come from, how long they’re in their venues, how much they spend and what their prefer- ences are,” McCandless says. “All of this lets them improve their service and to more accu- rately market to diners.” It’s why ResDiary, like Bookatable, has increased its number of partners this year, working with companies such as Impact Data for smart marketing campaigns, D-edge to create connected websites, and adding multiple EPoS and property management system integrations. Restaurant reservation system SevenRooms
has had a similar focus on data, particularly with the release of 7X, a first-of-its kind mar- keting automation and guest engagement software. “7X is designed to turn first-time guests into regulars. It helps restaurant oper- ators leverage automation and data to nurture guest relationships through highly person- alised interactions across the customer life- cycle,” says SevenRooms chief executive and co-founder Joel Montaniel. The software includes four components: guest satisfaction; automated tagging and segmentation; email automation; and experi- ences and special offers. The idea is that com- bining these tools helps operators to capture insights about their guests and engage with them more thoughtfully to increase loyalty.
THE NO-SHOW CHALLENGE
Back at Bookatable, another top priority has been the perennial no-shows. “Our book- ing reminder emails are a great way to keep contact going between diner and restaurant and help to reduce no-shows by an average of 15%,” says Clack. “We’re also able to eliminate the risk of no-shows through credit card guar- antee, deposits and prepayment functionality.” Meanwhile, Resdiary has seen a 40% increase in venues using a form of payment protection to stop no-shows and late cancella- tions this year. “Part of the reason for this has been high-profile media coverage of the issue from big-name chefs and the growing preva- lence of that,” McCandless believes. “However, consumers are also becoming more comfortable with financial technology. They accept the need to pay upfront for res- ervations, or to give their card details online. The new Strong Customer Authentication regulations for payments that are coming in this year will also help with this. Two-step verification gives wary consumers more faith in their online security, alongside features such as sending payment emails instead of providing details over the phone.”
AI APPLICATIONS
The next 12 months are set to see yet more exciting advancements, according to Clack. “We’ve seen restaurant searches evolve from web to mobile, and more recently the introduc- tion of map and voice search. The next phase is already upon us, whereby information is offered without the need to provide require- ments directly and information is returned automatically across expanding networks of connected apps and devices,” he says. “AI will also be used to personalise the diner
8 | Technology Prospectus 2020
Serving up promotions for Shoryu Ramen
Shoryu Ramen is a Japanese eatery with seven London branches and a newly launched restaurant in Manchester. With no system in place to capture data, staff had previously been reliant on each other to manage reservations, which mainly consisted of taking down diners’ details with pen and paper. They were also struggling to market to customers as they were unable to communicate
effectively about the special menus and campaigns running across all seven sites. The chain signed up to
Bookatable by Michelin’s Professional Electronic Reservation Book because it wanted to have a central reservation system that allowed it to both manage tables effectively and collate customer data, as well as giving potential diners a choice of where to book. Bookatable by Michelin
provided a dedicated account
discovery journey and experience as well as helping to engage diners at the right time with the right messages.”
LiveRES strategic product manager Glenn
Tait agrees that AI will play a more and more important role in the restaurant reserva- tions space: “We expect that standard auto- mated answering services will become more
manager to look at the best way to help Shoryu with its objectives. Now all branches are bookable online with live data to see if and when they are fully booked, making it easier for staff to manage. The team was also
introduced to the marketing tool section of the Bookatable platform, which allowed them to create email campaigns and showcase new menus, special promotions and seasonal offerings, leading to an increase in promotional bookings.
conversational, multi-lingual and even be able to answer more questions,” he says. “And through machine learning, we can
make sure our customers have the right set- tings applied to their reservation system to maximise yield. Furthermore, through predic- tion, we will be able to provide insights to our operators to better meet anticipated demand.”
www.thecaterer.com
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