Buzz
As the trend of making advance reservations continues to rise in today's dining culture, it's understandable that restaurants deploy various booking methods to accommodate diners.
In addition, the arrangement of staff handling advance reservations should follow specific training processes to organize reserved tables according to customer preferences, ensuring the restaurant's service quality.
Here's a compilation by PasGo Team, providing valuable information for restaurant managers about the reservation methods commonly used by customers. Alongside this are notes for service staff when arranging tables for pre-booked guests. We invite you to check it out!
Crucial Reservation Information from Guests
The worst thing for a restaurant is to mishandle crucial reservation information from guests, especially details like the date and time of their arrival. Therefore, accurately recording all reservation details is the first task that restaurant reservation staff need to excel at.
Here are the basic details of a reservation transaction that restaurants should record:
- Guest's name for the reservation
- Contact information of the person making the reservation: Phone number, address (additional information such as email, Zalo, Skype, Facebook, etc., for convenient communication or sending images).
- Contact information of the person dining at the restaurant (if different from the person making the reservation)
- Number of guests (including information about adults and children)
- Time of guest's arrival for dining. (Or pick-up time if it's a takeaway order)
- Menu or pre-selected party sets (with information about pre-ordered drinks, especially alcoholic beverages like wine and beer)
- Deposit amount
- Payment method
- Any other requests from the guest, such as seating preferences, arranging child seats, special cooking preferences, etc.
Common Methods Customers Use to Reserve Tables at Restaurants
1. Reserving via Phone Call
With the quick, convenient nature of a smartphone, this seems to be the most frequently used method for making reservations.
Typically, customers will reserve a table by calling the restaurant's hotline. The personnel handling the phone could be the restaurant manager or a dedicated staff member in charge of receiving reservations via the hotline.
While phone reservations are convenient for customers, they pose challenges for restaurants. This method is the least restrictive, or in other words, it has the potential for the highest cancellation rates.
Therefore, restaurants need to be flexible in each case and propose deposit requirements and corresponding amounts to customers.
2. Customers Reserving Tables Directly at the Restaurant
Compared to phone reservations, customers coming directly to the restaurant to reserve a table demonstrate a higher level of interest in your establishment. Hence, if they've made a reservation, the likelihood of cancellation is lower.
Nevertheless, customers coming in person to reserve a table also signify a rather discerning guest. They inspect the location, ambiance, service, etc., of your restaurant firsthand. Hence, pay attention to fulfilling their requirements to satisfy them at that moment.
3. Online Table Reservations by Customers
3.1 Reserving via the Restaurant's Website or Social Media
- Besides the restaurant's official website, the prevalence of social networks like Facebook, Zalo, etc., significantly enriches the variety of restaurant reservation methods.
- Still, your restaurant needs to grasp the basic information of a reservation transaction, as mentioned earlier. However, when it comes to restaurant reservations through websites and social media, you'll need to allocate staff effectively for 'live reservations' to avoid losing customers.
3.2 Reserving through Intermediate Booking Platforms
Intermediate booking services for restaurants are quite prevalent in Vietnam today. Some online reservation platforms specialized in food delivery such as Grabfood, Now, PasGo, Loship, Baemin, now offer restaurant table reservation services.
Among these, PasGo can be considered a leading service provider in the reservation domain, with a network of over 2000 restaurant partners across Vietnam, in addition to its food delivery services.
You can certainly consider collaborating with providers offering restaurant reservation, booking, and food delivery solutions, as customers are already familiar with that. With each reservation through intermediaries, the restaurant also records all booking information and specific customer requests.
4. Customers Reserving through Restaurant Managers or Staff
This is a method often preferred by VIP or regular customers of the restaurant. They already have established relationships with the restaurant's staff, or have contact information of the manager or serving staff from previous visits, so they prefer using this 'personal' channel, expecting more attentive service than other customers.
Customers reserving through this channel are usually those who already have a positive impression of the restaurant. Therefore, the person receiving the reservation (if not the restaurant manager) needs to responsibly report to the higher-ups to arrange tables meticulously for the customers.
In cases of reservations like this, the restaurant may consider requesting a deposit or not. Simultaneously, they should contemplate loyalty programs or discounts for regular customers if available.
5. Customers Reserving via Email
Email might not be the fastest reservation channel, but it remains a method many customers use to retain clear and professional transaction confirmations. This approach is often applied by business clients, large groups, or foreign tourist groups requiring information translation.
Usually, customers send reservation details to the restaurant's email. Upon receiving the email, staff will reply via email or call to confirm. They may request additional necessary information from the customer and inform them about the deposit amount to be paid in advance.
Crucial Notes for Pre-arranged Table Setups
Here are important considerations for the staff handling guest reservations (usually hotline reservation service staff) to meticulously arrange tables before customers arrive.
- Listen and accurately record all reservation details from guests, as mentioned at the beginning of this article.
- Based on the provided reservation time, service staff swiftly check the restaurant's available table count during that period and confirm a successful reservation with the guest if there are enough seats. Conversely, if additional guests cannot be accommodated, the staff apologizes and schedules for another occasion.
- Familiarize yourself with the restaurant's deposit policies to provide accurate information to customers during the reservation process.
- In cases of groups with elderly, children, persons with disabilities, pregnant women, etc., service staff should delicately arrange suitable seating and be ready to assist as needed.
- If the number of arriving guests is overwhelming, the Service Department needs to assign work areas to ensure customers receive the best-quality products and services.
- After preparing pre-booked tables, service staff should place a 'Reserved' sign to inform other customers, allowing them to proactively choose other available dining tables.
The concept of pre-booking tables is no longer unfamiliar to restaurants and many diners. In another article, PasGo even discussed the importance of 'Pre-booking - a quietly overlooked method to increase restaurant revenue,' emphasizing the significance of these reservation methods.
However, for every restaurant service operation to be meticulous, every manager, staff member, especially service staff, must grasp their work processes.
Hopefully, with the restaurant reservation methods that PasGo has just shared, from a manager's perspective, restaurant owner, you will gain valuable information and suitable solutions for training your staff and welcoming customers.
Wishing you success in your restaurant business,
Best regards,
