Expected Arrivals – live Running order
At the top right hand corner of the diary page you will see panel Expected Arrivals – if you click on it you will see a real time listing of all guests in time order for the current day.
As guests arrive, you can click on the relevant time clock symbol and the guests will be shown as arrived on the diary page (colour changes to green) and removed from the expected arrivals list.
Where a guest is late, the symbol will flash red to warn of a possible “no show”.
Note: there are 5 icons indicating arrival status:-
1.
Customer is expected to arrive – clock icon (
)
2.
Customer is late – flashing clock (
)
3.
Customer arrived but in bar – green clock with hourglass (
)
4.
Customers are partially seated – a half of green icon (
)
5.
Customers are fully seated – green tick (this record will disappear if list is
refreshed) (
).
There is a column Special on the listing showing special symbols which are the same as on the diary page (see Special Symbols on Diary).
Incoming bookings are shown in the same colours as used on diary page.
Waiting List
This dropdown panel displays all the clients placed on Waiting List. To refresh the listing click on the title bar twice (collapse and expand it).
If you can't place the request to the diary because you are fully booked you can decline the request by clicking on the “Decline” link.
Customer can be notified by email and about including in Waiting List and removing from there. It’s also possible to set up automated SMS notification to advise customer he has been allocated at table.
Editing Bookings
Once a booking has been entered on the diary page you can go to the diary page and click on the booking to edit the following:-
1. Room Number (hotels only)
2. Number of covers;
3. Customer’s spend (after the customer has left). This helps management with the key Performance Indicator of ASP (average spend per head) and this spend is recorded historically in the individual customer profile.
4. Leave time — can be shortened if a customer leaves early or can be extended if you know customers will be at the table longer than set up under “services parameters.
5. Deposit processed and date of processing (where deposit processing switched on in back office).
6. Whether customer has arrived (needs to be set up under Alter Restaurant Details)
7. Additional information — notes / comments / requests, etc.
8. Booking confirmed with customer – if this boxed is ticked the booking will change colour to pink on diary page.
9. Table cleaned and ready – for re-sits – if this is ticked a large red “R” will be shown in front of customer name on the diary page.
Please note that where a time slot is full as per the parameters set by your owner or manager the system will advise what alternative time slots are available — it is important you work to these alternate times and try to sell them to the customer; it is certainly not clever to ignore them!
If it is required to edit a booking with regard to date or augmented party size, please scroll to the bottom of the booking details / parameters page and use the “EDIT BOOKING” button.
If it is required to “CANCEL BOOKING”, there is a pop up box asking staff for a reason, simply to make sure that the staff member is trying to check with the customer if there was / is a problem. However, if a booking is cancelled due to a “no show”, the relevant email address is automatically black listed until a manager lifts the block on that email address through the “manage restaurant / customer list” option.
You can also show customer status as:-
Fully Seated, Partially Seated or Waiting in the Bar – the live “Expected Arrivals” list is annotated appropriately.
Once a booking has been entered on the diary page you can go to the diary page and click on the booking to view / edit the customer profile and these details will be used in the “Customer Contact” section for marketing purposes.
Where you click on a grid
reference / square on the diary for a table which is already booked you can
“hold” the mouse and drag and drop the booking to another empty table of
suitable capacity. There is also the facility to drag and drop joined
table bookings to other tables if the capacity is available. Note that the
original time of booking is changed accordingly.
Having dropped the booking to another booked table you can swap tables for bookings. Note that in this case the original time of bookings will not be changed.
Where you click on a grid
reference / square on the diary for a table which can be joined to form a larger
table you will see an option for a large party. If you enter the large party
number of covers required the system (subject to rules not being broken and
maximum numbers not being exceeded and user rights and so on) will automatically
allocate the booking to the joined tables. It is also possible to simply click
on the diary grid on one of a number of tables you know can be (and are
programmed to be) joined and the system should allocate the number of guests
entered here over the joined tables, as set up in your back office.
When you get to the second page in the booking process you will have the opportunity to register a new customer or look up details for an existing customer. There is a facility to send SMS text messages to customers to remind them of their booking — please ask for a mobile number if you wish to use this facility. Please try to “capture” guest’s email address as we can send instant confirmations at the time of booking and use this address for future email marketing. There is an opportunity to record questions / comments, such as dietary requirements, menu agreed and so on - once you are happy the details are correct and you have the correct date and time, please confirm the booking.
Please do not leave booking windows
open and/or unconfirmed as this may stop other users from accessing your
restaurant diary. Internet Explorer works on “sessions” and if you leave
one session open and start another all subsequent sessions will use the customer
data from the first session. Always complete and 
bookings.
Reports from the Diary Screen Front Page
If you click on the printer icon at
the various meal types such as lunch, dinner and so on
you will get a
printable report for the running order for all bookings for that service —
these reports can be sorted by table number, reference, time and so on and
separate
reports can be printed out for each waiter / waitress in charge of
a section.
The “Print diary” option
at the top of the page will give you a graphical report in A3
format of the
diary for the day — this can be broken down into print outs for the different
services. It gives your managers the chance to print out at the start of
service and then
work from this sheet if that is their preferred
option.
If you have opted for the corporate
version of restaurantdiary.com using Customer Contact you will have the facility
to allow nominated users to view a running total for covers, revenue and ASP on
the top of the diary page.
Managers may decide to close out a service to
Internet bookings and work from the
running order and /or “print diary”
reports. This is a matter for discussion within agreed
operating
procedures. You will note there are traffic lights (red and green only) at
strategic positions on the diary page — these are used to close out
restaurant areas and
meal types — please click on and learn.
Also, it is possible to close off
specific tables and times by going to the bottom of the
diary page and
enabling the red square at “Bookings unavailable (mode for lock table)”
and
then clicking on the grid you wish to block out.
Please remember to click on the grey
square at “Bookings available (mode for make
booking)” when you wish to
revert to normal operation on the diary page.
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Grids on the diary page are shown
in the following colours:-
Blue
Authorised user booking from staff, management, concierge, receptionist at the local hotel and so on; (It is a great marketing tool to be able set up receptionists and concierges with real time access; you can also track bookings coming from them and reward them accordingly).
Green
This shows that a staff member has edited the booking to show the customer has arrived;
Yellow
This denotes a booking received from the Internet / front page of your web site or any portal with your front engine embedded link, such as www.booktoeat.com (no commission charges!) ;
Red
This denotes bookings are unavailable at this time.
Purple
This denotes a booking from a portal or third party agency such as 5pm.co.uk, Lastminute.com, Livebookings and so on.
To set this up you need to supply as with a copy email booking confirmation from each third party agency. We can then set up your system to check your email confirmations and automatically integrate such bookings into your diary.
Special symbols (if applicable) are shown in front of customer name on the diary page. They are of red colour and bold type. The table below describes the meaning of each symbol.
|
S |
Special requests, questions, comments |
|
W |
Window table requested by customer |
|
D |
Discount booking |
|
L |
Leave time confirmed with guest |
|
R |
Table cleaned & ready |
|
E |
Booking extras |
|
T |
Loyalty Trigger |