
Not only does Dineplan manage a restaurant’s reservations, indicate remaining availability and offer online bookings, it also provides two other significant areas of value; a database and booking statistics. A client record is automatically created as each booking is entered. This allows the restaurant to monitor how many times a client has booked, cancelled or not shown. Clients can be ‘flagged’ as VIP or be allocated a negative flag with Dineplan automatically notifying the restaurant when they make a booking. The management team can also add customer notes and preferences improving and personalising the dining experience for repeat clients. Further still, email addresses collated in this database can be extracted for mailings of e-newsletters and seasonal offers in order to create loyal customers.
The third area of value is being able to view your reservation statistics over time. Compare bookings between seasons, months of the year or days of the week, gather data on average size of bookings, average bookings per month or evaluate your rate of walk-ins or no-shows.
All that is required from a restaurant is a reliable Internet connection (data usage is minimal) and a computer or tablet. And of course, the willingness to make the move away from a paper book. Minimal training is required as the system is so easy to use. This allows the Dineplan team to get you going over the phone, although they will visit your restaurant should you wish. If you are interested in giving Dineplan a try, go to www.dineplan.com/register, enter your details and the Dineplan team will shortly contact you.