Stop losing phone bookings during service

What a phone ringing out costs you

We found no reliable figure for Swiss restaurants. Yours comes from four numbers, multiplied together:

1. unanswered calls during service
2. ×the share of those calls that wanted to book
3. ×covers per booking
4. ×the average spend per cover

The first is in the call log of your phone or your router: look at the missed calls on a Friday and a Saturday evening. The second you know better than we do. For a week, note how many of the calls you take are bookings. The last two come from your till.

The result is a ceiling: some people will call back. Those who don’t, on the other hand, leave no trace anywhere, neither in the till nor in the bookings diary.

The options, and what each one lets slip

The answering machine costs nothing. But someone who wants a table tonight wants an answer now, and they can hang up without leaving a message. If they leave one, you call back after service, by which time the evening is already settled.

Forwarding the line to your mobile moves the ringing from the counter to your pocket. That helps in the morning, while you’re out shopping. At 20:00, your hands are just as full as before.

Online booking platforms let customers book on their own, at any hour. Every table booked online is one call fewer. People who prefer to call keep calling.

Someone on the phone during service is still the most flexible answer: a person also understands what’s out of the ordinary. Taken from your team, it’s one pair of hands fewer on the floor at the very hours you need them most. An outside answering service picks up for you; its hours, and what it does with the call (a message or a booking), depend on the offer. We compared prices in our article on phone answering services and AI receptionists.

An AI receptionist is software that answers the phone. There are several, some built into booking software. Aralys, ours, answers the calls forwarded to her, day and night, and also when you’re already on the phone if your forwarding covers a busy line. She offers an available time and puts the booking into your dashboard. She answers questions with what you’ve entered: your opening hours and, from the Pro plan, the menu and its prices. She doesn’t give quotes and never makes outgoing calls. A request that goes beyond a booking is passed to the person you’ve chosen; otherwise Aralys notes it down, and your team calls back.

The setting to change this week: conditional forwarding

Whatever you choose, it goes through conditional forwarding: the phone rings at the restaurant first, and the call only goes to the number you’ve chosen if nobody picks up or the line is busy. The codes for Swisscom, Sunrise and Salt, landline and mobile, are in our call forwarding guide.

What to demand from whoever answers for you

Whether it’s a person, an answering service or software, check six things before you choose.

• They know your lunch and dinner services, and the days you’re closed.
• They know how many covers you have left, and they say ‘fully booked’ when you are.
• They take down the name, number, number of covers and time.
• They put the booking where you read it, instead of leaving you a message to copy out after service.
• They let you know when a booking comes in.
• They speak your customers’ languages. In Switzerland, French and German at the very least.

Aralys ticks all six boxes today. She knows your services and closing days, never books beyond the covers you’ve set, and you get an email for every booking. She speaks French, German, Italian and English. Online booking is included from the Pro plan: tables booked by phone and on your website land in the same bookings diary.

Questions