In this day in age, nearly all restaurants use a booking system. Operationally speaking it’s brilliant because of how easy it is for staff to see what service will be like, and to manage bookings. One of the biggest benefits of utilising a booking system, is the marketing potential it holds. Each time a patron makes a booking, their data is captured. Because these contacts are paying customers, they can be contacted for marketing purposes.

MyGuestlist has the ability to set up an integration with your booking system that will automatically add your booking customers to your database. (Please contact your account manager to discuss the process and cost of setting up an integration). Some integrations also capture the customers booking details. In this instance, booking data is stored within the “Reservations” section of the account (within the Guestlist tab) and the contact’s details are stored within the database tab.

Capturing booking data is beneficial because it allows you to speak to customers one-to-one. Marketing to contacts on a personal level increases brand awareness, and encourages loyalty. This “Set and Forget” type of marketing is a perfect option for the booking information that is being collected. There are heaps of ways you can leverage booking data via automation, below are just a few ways you can leverage your data to increase repeat business:

• Thank You – Sent to Customers after their first time dining
• Update Details – Sent to customers after their second time dining asking them to provide more details on who they are.
• Loyalty – Sent to Customers who have booked and dined ‘X’ number of times
• Re-engagement – Sent to customers who have not booked in ‘X” number of months
• Large Bookings – Sent to customers who made a large booking for “X or more” people

Automation is an incredibly powerful tool when it is used to leverage the data that is being received from a booking system. As long as the data is being pushed into your MyGuestlist account, the sky is the limit with regards to the type and number of automated messages you can set up. Should you have any questions about automation, or would like to have an integration set up, please reach out to your account manager or call our offices on 03 9999 2585.