5 Tips to Avoid No-shows at Your Restaurant
Are you all ready? Have you set everything in place? Is the chef ready with the menu? What about the customers? Are all of them coming?
Getting ready and setting everything in place for the event can consume a lot of energy. There is a lot of planning, preparing and organization that goes into it. Additionally, other than pre-planning and preparation before hand, there is a lot that you have to at the spot. Other than monitoring the flow of customers inwards and their demands on orders, you also need to make sure that the number of no-shows at your restaurant is minimal. No-shows are customers who make reservations but neither do they show up nor do they cancel it- before time.
Such customers are customers but at the same time are not customers. Dealing with no-shows is reprehensibly difficult because no-shows are a great deal of loss to your business. It does not matter whether the number of no-shows is high or low, in either case it is a disadvantage for the business. This is why you should come with preventive strategies so that you can deal with no-shows even before they do not show up. Thus, it is important that you establish grounded reservation policies through strong communication and excellent customer relations.
Communicate Openly
Explain your policies to the customers. Give answers to questions like, how they can cancel and when is the right time to get their reservation cancelled? Highlight the significance of timely cancellations. Give your customers space to cancel reservations in advance, on phone, or via text or to consider automatic reservation system.
Detail them on the fees
The best way to eliminate no-shows and save your business is to charge the customers. One way to do this is that you ask your customers for credit cards, in order to hold reservations. Asking for a deposit fees on credit card reservations will help in drastically reducing the number of no-shows at your restaurant. If you do have a fee, then be sure to give details regarding the policies and procedures surrounding any charges.
Time-frame
At times, customers do not show up on the time that they had agreed upon. It is not necessary that they won’t show up, they might be on their way but there is too much traffic and they are struggling their way through to your restaurant. This is why you should set a time-frame for how long you are willing to wait for the customer to arrive. Usually, restaurants wait for 15 minutes but it varies according to the place. So, see to what suits you and set the time-frame accordingly.
No Reservation or Limit Reservations
If you have opened a new restaurant, it is advisable that you do not keep the option of ‘reservation’. This way you will also be at ease and concurrently, the customers will also get away with the trouble of booking in advance.
On the contrary, limiting reservations can work for restaurants that get crowded during certain hours but also have off-peak hours. By limiting reservations to certain time period can be convincing for those who plan ahead of time and also those who prefer spontaneity.
Send Reminders
To avoid reaching the level of uneasiness with your customers, try putting in more. You can do this by sending your customers reminders about their reservations (the date and time) on phone, via mail or text.
Following the above mentioned tips will surely help you avoid no-shows.