How An Online Reservation System Can Help Your Business to Bounce Back
It’s been a tough year for most businesses, but the hospitality industry was arguably hit the hardest, with many restaurants and bars forced to shut down or switch to takeaway.
We saw a lot of movement towards delivery apps and couriers, with many restaurants relying on the big players such as Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Takeaway.com to coordinate their orders. As cities start to open up, it is important that restaurants capitalise on the trend of online orders, and one of the best ways to do this is by setting up an online reservation system for your business.
Setting up an online booking system
As with online food delivery, there are now many apps offering online reservation services, however most of the leading companies such as Fork and OpenTable, charge a pricey monthly subscriptions in order to continue using their services. We founded eStart4 with the intention of empowering restaurateurs during the pandemic and helping them to stay afloat. For this reason, we felt that we could provide an online reservation feature within our subscription package, making it more affordable for restaurants to set up their own booking system.
The eStart reservation feature provides a simple, step by step guide to help you to set up an online booking platform for your business, and connect this to your website and social media pages. The all-in-one solution is a quick and easy way to enhance your digital presence and engage with customers, ultimately leading to a growth in sales.
Enhancing the customer experience
One of the main reasons why we decided to create this feature as part of the eStart service, is the fact that the existing market leaders do not provide a very personalised service for restaurants. We designed our reservation system to be customer-focused, and we will work with restaurants to help them design a system that works best for them, and feature it on the appropriate platforms that make it accessible to their target audience.
We want the reservation system to be as simple as possible, and so we have designed the platform to be very user friendly, for both customers and business owners. Once fully functioning, the feature allows restaurant workers to have more time to focus on the preparation and service of their food, essentially improving the standard of their operations.
Preventing no-shows
As much as we want to increase your customer base, we know how frustrating it is when customers book to have a meal at your restaurant and then do not show up. This can have ramifications both on your profits, especially during busy periods, or as is the case in many places at the moment, there are restrictions on the opening hours and capacity of your establishment. By integrating the booking system into your website and through your social media platforms, we guide only natural interactions to the system, and minimise the risk of half-hearted bookings.
Reaching new audiences
Finally, as things slowly return to normal, many restaurants will be concerned about budgeting themselves through the uncertain phase ahead, as nobody can foresee whether there will be a further lockdown. We appreciate that many restaurants have lost loyal customers, whether that be due to less people having the money to eat out, or because the restaurant was closed for so long due to covid.
Our solution to this issue is to simply reach out to new audiences and spread the public’s knowledge of your restaurant. By featuring the booking platform on your social media pages, you will be able to increase the exposure to the service, and encourage the targeted communities to make a reservation. Of course this is not an instant solution, and so we will work carefully with you to strategise the promotion of your restaurant and the booking feature through all appropriate platforms. Once up and running, you can be sure that the bookings will increase, and your business will return to full health.
For more info visit https://estart4.com/request-demo
