reservation-only or call-ahead dining models.
The restaurant reservation system is traditionally an old legacy system. Diners would call or go to a restaurant and make reservations. While this system has been working, it is not without its challenges. Diners cannot reserve tables without calling in first; someone must answer the call and log the reservation. For restaurants walking in, there could be other diners waiting before them. Coordinating seating, allotting tables, and ensuring guests staying to dine are not unhappy is complex and can lead to errors and disappointed diners.
The modern restaurant reservation system or software is the way out of these challenges, helping restaurants manage bookings and more online and in real time. It allows restaurants to manage the wait time efficiently. The digital transformation of the old reservation booking system ensures that everything is done digitally using the restaurant website, app, or even a third-party online booking system to manage the reservation process at every step.
That said, the benefits of a restaurant reservation system are:
•Online access: One of a reservation system's essential features and benefits is online access. Customers can look for and find the restaurant they want to visit using the restaurant or a third-party website or app. Customers can quickly know the restaurant's capacity, how many reservations are available, and waiting time and also have access to schedule a booking.
•Virtual waitlist: Online restaurant reservation system helps ensure that the waiting queues do not form outside the restaurant and diners don't have to wait around. The system allows customers to check the waitlist and open slots. Customers have the flexibility to reserve their names from the location. This flexibility helps diners plan and schedule the visit to the restaurant, ensuring that they don't have to wait around to get seated.
•Booking management: Social distancing and reduced dine-in capacity were the new normal after the pandemic restrictions were eased and restaurants could open up and welcome diners back. Monitoring the power and ensuring that the reduced dine-in capacity was not exceeded presents new challenges for restaurants.
A restaurant reservation system is of immense help in such situations. It helps the restaurant to monitor capacity utilization in real-time and control the flow of customers. By reducing the number of covers for the booking, reservations are automatically reduced. The system is updated in real-time once the customer is billed and leaves, making the table available for the following reserved diner. It helps ensure that the restaurant doesn't violate the government mandate and ensures the safety of diners.
•Reducing no-shows: Customers not showing up after making reservations is a loss to restaurants in two ways. The allotted table does not generate revenue; at the same time, it cannot be assigned to anyone because of reservation. A reservation system can help with its POS integration. It can send a text message or a reminder to the customer and revise or cancel the reservation per the customer's request.
•Better service: With the help of a reservation system, it's easy to know the bookings for the day and plan staffing requirements. It helps give better service to the diners.
•POS integration: Integration of the restaurant reservation system with POS is essential. It assists in handling and managing end-to-end operations across all point of sale (POS) locations, like dine-in, takeaways, and delivery orders. The sync of all billing from these POS locations with the reservation system helps in consistent and consolidated billing and posting sales under the correct heads. If the restaurant has multiple chains, it can help manage the details of all the locations. POS integration allows accepting payments in various ways like cash, credit or debit cards, cheques and coupons.
- The benefits include an efficient and streamlined billing process
- Eliminates loss of sale due to multiple sale points and loss of revenue
- Gives insights on POS performance across all sale locations
•BI integration: Restaurants can monitor different aspects of their business. The restaurant management can also use BI to tap into the customer data that flows in through various sources and generate reports that can give them a real-time understanding of customer likes, revenue, ratings & any other area of its business. For restaurants having multiple outlets, BI can help generate reports for all outlets.
In conclusion, a restaurant reservation system is essential for a successful business. It allows the restaurant management to plan for inventory, staffing & other things related to running a restaurant. The system can be the first point of contact for customers and helps run the restaurant as efficiently as possible. For a restaurant looking to develop a reservation system, connecting with an experienced, professional custom hospitality software development service company can help elevate the service and increase business and revenue.
