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Maximise your revenues like a bookings boss

By ResDiary

- Last updated on GMT

Maximise your revenues like a bookings boss
Claire Anderson, ResDiary’s head of global sales and former restaurant operations manager, weighs in on how to maximise your revenue and minimise your costs. Like a bookings boss.

“When I worked as an operations manager, my first thought was always making the most of every opportunity. In one restaurant, they were using pen and paper when I took the job, and I immediately moved us to ResDiary. Our bookings boomed. Like every operator, after guests’ happiness, my top priority was always how to boost revenues to stay at the top of our game.

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The main thing a good booking system should do is maximise your reservations, both internally and online.​ ResDiary’s yield management and customisable rules optimise your venue’s space, regardless of where your bookings come from. This means the amount of covers and profits you take are increased, and service is smooth for you and your guests.

For online bookings, the system offers multiple options to take more reservations; from your own site and social media, via ResDiary sites, and our Affiliate Partner Scheme with sites like Bruncher and AfternoonTea.co.uk.

Because all reservations taken through your sites or ResDiary’s are commission-free​, operators don’t need to pay a fortune for reservations, and can opt in or out of paid reservation channels when suits. And all widgets and customer communications are branded to the venue, improving your diner loyalty.

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Although encouraging bookings is hugely important, ensuring they actually turn up is perhaps even more vital. Since 2014, the amount of online reservations the average restaurant processes through ResDiary has risen by 130%, something which is great news for staffing costs and customer service.

However, the main complaint from restaurateurs I spoke to in 2018 was the difficulty in stopping no-shows​. Rather than just calling a restaurant, consumers now demand an easy online booking process. Yes it helps you sell tables, but it also makes it easy for diners to book multiple venues across various platforms and not turn up. It’s why, at ResDiary, we provide the tools you need to manage no-shows. From selling full price tickets for events, to taking deposits, or storing card details to charge guests who don’t turn up, there are a multitude of ways to protect your revenue. There’s also email and text reminders, and ways to track customer contact, all designed to ensure diners turn up for their bookings.

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So getting diners through your doors is crucial to increasing profits, but then you need to give them great customer service​, so they return again. ResDiary lets you do this from the moment they arrive. Smart features like yield management and turn times allow you to turn tables efficiently, saving guests from waiting at the door or the bar. For walk-ins, there’s an inbuilt waitlist. Here you can take customer details, provide an accurate return time, and send a text when the table is ready so you don’t lose that revenue.

When I worked as a floor manager, I’d always try to remember regulars’ names, and their preferences. But that’s not always possible with part time staff. This issue was partly why ResDiary’s customer profiles were born. There, you can store information on diners to  provide them with the best service; from noting dietary requirements, to creating repeat bookings for their weekly Sunday lunch, and recording VIPs, high spenders, or frequent visitors.

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It’s these people you want to return. While deals and tourist diners are great for filling tables, it’s the regular big spenders that create healthy bank balances. So, we encourage operators to use their data to do clever marketing​. ResDiary has a multitude of reports telling you who visits when, how often they come, and even tracking total spends and specific dishes if you use one of our EPOS or PMS integrations. Then you can use ResDiary’s marketing suite to send customised emails to regulars or high spenders. These will often offer incentives for regulars to visit in quiet months like January, or encourage specific menus, all through ResDiary’s promotions feature.

With our inbuilt channel management tools​, you can select specific websites or email campaigns where you want these promotions to be bookable from, track the bookings, and see how successful your efforts have been.”
And all of this is available directly from ResDiary at a flat, fair, monthly fee. What are you waiting for? Be a Bookings Boss and get in touch.

*Sign up to ResDiary by March 31st 2019 and get 50% off your ResDiary package for six months. ​*Not applicable with any other offer.*  

Find out more here.

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