Restaurant Areas
This is fairly self explanatory and could be set up to reflect your geographic floor plan. However, if you have tables with unique facilities (such as a view of a football screen in a sports bar) it may be an idea to set up your areas to reflect common facilities for tables.
Services
Here you set up your services such as lunch, pre theatre, and dinner and so on. You can also set time for “last orders” in each service. This will affect the “look and feel” of your diary page. You set parameters for different meal types for time interval (usually 30 minutes), estimated times at table and maximum number of covers at each time interval. These times can be varied at any time and you also have the facility to vary the time at table for different party sizes and calendar dates, e.g. throughout December and Valentine’s night, for example.
This is a very important part of the functionally of RD.com as the system will automatically try to “switch sell” internal and web bookings if the time slot requested is already at capacity with respect to maximum number of covers per time interval. For group restaurants, the system can also offer to switch sell from one operation to another both internally and from the Internet.
Yield Management
The yield management facility can be used to “drop down” the maximum covers per time interval – as set up under “Services”. This is usually used to attempt to “force” switch selling of time slots away from peak times to times before and after these peaks to improve flow and revenue.
There is also the facility to vary the minimum number of covers able to book from the Internet / front end link by calendar dates.
Please note if you set yield management, for example, to cover from 19.30 to 20.30 hours this will affect bookings covering the intervals between 19.30 and 20.30 hours but will not affect reservations made for 20.30 hours arrival. If you are using 15 minute time intervals this setting will affect the covers allowed at 19.30, 19.45, 20.00 and 20.15 hours.
Restaurant Tables
In this
section are entered all tables in the restaurant with details of maximum covers
and
appropriate descriptions.
Tables can be shown as “normal” or “phantom”. Normal tables can be booked individually or as part of a joined table; phantom tables can only be booked as part of a joined tables and are not shown on the front diary page. However, the ability to show table chains with augmented party size (see below) has made the “phantom” facility more or less redundant.
The party
size for a group of joined tables (a chain) can be augmented or reduced by
editing the total for such a chain in the appropriate section on this
page. For example, if table 1 (4 covers) and table 2 (4 covers) when
joined together can provide 10 covers by seating a guest at both ends of the
joined table it would then be appropriate to show the total for the chain as
10.
Once all
tables have been entered they can then be sorted in numerical sequence by
clicking on the arrow at the top LHS.
Please only use numbers for tables and NOT alpha-numeric codes.
Ranking of Tables
In ranking table details there are options to have tables classified as smoking (hopefully a thing of the past soon) or non smoking for different services. Tables can be taken out of commission by unticking the relevant box for the day in question — perhaps you have tables you may not wish to be booked out over the Internet but to keep available for chance customers.
Tables can be ranked differently for different services according to how you prefer to have different services managed.
Ranking is designed to allocate bookings in order to the tables in the order in which you would prefer them to be booked out in.
We recommend that you first rank in ascending order all your tables which cannot be part of a joined table and then rank those tables that can be joined last. As an example, if you have a 100 cover restaurant and you have 88 covers booked and seated and your last 4 tables can be joined to make a 16 then these 16 covers and the relevant 4 tables should be free if all bookings have been automatically applied according to rankings.
Please note that if you ticked “Ignore rules in the booking process” for users and groups then ranking rules may not apply for those users, when making bookings. Such users will be warned during the booking process about which rule is being broken and this will also be highlighted in red on the running order report.
Rules will always apply to Internet bookings.
Joined tables can be ranked as chains and the order in which they are sold simply by dragging and moving a chain to the top or bottom of the list of tables in “Manage Restaurant / Joined Tables”. Tables are sold in descending order from the top of the list.
Joined Tables
In Joined Tables you will see a
list of all tables which have been shown as joined under “Restaurant
Tables”. Please review all joins — you can also add or delete joins in
this
section.
In “Table Chains” you have the option of setting augmented capacities for groups of joined tables. For example, if you have 3 four tops in a row and these can accommodate 16 covers when joined then this is set up under “Table Chains”.
Please note we do not recommend having one table joined to more than any two (2) other tables. Please discuss with restaurantdiary staff the best way to optimise your table plan.
Promotions
In “promotions” you can set up a
promotion message to be displayed on certain dates and even certain times, e.g.
‘A Braw Deal’ Two Course Menu £10.95 Three Course Menu £13.50 noon-6pm mon-fri.
Promotions can be set up for certain dates and available between certain
times, with other optional parameters being number of covers, maximum limit for
promotion, the “forcing” of the promotion or the requirement for a credit
card. If you wished to use variable
pricing for a fixed price menu offer then this would be set up in
promotions.
Menus
This screen allows you to set up a menu list. You can configure different menus depending on party size, date, time and day of the week. Menu items can be entered in the Description field.
During the booking process restaurantdiary.com™ will create a list of available menus automatically based on configured criteria and prompt the customer to choose one.
Notifications
In Email Notifications we can set up custom messages in simple HTML or plain text for confirmations, modifications and cancellations, adding to waiting list and removing from it. There is also the option to send custom email loyalty “trigger” notifications as well as custom trigger recalls by email.
Please note our HTML editor does not support background images as theses can be incorrectly displayed by different email clients.
A custom SMS text message (165 characters limit) can also be set up to be automatically sent to customers at the time of a reservation being made. Our previous comments on the reliability of SMS text delivery still apply.
To customise notifications you can use tokens representing special values that they are replaced with automatically when email is being sent. restaurantdiary.com™ supports the following tokens for the subject line:
{TYPE} – the type of booking. Possible values: INTERNET or INTERNAL;
{NAME} – customer name;
{RESTAURANT} – restaurant name;
{REF_NO} – booking reference.
For the message body:
{NAME} – customer name;
{HOURS} – expected booking duration;
{COVERS} – number of covers;
{TIME} – expected arrival time;
{DATE} – visit date;
{LEAVE_TIME} – expected leave time;
{AREA} – restaurant area;
{AREA_CAPACITY} – restaurant area capacity;
{TABLE} – booked table numbers;
{TABLE_CAPACITY} – maximum number of covers for tables booked;
{PROMOTION} – the name of promotion if it is booked;
{NO_BOOKINGS} – the number of bookings made to reach trigger point. It is used only in trigger email confirmations.
{EXTRAS} – booked extras as “quantity x name”. Each extra is placed to a new line;
{MENU_NAME} – selected menu name;
{MENU_DESC} – selected menu description;
{IP_ADDRESS} – the IP address from which booking made;
{BOOKING_ID} – the identifier of the booking in restaurantdiary application;
{MADE_BY} – concierge / PA name who made/amended/cancelled a booking.
And for the SMS alerts (as described above):
{RESTAURANT}
{TIME}
{DATE}
{REF_NO}
Messages
Use messages to advertise a
newsworthy event or offer — customers will see this when
booking.
Conversely, internal messages can also be set up to advise staff of important
news.
Custom Notes
Custom notes provide the opportunity to present “pop up” messages on the Front End (Internet) or Back end at the time of bookings being made. The message can be shown always or triggered according to the party size / number of covers.
Loyalty Triggers
“Triggers” are great marketing /
customer loyalty tools. They should be used to “hook”
customers in to
booking on line and are an effective, low cost way to build a loyal, clean
customer base – and to ease pressure on telephone lines.
Once the Nth. Booking is made on line
the system automatically sends an email to both
customer and restaurant
advising the trigger has been reached.
If a booking is cancelled after a loyalty trigger has been reached then, under “Notifications”, you can set up a customised loyalty trigger recall – an automatic “standard” recall will still be sent if you have not set up customised trigger recall.
Suggested copy for a "Loyalty"
business card / data capture card might be as follows:-
"Book online at
{RESTAURANT}, 5 times, using the same email address, and we shall be delighted
to provide free of charge a bottle of
XXXX.
You can book online at www.{RESTAURANT}.com.”
In our experience, champagnes houses are happy to provide free stock and even print the cards to go on the tables.
An example description is
Book Online 5 times with the same email address and receive a complementary bottle of fizz on us.
An example text as sent to customer is
Thank You for booking online 5 times, please bring you email confirmation with you to claim your complimentary bottle of fizz.
It is also a good idea to promote your Loyalty Trigger in front end MESSAGES – an example would be –
Book Online 5 times with the same email address and receive a complementary bottle of fizz on us
Close-outs
Close-outs can be manual or periodic (recurring at certain times). Please use the red square to instantly close out a day you know you will be closed for business on.
Please advise restaurantdiary.com staff of any regular variations in opening hours and we shall help set this up on a recurring basis.
Close outs refer to specific days within set calendar dates – it is important not to have two different close outs over the same calendar days as this may cause problems.
We can also help with periodic or irregular close outs – please send details to tech@restaurantdiary.com and we shall set up accordingly.
Rules
Rules are those golden rules you use
to try to maximise your revenue when busy. For
example, disallowing
2’s to book at tables with a capacity for 4. They can apply all week
or just
to certain days of the week. These rules can be great aids to revenue
improvement
/ yield management and only owners / managers and trusted staff
should be given rights
to “break rules” and / or exceed maximum covers at
time slots. Customers booking online will be advised that the requested
time slot is full and offered earlier or later availability or space at another
restaurant within the group.
Booking Extras
Here you can specify hire charges for
rooms or specific tables or even have your wine list
available. Extras will
“pop up” at the time of booking and in conjunction with the credit card deposit
facility this is a powerful way of ensuring extras are confirmed and paid for in
advance.
Special Offers
Here you can attract off peak
business by offering a promotion code. Where a special offer is not available
there will be no mention of such on the page seen by customers booking on
line.
Special offer bookings are marked with special symbol D on diary and Expected Arrivals list. The special offer code and description, if applied, will also appear on Running Order report and booking form.
The Special Offer Code field on your Front-End can be entered automatically. You only need to add additional parameter “discount_code” with the appropriate value to the restaurantdiary.com URL as shown below:
http://app.restaurantdiary.com/ts/find.asp?id_prov=3133&discount_code=test
This is useful, for example, if you’d like to give a discount to all bookings referred from the particular website or promotion email.
Interests
When a customer registers they can be
asked to sign up to a range of interest groups.
Once you know what your
customer is interested in you can use restaurantdiary.com™ to
send relevant
and targeted promotional emails. Specify interest groups here. You can add
more once we have created your account.
Refundable deposits (or payments in advance)
This facility is used in conjunction with the "Credit card" or Protx switch from "Settings / Payment Details". Here you can specify for which days deposits are necessary and the amount of the deposit (can be varied by date).
Where deposits are required the booking form carries a tick box to show whether a deposit has been processed or not and the report Centre reports on processed versus unprocessed bookings. There is a requirement to set up this facility under User rights.
The logic is as follow:-
1. If 'Take credit cards to secure bookings' is switched off then the credit card is not asked for and a deposit is not taken anyway.
2. If 'Take credit cards to secure bookings' and 'Credit Card Details Protx Details' are switched on cc details are asked for and a deposit is charged (if it exists).
3. If 'Take credit cards...' is on and customer books a promotion with 'Require credit card' switched on, then the system asks for cc details and a deposit is charged (if it exists) regardless of 'Credit Card Details' switch.
Privacy Policy
You have the option to enter your Company Privacy Policy under the terms and conditions section. This will then be available to customers booking on the Internet.
Terms and Conditions
On your web site, customers must agree
to your Terms and Conditions before confirming
a booking. You can set your
Terms and Conditions text to anything you choose, e.g.
”Please note we require a valid credit card number to
confirm bookings. Unless we
specifically refer to a “refundable deposit”, we
do NOT charge anything to the credit card
unless there is a “no show” of
which we have no prior notice. Refundable deposits are
credited in full to
your account balance on payment on departure.”
Booking List
Here you can search for and review bookings by one or more of the following criteria:
- date (actual date of booking);
- booking details (booking reference, area, service);
- customer details (name, tel. no, email);
- staff user who made booking.
To activate the necessary search parameter(s) you must check on the appropriate option(s).
“Search by Alpha” functionality allows you to view bookings made for customers who names start with the selected letter. Note that when this type of search is used other search criteria are ignored.
For each booking on the list you can also view its history by clicking on the booking reference link.
Customer List
From here you can access customer
details and records and can rank customers as VIP’s
or from 1 (worst) to 5
(best) – think of the 5 star hotel analogy.
Also, if a customer’s booking has been cancelled as a “No show” then that customer is automatically blocked from booking using the same email address. Such customers can be “unblocked” from here by a user with appropriate user / management rights.
Information
On the Information page you can set up two types of messages which will be displayed on Front-End.
The first field lets you configure
messages to your customers which will be displayed when they have reached the
final screen in the booking process. Consider those customers who have booked
with you may also be interested in products and services related to restaurant
bookings.
We developed Information to allow you to display messages on this
screen such as
advertising for local business such as taxi services etc.
There are lots of affiliate services
that provide snippets of HTML code for
display of graphic banners. When your customer
clicks on this form of
advertising you would get paid a share of anything they spend at
the partner
site. If you are not sure of how to use this, or don’t have a basic
understanding
of HTML, please contact us and we will assist you with
this.
The second field is for message displaying on the first Front-End booking page on the Information section.