I recently came across an old copy of a bookings diary from before we embraced the digital age and went online.
Flicking through it, I couldn’t believe we managed the book with all the annotations and crossings out, a whole reservations system compiled through phone calls. What a skill.
It made me think how much technology has shaped our industry over the past 10 years.
I’ve never been much of a number cruncher, having always thought that if hospitality was a subject it would be a humanity but lately I’m not so convinced. There is often no human interaction until the day of the visit, everything is managed remotely, bookings coming in efficiently, even when we’re closed.
I recently decided to upgrade to a booking platform that has a lot more functionality to the one we were using. Had I known how much work it was going to be beforehand, I might not have bothered.
On the ‘wait list’
On the first weekend, the young ’uns were loving it whereas I was suffering with sensory overload with all the colours and functions. Imagine, if you will, an older person texting with their index finger as opposed to F1 thumbs and you will get the drift.
One of the discoveries on the first weekend was the request button or ‘wait list’, that’s waiting list to you and I, a bit like ‘rest room’ though who on earth wants to go in there for a rest is beyond me.
Anyway, in the event of the service being full, there’s a handy selection of people waiting for tables.
Glancing over the list, one particular name jumped out at me. I knew they were big spenders but they weren’t at the top of the list. Don’t worry if you’re not as nosey as me, you can link it into your till system and it’ll flag up the spend for you. A ‘hot table’ Another Americanisation.
Dilemma.
The definition of hospitality is being friendly and welcoming to customers and this felt a bit unprincipled and inhospitable, a bit like I felt about asking for card details from people – but that has eradicated no-shows at weekends.
Embrace it
I felt a bit twitchy but it was easier than I thought to click on the accept button even though they weren’t first in the pecking order.
I drifted through to the kitchen and confessed my misdemeanour, the one-word response ‘mercenary’ wasn’t exactly the validation I was looking for.
But how many times have you said ‘I wish we could ask the diners what they are going to order before we book them in?’ We often say this but, actually, not many other industries run their businesses like a game of chance...
Later on, as I sat in my armchair sucking on a Werther’s Original and basking in the warmth of a Scrooge-like glow, I felt a bit guilty.
But, as well-documented, there are eight pubs closing every week, and diners sipping on tap water and slurping soup aren’t going to keep us open. So if technology can help us then we’d better embrace it, it’s survival of the fittest, eh?
