All about the software
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12 Jul, 2021
Restaurant pre-orders: get into cruise control
Like Sandra and Keanu, we’ve all been in situations where speed is a key factor. In the hospitality business especially, if it’s not done fast, it’s hardly worth doing. (For the front of house at least.) It’s why we recently built a pre-order system to help speed up the process of taking bookings. However, that’s not all it does. Read on to see how you can utilise restaurant pre-orders to improve your operations across the board.
Boost your lunch services
It’s not the 90’s anymore, and business people taking long lunches with gallons of wine is no longer the norm. Great as this might be for public health, it’s not so fantastic for your mid-week, mid-day trade. One way to encourage people out of their office and into your business is to offer restaurant pre-ordering in advance. It means the customer turns up, their lunch comes within minutes, and they get back to their office in time. It also means you’ve got more time to upsell them on desserts or coffees.
Like Nikk at Tuscany Bistro, Castle Hill, this can all happen directly from your ResDiary system:
“We sell lunch pre-orders through a promotion on our ResDiary. The customers make a booking and we get their order in. In the last couple of weeks it has really taken off, and business has really improved in the middle of the day.”
Delight your large parties
There’s nothing worse being the booker, spending your whole night running around at 50mph, trying to get everyone to order. Which is why pre-orders are great for large parties. The customer books and is sent their pre-order automatically.
The lead booker can then send this link to the rest of the party who fill in their own order. Then, when the party appears, everyone is relaxed, their food is prepped, and they leave with a smile on their faces. And that’s what we’re all here for right?
Get the drinks in
It’s not just food that can be pre-ordered, though, you can add drinks menus too. Our pre-orders let you create a bespoke menu for each booking, requesting pre-orders for drinks, or food, or both.
If the party is just a drinks booking, you can ensure that their first round, or all their rounds are prepped and ready to go. If they’re having food and drinks, you can send them a tailored order, allowing them to order fully before they arrive. Bartender mood: cruise control.
Cut down the man hours
Remember how long all those pre-orders took during the festive season? Nightmare. For the bigger venues out there, you probably had one full-time person chasing deposits and pre-orders, right? Not with ResDiary’s restaurant pre-orders. You can set them up to send automatically, have reminder messages sent at pre-set intervals, and even take payments alongside the pre-order. Customers are less stressed as they’re less likely to forget what they need to do, and your reception will look less like a bomb’s went off.
Emma, the reception manager at The Waterfront thinks pre-ordering is a lifesaver:
“ResDiary’s Pre-Order app makes sending out the restaurant pre-order to customers so simple. As it is fully integrated with the booking process, all staff can now take large party bookings without me worrying about mistakes, and reminder emails are only a button press away, saving us lots of time chasing big orders.”
