What’s ahead for 2011?

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011

Here at ReServe Interactive, we’re very excited about the year ahead.  We’re directing our efforts toward the ever changing needs of our customers and the hospitality industry as a whole.  We’re focusing on web services, data integration and state-of-the-art technology advancements that not only benefit our customers’ productivity, but increase their profitability.

Keep your eye on our blog and watch for industry buzz on our latest catering, event management, dining reservation and table management product enhancements and offerings. In addition, you’ll learn more about some of our customers and the ways we’re making a difference in the way they do business, as well as select industry partnerships.

At ReServe Interactive, we embrace change and live for technological advancements. Especially when they enhance the way we serve our customers and the way our customers do business.

By the way, the first half of 2011 will bring the much anticipated launch of a new product designed for the restaurant industry. We’ll be sharing some more information soon, so keep tuning in.   

Here’s to a new year!

What our customers are saying…

Friday, January 14th, 2011

“ReServe is by far the BEST reservation/table management software I have ever used. I’ve used many different programs and nothing compares! ReServe can basically run the restaurant for me. I would gladly recommend ReServe to others.”  Rick Roberts, The Melting Pot Tucson

“I have been working on Reserve for 13 years. So with new staff coming on board I set them up with the training and decided to see what was new. It was great for me to learn all the new things that have been added in our updates but never really utilized. My staff really learned a lot and April was a great trainer! Thanks and look forward to the webinars.” Janelle Lembeck, Diablo Country Club

“Our experience thus far with ReServe, as far as timely support and response, has been nothing short of exemplary, right from sales through to planning and IT.  Thank you from our team for making this implementation so painless!” Christie Penner, The Charcoal Group of Restaurants

“We’re in the process of fully integrating the program, and our sales staff has been using the software for about 2 weeks & they’re loving it! I’m so happy to have ReServe, and am looking forward to increasing our revenue in the New Year!” Lily Watson, Sterling Affairs Catering

“As a former Delphi user, I find ReServe to be much easier to use, and I especially like the way the customer contact system works.” Sulema Kiekintveld, Wild Fire Grille

Why ReServe Interactive?

Wednesday, December 15th, 2010

Here are some simple reasons why:

• Our systems help organizations maximize the use and value of their hospitality assets by eliminating process and resource inefficiencies, and  making it effortless to implement best-practice work flows across organizations
• Our products automatically centralize information in order to give organizations real-time decision-making ability and long-term business visibility
• Unwieldy tools burden your team and leave business on the table–we provide a natural, optimal work flow that enhances efficiency and effectiveness
• Our products accelerate your own and your team’s work by anticipating next steps and automating labor-intensive tasks
• Our systems capture and update information effortlessly to enhance visibility, teamwork and communication from beginning to end
• Our intelligent solutions automatically optimize space to make it effortless for you and your staff to maximize table turns and manage events
• Our intuitive systems are easy to use, easy to train on, and make it easy for you to implement and enforce correct policies and procedures
• Our products integrate the reservation, dining and event information that helps you serve customers better before, during and after their visits
• Our systems make catering, event, reservation and table management effortless for users by automating labor-intensive tasks and anticipating natural next steps
• Our systems centralize, protect and provide secure access to the information that organizations need to make hospitality operations more productive and more profitable
• Our systems are built on industry-standard platforms, and interface with leading business, hospitality and event IT tools

Finally, we are seasoned experts who have been helping organizations optimize their hospitality operations for more than a decade.

10 ways to work smarter with ReServe Interactive software

Friday, December 10th, 2010

The benefits of ReServe Interactive’s Catering & Event Management and Dining Reservation & Table Management software make for a long list. Below are just 10 benefits that enable hospitality professionals to work faster and smarter – improving their efficiency and increasing profitability.

With ReServe Interactive software, you can:

1. Build consistent business practices, improve communication and reporting accuracy
2. Enhance efficiency and effectiveness by bringing natural order to on- and off-premise operations while supporting best practice processes
3. Interface with leading business, hospitality and event technology tools to provide superior functionality and control
4. Ensure accuracy in the planning and execution of events on-site, off-premise or across multiple properties
5. Control the reservation process, eliminating costly errors and increasing profitability
6. Optimize your use of table inventory and track customer seating and dining preferences
7. Quickly and easily enable your staff to offer superior, personalized service while maximizing dining covers
8. Maximize table turns and seating inventory to increase profitability
9. Effectively manage server requirements and covers while enhancing customer service
10. Optimize server performance

What are you waiting for? Isn’t it time you worked smarter?

Unique is as Unique Does

Tuesday, November 16th, 2010

There’s something to be said for a product that can be multi-dimensional in its functionality. From kitchen utensils to power tools, more and more products are being designed to meet a variety of different needs in one convenient package.

At ReServe Interactive, our software is built on a flexible platform that allows it to meet a variety of unique needs across all types of venues. Here are a few examples of customers benefiting from our distinctive platform:

Lucky Strike Lanes & Lounge- Lucky Strike’s front-of-house staff uses our Dining Reservations & Table Management software to book group bowling activities just like a restaurant would book dining reservations. Our Smart Reservation Technology™ and Graphical Floor Plan interface allow their staff to view space availability and book reservations by floor and lane-by-lane. ReServe also helps them gather customer preferences, contact information, purchase history, cancellations and no-shows.

Sega GameWorks USA- To effectively manage group event packages, which include food, beverage and game play options, GameWorks utilizes our software’s Set up & Service Wizard to populate Event Orders with pre-defined package descriptions. Once the Event Order is complete, detailed pricing, including taxes and gratuities, appears at the bottom of the contract. This is different than their previous system where the event order and invoice, each with different pricing, were printed and presented to the guest separately. GameWorks staff is now also able to view an itemized Event Order when needed to review food, beverage and game play costs.

Icon Estates/Robert Mondavi- Icon Estates, the fine wine business of Constellation Wines U.S., manages more than 13,000 tastings, tours and large-scale events each year at 13 company properties across the country. With a corporate goal to reduce costs and increase efficiencies, Icon wanted to centralize event management at five California properties, including some belonging to Constellation’s Centerra division, while improving guest experiences. To streamline processes, management centralized reservation and event operations, including winery tours, into one fully-integrated system using ReServe Anywhere®, the web-based version of our Event Management software.

Click on any of the links above to read each customer’s case study and learn more about how ReServe Interactive has met their unique operational needs.

Gaylord Entertainment – A Success Story

Wednesday, October 20th, 2010

Over the years, we’ve been fortunate to partner with some of the industry’s most renowned hospitality venues and food and beverage professionals. The list is long and the relationships we’ve cultivated are important to us on so many levels.

Just recently, we partnered with Gaylord Entertainment, a leading hospitality and entertainment company, that owns and operates Gaylord Hotels, the award-winning leader in the meeting and resort hotels industry and the Grand Ole Opry, the legendary music showcase in Nashville, Tennessee.

When the company’s existing dining reservation software provider was bought out, Gaylord Entertainment selected ReServe Anywhere®, our web-based Dining Reservation & Table Management software with ReServe It™, our web-based dining reservation interface, to manage reservations across all four properties and the dining rooms of 16 fine dining restaurants.

By working together, we created a solution that centralizes Gaylord’s dining reservation process, makes reservation and customer data accessible to individual restaurants, multiple call centers, and hotel concierge staff; as well as accepts reservations through the company’s website. In addition, their staff communicates more effectively within each location and continues to provide superior customer service.

Click on the link below to learn more about this partnership.

http://www.reserveinteractive.com/downloads/case-studies/Gaylord-Entertainment.pdf

A special thank you to Gaylord Entertainment for sharing their story with us. And another thank you to all of our customers for their ongoing partnership. We appreciate you and look forward to continuing business together.

Multi-Unit Management – The Power of ReServe

Thursday, October 7th, 2010

Multi-unit restaurants often struggle with managing operations across all of their sites. Some restaurants rely on the GMs to turn in accurate reports so that corporate management can analyze activity on an enterprise level. Other companies send district managers out to each location to gather information and some corporate offices wait patiently for Excel files to be e-mailed in.

The point being, in order for these customers to successfully manage operations, they need a solid handle on activity in each of their locations and an effective way to gather that information. That’s where ReServe comes in. From reservations to financial reporting, we’ve helped our multi-unit customers observe, gather, analyze and report on activity across 2 or 200 locations.

For example, McCormick & Schmick’s uses ReServe Anywhere®, our web-based Catering & Event Management software, to manage private dining events across more than 90 locations. Brunswick Entertainment Centers manages events at 14 locations, Wolfgang Puck Catering implements across 12 sites, Gaylord Entertainment manages 11 restaurants across four venues, Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises uses ReServe Anywhere across 40 plus locations, and Palm Restaurant Group manages events for 27 restaurants.

Here’s what they accomplish with our software. They manage multiple event books from a headquarters or corporate location; reporting is centralized, so they can report on the enterprise, region or a specific location; and they improve communication between employees and across venues. And that’s just the beginning. They use our software to keep a finger on the pulse of their business 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

So, when a multi-unit customer needs to keep track of all everything across all of their locations, the solution is simple – ReServe Anywhere.

Customer Service beyond the Software…

Thursday, September 23rd, 2010

Our software is designed to help our customers provide the highest levels of service by giving them the tools to collect valuable guest preferences and dining histories. Our customers can greet their guests by name, seat them at their preferred table, present them with their favorite bottle of wine and wish them heartfelt congratulations on their wedding anniversary. Why? Those details are captured in the software and made accessible to the host and wait staff.

But, it’s up to the staff to continue on past those details and carry customer service throughout the entire dining experience so that guests keep coming back for more.

Consider some of the following tips to carry out your high levels of customer service:

Customer Service Training – from the hostess stand to the kitchen, make sure everyone has been trained on your company’s customer service guidelines. If you don’t have set guidelines, consider putting some in place and then conduct orientation meetings to get everyone on the same page. Just one unsavory interaction with any member of your staff can impact a guest’s experience and send them straight for the door.

The Customer is Always Right – when a guest complains, take it seriously. It’s an opportunity to make improvements and show your guests you care. If refunding the cost of a meal results in a satisfied, and more importantly, a return guest, then it’s worth it. Better to have a guest share how you positively dealt with his complaint rather than have him share a failure on your part.  Negative word-of-mouth advertising is very hard to repair.

Do More Than Just Your Job – find ways to go above and beyond in servicing your guests. Pull out a chair, comp an appetizer, top off their wine. Doing that little something extra can change a guest’s perspective and turn them into one of your biggest cheerleaders.

Be Enthusiastic – nothing puts a damper on a guest experience than service with a scowl. Whether you’ve been on your feet all day or you’ve been dealing with a long line of crabby clientele, giving your guests a genuine smile shows them that you care about them and their dining experience. And, we all know, smiles are contagious so you’re sure to get a smile in return.

Our version of an easy button

Thursday, September 9th, 2010

You’ve seen the commercials. Someone presses a big red button, a problem is solved, and you hear the words “That was easy!”

Our products and solutions are different than that of the company that created that now infamous button, but our premise is the same. We make the tough stuff a little less overwhelming and our customers lives a little easier. It’s the catering sales manager who books an event for the first time or the hostess that logs her first dining reservation and thinks (or says aloud if the feeling moves them) “That was easy!” And sometimes it really is the simple act of clicking a button that changes the way they do business.

We’ve done as many as 15 customer case studies over the last few years and the thread that runs through them all is ReServe’s ease of use. At some point in the profile, the customer comments on our software’s ability to make everyday tasks easier.  Here are just a few quotes from our case study library:

“We needed something efficient and easy to use, as well as something that could meet our unique needs within both catering divisions,” explains Jennifer Cleveland, Director of Catering, Harry Caray’s Restaurant Group. “We wanted to successfully manage events using a single system and ReServe’s software has allowed us to do just that.”

“It’s a tremendous time saver and easy to use,” says Lauren Serwitz, Catering Director, Round Hill Country Club. “We’re huge believers in ReServe Interactive, and we love to extol the virtues of ReServe to other clubs.”

“The software is cost-effective, easy-to-use and it has made us a much more productive organization,” says Trina Ashcraft, IT Trainer, Hilton Waikoloa Village.

“I came on board after implementation,” says Paul Pace, Director of Food & Beverage, Treasure Island Hotel & Casino. “And because the system is so user friendly and easy to use, I logged in and taught myself how to use it. I was able to take single and group reservations, make changes to floor plans and update menus within a couple of days.”

We may not have an actual easy button, but what’s better than an actual customer saying the words “That was easy!”?

Online dining reservations – designed with restaurants in mind

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

Well, the buzz is certainly intense lately regarding online dining reservation software. There was an article in the Wall Street Journal on May 20 comparing several products including OpenTable, UrbanSpoon and ReservationGenie. The article highlighted restaurateur frustration with excessive fees and the limited availability of cost effective options. I guess I’d be remiss if I didn’t throw our hat in the ring.

ReServeIT from ReServe Interactive allows restaurant guests to book their reservations through a restaurant’s website 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  The difference between us and some of the other applications on the market is that we do not charge a ‘per seat’ or ‘per head’ transaction fee, require excessive set up costs or hit restaurateurs with miscellaneous nickel and dime charges. We offer a solution that puts guests in your dining room and revenue in your pocket.

Also, other systems use simple ‘slot’ technology to book reservations – like a glorified spreadsheet. The user has to make a best guess as to how many online reservations to set aside on a given evening.  What happens when that estimate is off and the online reservation system tells a customer that the dining room is full, even when it’s not? How do you explain it to customers who become frustrated enough to call or stop in only to find that there are actually several seats available? 

ReServeIT utilizes your actual table inventory to determine whether space is available to make a reservation. That means you have accurate, real-time management of your online reservation “pool”.  ReServe will always manage available reservations based on the parameters you define and what is happening in your restaurant in real time. Plus, if a customer’s requested reservation time is not available, you decide where to refer them.  You don’t have to worry about having your potential customers getting sent to your competitor.

Here are some other things to know about ReServeIT:

• You can manage reservations across multiple restaurants within a single database.
• You own your reservation and customer data and won’t get charged to use it to market more effectively.
• Your website and ReServeIT seamlessly integrate so you can customize your links and landing page to present a branded, serviced-oriented image to your guests throughout the reservation process.
• You can use customized short links for social media applications and online dining guides.
• You can add the customized links anywhere you want to accept dining reservations and send branded and personalized reservation confirmations to your guests.

So, to all of you out there that are frustrated with the cost of your current system, know that there are other, more affordable, options available that were designed with your success in mind.