Easy Way to Dramatically Decrease Unprofitable No-Shows - Restaurant Reservation System

Written by Tablein Team | Feb 4, 2020 3:48:10 PM

Customer Story

Da Alessandro, UK

Financial loss caused by no-shows was becoming part of Da Alessandro everyday life. Sadly, our no-shows were leading to increasing amounts of lost revenue.

The Problem

Regular No-shows from Customers that Had Reserved Tables

No-shows were our big problem. Roughly, our restaurant would experience approximately ten no-shows per day! Unfortunately, at an average value of 20 to 50 Euros per table, we estimated that it was costing us between 4.800 and 12.000 Euros a month in lost revenue. It was an unacceptable amount for our restaurant!
It was especially painful when the no-shows occurred on busy nights or when we had special events going on. Not only could we have filled those tables, but now it also looks as if our restaurant isn’t very popular to other diners.
Since we were registering all of our bookings on paper, it was confusing. It was more difficult to make changes, send reservation reminders, or contact the guest. Sometimes, if the booking had been made in a rush then contact details would be missing.

The Solution

Booking System that Automatically Sends Out Reminders to All Customers that Have Reservations

Tablein automatically sends out confirmation emails and SMS alerts as reminders, to all of our clients who make their reservations online. We find it to be a powerful psychological play which encourages people to become more responsible and inform us of any changes (by clicking on the active link we include in the reminder).

The Result

Massive Decrease in No-shows Helped to Increase Revenues

A 23% decrease in no-shows was converted to approximately 2.345 Euros per month of revenue.
The psychological factor of self-identification (when filling out the reservation name and contact details) encouraged our clients to feel more responsible for their booking. We understand that plans change and we make it easy for them to follow the link provided and cancel the table booking with just one click (the same link is also valid for any changes that need to be made such as time or date, number of people, etc.). Immediately after cancellation, the table automatically becomes available again for others to reserve.
Asking for deposits from our clients decreased no-shows even further. Even just a small deposit helps to protect our revenues for the service, and also makes our customers feel more committed to the booking, and therefore more likely to keep to their reservation.
In some cases such as special events, extremely busy nights, or for group reservations, we want to be 100% confident about our guest’s arrival so we have started asking for a deposit payment as a matter of course to guarantee reservations on these occasions. This ensures that we are operating at maximum capacity when we are able.
Now, in the case of an irresponsible no-show, the customer automatically receives a message with a note from us to communicate our dismay. We have noticed that clients seem to remember their actions and feel that they may act more responsibly in the future.
Since we started using Tablein for our reservation management, we can see the history of each person’s bookings, that goes for no-shows too. If a customer has been a no-show more than once then we can take action in an effort to prevent it from happening again. For example, we can contact the guest in advance to re-confirm their booking, ask for a deposit payment, or even cancel the reservation.

Advices

Top Tips by Da Alessandro

Set your goal to maximise online reservations by mentioning such opportunity in every communication message. We have found that online bookings significantly helps to reduce no-shows.
Make it really clear to clients in all of your emails and texts messages, that making amendments to their reservation is easy.

Da Alessandro experience sounds familiar? Decrease unprofitable no-shows and increase revenue by implementing advanced Tablein system in your restaurant management.

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