How Automated SMS Can Streamline the Restaurant Table Booking Process

It’s a busy Friday night at a small restaurant. 

The phone won’t stop ringing, staff is scrambling to confirm reservations, and potential guests are frustrated waiting for callbacks. 

It’s a mess. 

Restaurant owners know the pain all too well. 

The time spent manually confirming bookings and following up with no-shows leaves the team overwhelmed, and valuable tables remain unfilled. 

This frustration is exactly what automated SMS solves. 

For small restaurants—especially those without a dedicated reservation team—automating table booking processes with SMS is a game-changer. 

Here’s how it can transform your restaurant’s booking process and, at the same time, elevate the guest experience.

Increases Efficiency of the Reservation Process

For starters, automated SMS improves how restaurants handle reservation confirmations, making the process faster and easier for both staff and guests.

Let’s say your potential guest, Sarah, books a table for 4 through your website. 

Moments later, her phone buzzes with a confirmation SMS like this one:

Image: ©MStudioImages via Canva / Text: Tablein

The reservation is instantly confirmed without any extra effort from your team.

This is what automated SMS does—it handles the confirmation process, so your staff doesn’t have to. 

As soon as a guest provides their phone number during booking, the system sends an SMS with all the necessary details of their reservation. 

There’s no back-and-forth communication needed, which frees up your team to focus on the guests already in the restaurant.

Sonora Braun, Director of Product at Toast, elaborates on this feature of excellent reservation booking systems.

Illustration: Tablein / Quote: Toast

Of course, the message must be clear and concise. 

And since SMS has a character limit (usually 160), it’s important to cover the essentials without being too wordy.

Here’s a recap of what to include: 

• restaurant’s name, 
• reservation time and date,
• guest number, and
• contact number.

And for a more personal touch, start the message with the guest's name. 

Such short, simple, but highly informative SMS will eliminate confusion with your guest and save time for your staff. 

Your team can now focus on enhancing the in-person dining experience instead of being tied up with administrative work.

Improves Guest Experience

We all love an instant confirmation when we buy or book something online, whether it’s a flight, a hotel room, or just a pair of new jeans. 

The same goes for restaurant reservations—people want to know their booking is confirmed without any delay.

You might be thinking: Why send an additional SMS when the reservation system already confirms it by email?

That’s a fair question. 

But let’s dive into why text messaging is not only more effective but also more preferred by consumers when it comes to interacting with businesses.

Graham Anderson, Chief Customer Officer and Co-Founder of Kenect, a platform known for helping businesses communicate with their customers via text, offers valuable insight into this.

Illustration: Tablein / Quote: MarketScale

Anderson’s point is backed by research and numerous studies repeatedly showing that we—consumers—simply love SMS more. 

More precisely, 89% of consumers would rather deal with a business via text than phone.

Illustration: Tablein / Data: MarketScale

Why? 

There are many reasons for this:

• People don’t like being on hold, especially when it takes too long.
• Phone calls can be inconvenient, arriving at the wrong time.
• Playing phone tag is frustrating and inefficient.

But it’s not only phone calls that text messages outperform. SMS is also far more effective than emails. 

According to a study by Soprano, SMS messages boast an open rate of 98%. 

In comparison, email open rates hover below 20%.

Even better, 90% of people open a text message within three minutes of receiving it, making SMS the fastest way to confirm a reservation or share updates with your guests.

Illustration: Tablein / Data: Soprano

So, why stick with just email when automated SMS can do so much more, and it’s what customers want?

Plus, you don’t have to stop at confirmation SMS.

Text messages can be used to send friendly reminders about upcoming reservations and, this way, refresh the memory of a guest who may have forgotten about the reservation.  

If you read on, you will see some real numbers on how much customers actually like to be reminded about their appointments via SMS. 

It’s these little touches that build trust and make guests feel valued.

Makes Waitlist Management More Efficient

Running a small restaurant means every table counts, right? 

So, when your tables are full, you want to make sure that guests without a reservation don’t just walk away. 

Here’s a simple fix—offer them the chance to join your waitlist.

Source: Tablein

You take their name and phone number, send them off to grab a coffee or stroll around, and when their table is ready, they get an SMS. 

It’s quick and effective.

Now, think about what happens if you don’t take their phone number. 

What would you do—run around shouting their name, hoping to find them? That’s not practical. 

And sending an email? It could sit unopened or end up in the Spam folder. 

But an SMS? 

That’s something people see instantly. It’s a fast, direct way to get them back in the door.

With automated SMS, waitlist management becomes a breeze. 

Our reservation system, Tablein, lets you easily manage this. 

Here’s how: when a guest comes in without a reservation, you open your calendar, mark their reservation as “pending,” and add their details—name, party size, and phone number.

Source: Tablein

When a table is free, just click “Table ready,” and they’ll get an SMS inviting them to come and claim their table.

Source: Tablein

Just one more thing—when they show up, don’t forget to mark them as “Arrived” in the system. 

That’s really all there is to it. Yet, it makes managing your waitlist so much more efficient!

Reduces No-Shows

No-shows can be one of the most frustrating parts of running a small restaurant. 

You prepare for a busy shift, expect a full house, and then... nothing. 

Tables sit empty because some guests didn’t show up without giving you any notice. It’s lost revenue, plain and simple. 

However, the situation is getting better.

In 2023, the no-show rate dropped to 16%, down from 20% the previous year.

Illustration: Tablein / Data: Touch Bistro

That’s a nice improvement, but wouldn’t it be great to bring that number down even further? 

Here’s the good news: automated SMS reminders can help.

Think about it—life is busy, and forgetting a reservation happens more often than you’d expect. 

But an SMS reminder, like the one below, gives your guests a quick, easy way to confirm, reschedule, or cancel.

Source: Tablein

That way, if a guest cancels, you can quickly fill the table with someone else. 

It’s all about keeping your tables full and your customers happy.

And people actually find such reminders very helpful.

According to Zipwhip’s 2021 report, 64% of consumers said appointment reminders were the most valuable texts they received from businesses.

Illustration: Tablein / Data: Business Wire

That’s because an SMS is something people see immediately—it cuts through the noise of emails and phone calls. 

In fact, Zonal’s research shows that 36% of customers who missed a reservation said they would have shown up if they’d just gotten a reminder.

But timing is everything here. 

Zonal’s study also found that 28% of people want to be reminded on the day of their reservation, while 38% prefer to get a heads-up a few days in advance.

Illustration: Tablein / Data: Zonal

Our system, Tablein, hits the perfect middle ground, sending out reminders a day before, at 12 pm. 

This way, your guests have just enough time to plan ahead, but not enough time to forget again.

And if you’re still not convinced, consider this: a study in healthcare showed that SMS reminders reduced no-shows by 38%, compared to 24% with phone calls.

Illustration: Tablein / Data: Wiley

While the study wasn’t focused on restaurants, the logic applies—the quicker and more convenient the reminder, the better the results.

All these statistics point to one thing: SMS reminders work well for keeping your guests informed and your tables full.

It’s a win for everyone involved.

Optimizes Table Management

Managing tables efficiently is key to keeping your restaurant operations running smoothly. 

You want every seat filled and every customer happy, but juggling reservations, walk-ins, and waitlists can get chaotic. 

That’s where automated SMS can make a big difference once again—by helping you optimize table management in real time.

Let’s say a guest cancels their reservation at the last minute.

Without real-time updates, you might not find out until it’s too late to fill the table. 

But with automated SMS, you can get an instant notification when someone cancels or reschedules. 

And you can react quickly—whether it’s contacting someone on your waitlist or adjusting your seating plan to make better use of your space.

With our Tablein, you have the option to receive SMS notifications about both new reservations and cancellations for full control over your table management.

Source: Tablein

The system ensures you’re never caught off guard by last-minute changes, and you can always make the most of your seating arrangements.

In the end, it’s all about making table management easier and more efficient. 

And an automated SMS from your reservation system is one efficient way to achieve that! 

Conclusion

Imagine never having to worry about no-shows, missed bookings, or inefficient waitlist management again.

You’re right; automated SMS probably won’t prevent that altogether, but it is a practical solution that will definitively streamline your table booking process and reduce the number of these setbacks.

All in all, considering all the benefits of automated SMS that we mentioned today and the obvious customer preference for SMS communication, not choosing a table booking system with this feature would be a missed opportunity.

So—choose wisely!