Seven Steps to Create a Restaurant Website (page 4)
This is the final page of the basic steps to create a restaurant website:
6.- Select a Reputable Restaurant Online Booking Company
Online booking allows your customers to make a reservations directly from your restaurant website. Some of the restaurant online reservations' companies also offer booking from their website, but then you'll have to compete with all the other restaurants that they have as members.
For now, I will cover three popular restaurant online booking companies: OpenTable, ResOS and Booking Angel. I will add more eventually.
For now, I will cover three popular restaurant online booking companies: OpenTable, ResOS and Booking Angel. I will add more eventually.
OpenTable is perhaps the largest and best known reservation system in the USA and becoming an international force with With more than 11,000 customers throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain and Japan. If you don't have an OpenTable system, chances are that you know some restaurant that has.
OpenTable provides restaurants with a computer specifically setup with OpenTable reservation system, table management, and guest management software.
Pros
OpenTable is a hands-off model. An OpenTable representative goes to your restaurant, installs the hardware (computer), and customizes the software with your restaurant's layout so that your reservation system is a graphical display of your restaurant's tables.
OpenTable is also a great tool for the front of the house staff. Managers, hosts, and servers can store guests' special requests, likes and dislikes, anniversaries, and other useful information. All the customer's information is downloadable to the OpenTable machine as an CSV file. To extract the data, you need a USB drive so that you can copy it into your computer.
All in all, it's a really terrific internal marketing system that, unfortunately most of the restaurants that own OpenTable don't use to its all potential.
OpenTable is also very customer friendly. Getting a reservation is pretty straightforward. Your clients choose your restaurant and the time they want to go. OpenTable will check your reservation's book to see if there are openings and report back to the customers. If you have empty tables, OpenTable will confirm the reservation and notify your customers, if not, they will suggest a different time.
In addition, the company operates www.opentable.com, a popular website for making restaurant reservations online and this site will bring you additional customers.
Cons
Open Table is VERY expensive! All those wonderful features and advantages come with a hefty price tag.
Here are the numbers. The start up costs are $1,299 plus tax. That gets you hardware, installation, and training. If you open a new restaurant, you may negotiate a discount for being a new restaurant, so you'll pay about $1,080.
After the initial setup, you will need to pay Open Table a user fee of $199 per month, about $2,400 per year plus a commission for each reservation! Most small restaurants end up paying $300 to $400 a month.
The start up costs and monthly costs are the same no matter what size or how expensive your restaurant is. A small neighborhood restaurant pays the same amount as a multi-million dollar 250-seat restaurant downtown. To me, this is unfair since larger restaurants will get a much better deal.
But that's not all. In addition of the initial setup cost and ongoing monthly fee, Open Table charges each restaurant $1 per cover (per person in each party) when diners book through the OpenTable website, and 25¢ when they book through your restaurant's website.
The rationale for the higher charge when diners discover available tables through the Open Table website is that Open Table wants to be compensated for assisting the restaurant's marketing. As you can imagine, you are VERY motivated to add OpenTable reservations right into your website (a very easy process as I will explain here later on).
One dollar per person doesn't sound like much but the problem is that Open Table charges value-focused restaurants the same as the more expensive, special occasion restaurants. When a diner pays an average of $20 to eat at a small restaurant, that dollar equals about 5% of the cost of the meal. That's significant in an industry where the average profit margin is 10%. At a more expensive restaurant, on the other hand, that dollar may equal less than 1% of the check.
Let's assume that you decided to go with Open Table. As the owner of a small restaurant, you would like to keep about a third of your restaurant's seats available for walk-ins. Let's assume most of the other two thirds of the restaurant's guests book through Open Table. If successful, a 60-seat restaurant could easily pay $1,000-1,500 a month to Open Table in cover charges. That's $12-18,000 per year on top of the $2,400 annual charges and $1,080 start up costs. When you add all that up, the real per cover charge rises to closer to $1.25.
OpenTable provides restaurants with a computer specifically setup with OpenTable reservation system, table management, and guest management software.
Pros
OpenTable is a hands-off model. An OpenTable representative goes to your restaurant, installs the hardware (computer), and customizes the software with your restaurant's layout so that your reservation system is a graphical display of your restaurant's tables.
OpenTable is also a great tool for the front of the house staff. Managers, hosts, and servers can store guests' special requests, likes and dislikes, anniversaries, and other useful information. All the customer's information is downloadable to the OpenTable machine as an CSV file. To extract the data, you need a USB drive so that you can copy it into your computer.
All in all, it's a really terrific internal marketing system that, unfortunately most of the restaurants that own OpenTable don't use to its all potential.
OpenTable is also very customer friendly. Getting a reservation is pretty straightforward. Your clients choose your restaurant and the time they want to go. OpenTable will check your reservation's book to see if there are openings and report back to the customers. If you have empty tables, OpenTable will confirm the reservation and notify your customers, if not, they will suggest a different time.
In addition, the company operates www.opentable.com, a popular website for making restaurant reservations online and this site will bring you additional customers.
Cons
Open Table is VERY expensive! All those wonderful features and advantages come with a hefty price tag.
Here are the numbers. The start up costs are $1,299 plus tax. That gets you hardware, installation, and training. If you open a new restaurant, you may negotiate a discount for being a new restaurant, so you'll pay about $1,080.
After the initial setup, you will need to pay Open Table a user fee of $199 per month, about $2,400 per year plus a commission for each reservation! Most small restaurants end up paying $300 to $400 a month.
The start up costs and monthly costs are the same no matter what size or how expensive your restaurant is. A small neighborhood restaurant pays the same amount as a multi-million dollar 250-seat restaurant downtown. To me, this is unfair since larger restaurants will get a much better deal.
But that's not all. In addition of the initial setup cost and ongoing monthly fee, Open Table charges each restaurant $1 per cover (per person in each party) when diners book through the OpenTable website, and 25¢ when they book through your restaurant's website.
The rationale for the higher charge when diners discover available tables through the Open Table website is that Open Table wants to be compensated for assisting the restaurant's marketing. As you can imagine, you are VERY motivated to add OpenTable reservations right into your website (a very easy process as I will explain here later on).
One dollar per person doesn't sound like much but the problem is that Open Table charges value-focused restaurants the same as the more expensive, special occasion restaurants. When a diner pays an average of $20 to eat at a small restaurant, that dollar equals about 5% of the cost of the meal. That's significant in an industry where the average profit margin is 10%. At a more expensive restaurant, on the other hand, that dollar may equal less than 1% of the check.
Let's assume that you decided to go with Open Table. As the owner of a small restaurant, you would like to keep about a third of your restaurant's seats available for walk-ins. Let's assume most of the other two thirds of the restaurant's guests book through Open Table. If successful, a 60-seat restaurant could easily pay $1,000-1,500 a month to Open Table in cover charges. That's $12-18,000 per year on top of the $2,400 annual charges and $1,080 start up costs. When you add all that up, the real per cover charge rises to closer to $1.25.
HOW TO ADD OPENTABLE TO YOUR WEBSITE
This process if very easy and straightforward. When you signup with OpenTable, they provide you with a unique link that identifies your website. Just copy this code (it looks like this: http://www.opentable.com/your-restaurant-reservations-seattle?rid=9999&restref=9999 ) and paste it into your website with the legend: "Online Reservations" or something like that. People who click on this link, will go to a special OpenTable page where they will be able to make reservations. You will get compensated by OpenTable when people make reservations via your website instead of theirs so you will only pay $0.25 per customer (instead of $1).
Reservation Genie is a great product to add reservations to your restaurant. If you go to the Reservation Genie and open an account with them, you'll be able to get a special tracking link that you can paste in your website and you can start accepting online reservations right away. The price for this service is a flat $49 a month with no extra charges per reservation.
But there is much more to it. Reservation Genie has also a Concierge and an Affiliate program. They are both optional programs that help boost your presence with concierges and on local websites. They cost extra and the price isn't cheap, but they are both "pay per customer" so you only pay when people walk through the door.
If you opt to participate in these programs, hotel concierges and local can book people to have lunch or dinner at your restaurant in exchange for a referral commission. Concierges receive $1 per person for every reservation they book through a private site designed just for them, BigConcierge. They can scan for availability for various sizes at local restaurants, access contests you post and see who is winning in real time, print 1 click door to door maps from their hotel to your restaurant, and invite all their concierge friends to join.
But there is more to it. You can also create Perks at certain days and times to encourage people to book in slower days/times. For example, you can give a 10% discount to people booking dinner on Mondays between 5 and 6:30 pm or give a free appetizer to anybody who eats on Wednesdays after 8:30pm. Customers see the perks when they are picking the time and they can select the off-peak hours to get the rewards. Your staff will also see the perks given in the reservation screen.
You can also create a VIP program where clients who frequent your restaurant get points for each visit and after accumulating a set number of points get rewards in exchange for their loyalty. You control how many points are necessary and the reward.
They also tap into social media tools: Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. If you have a Facebook fan page, a Twitter account and a MySpace page (and if not, you should have them, check out the Section "Social Media Marketing" for more information), your customers will get an invitation to follow your restaurant in one or all of these social media sites when they get the confirmation email of their reservation.
But there is much more to it. Reservation Genie has also a Concierge and an Affiliate program. They are both optional programs that help boost your presence with concierges and on local websites. They cost extra and the price isn't cheap, but they are both "pay per customer" so you only pay when people walk through the door.
If you opt to participate in these programs, hotel concierges and local can book people to have lunch or dinner at your restaurant in exchange for a referral commission. Concierges receive $1 per person for every reservation they book through a private site designed just for them, BigConcierge. They can scan for availability for various sizes at local restaurants, access contests you post and see who is winning in real time, print 1 click door to door maps from their hotel to your restaurant, and invite all their concierge friends to join.
But there is more to it. You can also create Perks at certain days and times to encourage people to book in slower days/times. For example, you can give a 10% discount to people booking dinner on Mondays between 5 and 6:30 pm or give a free appetizer to anybody who eats on Wednesdays after 8:30pm. Customers see the perks when they are picking the time and they can select the off-peak hours to get the rewards. Your staff will also see the perks given in the reservation screen.
You can also create a VIP program where clients who frequent your restaurant get points for each visit and after accumulating a set number of points get rewards in exchange for their loyalty. You control how many points are necessary and the reward.
They also tap into social media tools: Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. If you have a Facebook fan page, a Twitter account and a MySpace page (and if not, you should have them, check out the Section "Social Media Marketing" for more information), your customers will get an invitation to follow your restaurant in one or all of these social media sites when they get the confirmation email of their reservation.
On top of all these features, Reservation Genie allows you to export your "Patron List". This is the list of people who made a reservation directly on your site. It won't include reservations made by concierges which is good since most of the time these are people who are just visiting your area and don't want to be bother by your emails. You will get the name and emails of the people who booked at your restaurant so that you can copy them and import them directly in your restaurant auto-responder and have these customers in your restaurant list. I wrote about autoresponders in the second page of this same article. You can re-read it here.
You can find more information about Reservation Genie by watching this video that explains its features: http://www.reservationgenie.com/demos/demo-full.html
All in all, Reservation Genie is a great online booking tool that I greatly endorse and recommend. Now, the nice folks at Reservation Genie, have given me a great offer to pass on to my readers, so here it is:
If you open an account with Reservation Genie (more info here: http://www.reservationgenie.com/business_info ) and use this promotion code:
You can find more information about Reservation Genie by watching this video that explains its features: http://www.reservationgenie.com/demos/demo-full.html
All in all, Reservation Genie is a great online booking tool that I greatly endorse and recommend. Now, the nice folks at Reservation Genie, have given me a great offer to pass on to my readers, so here it is:
If you open an account with Reservation Genie (more info here: http://www.reservationgenie.com/business_info ) and use this promotion code:
5SUFDT
you’ll get a free 90 day trial. The regular price is $49 per month (without any additional fees per booking!) so you get three free months to see if this online system works for you.
This is a risk free proposition. If after 3 months you don’t like the results, you can cancel your account.
You have nothing to lose so why don’t you give it a try?
ResOs is a newcomer to the online restaurant reservations space but they have great technology as well.
ResOS auto-checks for available tables at your restaurant, confirms the reservation with the customer and notifies the restaurant via your Online Reservation Book, email and fax in less than 25 seconds.
This is their pricing model:
ResOS auto-checks for available tables at your restaurant, confirms the reservation with the customer and notifies the restaurant via your Online Reservation Book, email and fax in less than 25 seconds.
This is their pricing model:
Description
|
ResOS Basic
|
ResOS Premium (coming in 2010) |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
One time setup fee
|
$150
|
$650
|
|||
Monthly Fee
|
$30/month
|
$99/month
|
|||
Fee per reservation
|
$1/head for first 250 heads $0.75/head for 251-500 guests $0.50/head for 501-1,000 guests Free/head for each head over 1,000 |
$0
|
|||
Remote access to your reservation book online
|
$0
|
$0
|
|||
As you can see, it is a tiered model where you pay less if you get more traffic. I think that the Premium model will be very attractive since you only pay a fixed monthly fee of $99 (granted, the setup fee is still expensive, but still much cheaper than OpenTable's).
This means that if you have less than 70 guests booking via ResOS, you pay less for the Basic service, but once you reach the 70 monthly bookings, then the Premium model is your best bet.
This means that if you have less than 70 guests booking via ResOS, you pay less for the Basic service, but once you reach the 70 monthly bookings, then the Premium model is your best bet.
BookingAngel is a great (and much more inexpensive) alternative to OpenTable. It charges restaurants a per-booking charge rather than a subscription fee. The cost per customer could be a little higher than OpenTable or ResOS ($3.5 US dollars per reservation vs. OpenTable's $0.25 per person or ResOS $1 per person) if they make the reservations via your website. But remember, the $3.5 is per reservartion, not per person. Most likely people won't come along to have a meal at your place so if it is a couple booking, the cost would be $1.75 per person, but if it's a party of 4, then you'll go to just $0.875 per person with no other fees.
To use BookingAngel you don't have to purchase any equipment or pay any setup or monthly fees. You just buy credits in amounts of $50, and BookingAngel discounts the confirmed reservations automatically from this credit amount. Once the credit is finished, you can buy new credits. Also, if a party cancels their reservation, you won't pay for it so it won't get discounted.
If you are reading my articles and books, you know that I love this model of pay-per-performance. If you don't get any clients making reservations via BookingAngel, then you don't pay a cent. You only pay for customers sitting at your tables and eating your food. This is a great business model that I strongly support and recommend.
Another advantage of BookingAngel is that you can have online reservations even if you don't have a computer in your restaurant. BookingAngel will convert the online resevation into a phone call and call your phone number. Then you will be able to accept or reject the reservation by using the keypad in your phone. You hit 1 to accept or 2 to reject the booking using the buttons on your phone. The booking is confirmed with your customer instantly. No computers needed.
You can call in the US 1-866-74U-2EAT (866-748-2328) and listen to the prompts for a demonstration.
What happens if you miss the call?
If there is no answer or engaged it will keep trying. If there is an answering machine it will leave upto 3 messages for each booking. When you get this message you call back into their voicemail service. Their number is 1-866-74U-2EAT (866-748-2328). After you confirm the reservation using your phone, BookingAngel will send a confirmation email to your customers.
All this happens in the background and you don't even need to worry about the technology.
The only downside to BookingAngel is that they don't give you the list of customers booking from their site. I think that they are planning to add this as an extra service but as of this writing, this is the status. In the meantime, I would suggest that your servers approach the people who booked via BookingAngel and ask them if they would like to be added to your restaurant list. They've booked online so you know that they have an email. In this way you can also capture the emails of all the different party members who are interested, instead of just the person who made the reservations.
If you are not using OpenTable, I would recommend you to give BookingAngel a try. It has a free month of reservations so you have nothing to lose (and again, no monthly fees whatsoever other than the purchase of credits). Once you register, BookingAngel will send you the link to paste into your website and you are ready to accept reservations online.
To use BookingAngel you don't have to purchase any equipment or pay any setup or monthly fees. You just buy credits in amounts of $50, and BookingAngel discounts the confirmed reservations automatically from this credit amount. Once the credit is finished, you can buy new credits. Also, if a party cancels their reservation, you won't pay for it so it won't get discounted.
If you are reading my articles and books, you know that I love this model of pay-per-performance. If you don't get any clients making reservations via BookingAngel, then you don't pay a cent. You only pay for customers sitting at your tables and eating your food. This is a great business model that I strongly support and recommend.
Another advantage of BookingAngel is that you can have online reservations even if you don't have a computer in your restaurant. BookingAngel will convert the online resevation into a phone call and call your phone number. Then you will be able to accept or reject the reservation by using the keypad in your phone. You hit 1 to accept or 2 to reject the booking using the buttons on your phone. The booking is confirmed with your customer instantly. No computers needed.
You can call in the US 1-866-74U-2EAT (866-748-2328) and listen to the prompts for a demonstration.
What happens if you miss the call?
If there is no answer or engaged it will keep trying. If there is an answering machine it will leave upto 3 messages for each booking. When you get this message you call back into their voicemail service. Their number is 1-866-74U-2EAT (866-748-2328). After you confirm the reservation using your phone, BookingAngel will send a confirmation email to your customers.
All this happens in the background and you don't even need to worry about the technology.
The only downside to BookingAngel is that they don't give you the list of customers booking from their site. I think that they are planning to add this as an extra service but as of this writing, this is the status. In the meantime, I would suggest that your servers approach the people who booked via BookingAngel and ask them if they would like to be added to your restaurant list. They've booked online so you know that they have an email. In this way you can also capture the emails of all the different party members who are interested, instead of just the person who made the reservations.
If you are not using OpenTable, I would recommend you to give BookingAngel a try. It has a free month of reservations so you have nothing to lose (and again, no monthly fees whatsoever other than the purchase of credits). Once you register, BookingAngel will send you the link to paste into your website and you are ready to accept reservations online.
7.- Add a Restaurant Online Ordering System
Adding an online ordering system will allow you to increase your sales.
For more information about Restaurant Online Ordering Systems please read the article below.
For more information about Restaurant Online Ordering Systems please read the article below.