Every restaurant owner or manager wants to increase his or her earnings. One way to do this is to increase your profit margins by filling your tables. Several factors determine the number of people that place reservations in your restaurant. However, it is possible to increase the number of restaurant’s booking and sales.
How do you increase the restaurant’s reservation? Well, here are the three best ways that you can adopt.
1) Use an Online Software
If you want to have an advantage over your competitors, you need to use software such as restaurant seating software to help manage your business. Such software helps you to manage tables, book online, and manage waitlist.
Most people like to take the easy way out, so you should offer an opportunity for your customers to book a table online at any time that they want. Make your system user-friendly to make it easy for customers to place orders even when the restaurant is closed. Ensure that the system is working during early mornings, midday, or mid-night to increase the restaurant’s reservation.
2) Know Best Ways to Manage Reservations During Busy Hours
To increase the restaurant’s reservation, you need to come up with the best strategies to manage the bookings during the busy hours. Keep in mind that, on average, the rate of no show is around 15%, and empty tables mean a decrease in revenue. So, how do you manage table reservations and increase the number of bookings? Here are some tips to help you optimize your reservation process.
- Have Time Limit On Reserved Tables – One of the best ways to avoid customer disappointments and confusion is to have clear policies with guests. You can ask your customers to arrive on time or risk losing their seats after 20 minutes, especially during peak hours.
- Avoid Reserving All Tables – to easily manage walk-ins and reservations ensure several tables are free to avoid overbooking. When you have unreserved tables, your regular guests or new customers who walk in without a reservation will have available tables. You will also prevent embarrassment when two reservations walk-in at the same time.
- Have Owl (On-Waiting-List) Reservations – During peak hours, it is difficult to quote accurate wait time for customers. However, you can make this process easier by having an ‘On-Waiting-List’ in your restaurant to increase reservations. Rather than turning down reservations entirely, an OWL reservation puts customers on a waiting list, and a table is made available close to their reservation time. With an OWL system, a customer will have to wait for 20-35 minutes even if they reach on time, but their wait time is less as compared to walk-ins.
3) Fill Slow Hours Effectively
You can double reservations during slow hours. You can accomplish this by providing special offers to customers who visit your restaurant during low times. Also, attract more bookings by positing discounts on the online reservation system, sending emails as well as social media channels.
These are the best three ways that you can use to increase your restaurant’s reservations. To remain competitive, always use these simple ways.
