The Food & Beverage industry in Hong Kong is a highly competitive one. To attract and retain customers, you need to provide quality food and service, as well as manage booking effectively. Booking is one of the important sources of income for restaurants, as it reserves a table for potential customers, but it is also a risk factor. Restaurants may face situations where customers cancel, delay or no-show their booking, resulting in vacancies and losses. Therefore, how to handle booking more securely is a big challenge that restaurant owners must pay attention to. This article will explore how to handle restaurant booking effectively.
How restaurants handle customer cancellations
This is one of the most common problems. Sometimes customers will cancel their booking before the reservation time, or even at the last minute. This will increase the vacancy rate of the restaurant and affect the turnover. To avoid this situation, restaurant owners can take the following measures:
- Establish a cancellation policy
You can inform customers of your cancellation policy when they make a reservation, and collect a booking deposit in advance. The cancellation policy specifies how long before the reservation time customers can cancel, whether they need to pay a penalty or forfeit the deposit, etc. This can remind customers to respect your time and resources, and also give you the right to recover losses, so as not to affect the reputation and normal operation of the restaurant: "Customers cancel online booking on the same day".
- Provide flexible modification options
Sometimes customers may need to change their reservation time or number of people due to unexpected events. If restaurant owners can provide some flexible modification options, such as allowing customers to modify their booking within a certain time before the reservation time, or transferring their booking to another date or time slot, etc., they can reduce the possibility of customers directly canceling their booking.
- Confirm booking in advance
Restaurant owners can arrange to send confirmation messages to customers one day or a few hours before the reservation time, such as SMS, phone calls or emails, etc., to remind them of their upcoming booking, and ask them if they have any changes or special requests, etc. This can increase the attendance rate of customers, and also allow restaurant owners to adjust seating arrangements in time.
How restaurants handle customer no-shows
Sometimes customers will not show up without any notice, which will cause the vacancy rate of the restaurant to soar, resulting in huge losses. To avoid this situation, restaurant owners can take the following measures to cope:
- Collect deposits or pre-payments
Restaurant owners can require customers to pay a certain percentage of deposits or pre-payments when they make a reservation, such as 10% or 20%, etc., and clearly state in the cancellation policy that if customers do not show up, they will not refund the deposits or pre-payments, etc. This can increase the commitment of customers, and also allow restaurant owners to retain losses.
- Set up a waiting list
Restaurant owners can arrange some tables to only accept walk-in customers, thereby creating a waiting list. When there are no-shows, restaurants can flexibly arrange customers on the waiting list to sit in order to increase the occupancy rate of the restaurant.
Restaurants have difficulty collecting deposits from customers
Some restaurants often encounter problems with collecting deposits from customers, because most customers do not make reservations directly at the restaurant in advance, but through online or phone reservations, so customers often have to transfer money to the restaurant's bank account through ATM or online banking, which is inconvenient.
Wonder now offers a professional and convenient restaurant payment solution that allows restaurants to easily collect and manage deposits:
Easy to use: Restaurants only need to set up their own payment rules and cancellation policy, such as the amount of deposit, payment deadline, refund arrangement, etc., and then generate a unique payment link or QR code, and send it to customers via SMS, email or social media. Customers only need to click on the link or scan the QR code to quickly complete the payment through credit card, Alipay, WeChat Pay and other methods without providing any personal information or bank information.
Automated management: Wonder platform will automatically record and confirm the status and details of each payment and notify the restaurant and customer in time. If customers need a refund, restaurants only need to operate on Wonder App.
Secure and compliant: Wonder platform uses advanced encryption technology and security measures to ensure that all payment information is strictly protected. At the same time, Wonder platform also complies with personal data protection law and other relevant regulations and does not collect or store any personal information or bank information of customers.
Wonder's restaurant payment solution has helped dozens of restaurants improve their payment efficiency and customer satisfaction while reducing payment costs and risks. If you are also interested in experiencing Wonder's restaurant payment solution please contact us immediately we will provide free trial and professional guidance.
