Here’s an interesting thought. Our customers thrive on, and, at the same time, are often overwhelmed by details. It’s the minutia involved
in their everyday responsibilities that can make our users’ lives crazy. From last minute reservation cancellations to unexpected walk-ins, wine preferences for a birthday celebration to a frantic bride’s fourth menu change in two weeks –  all of these things are important, and when overlooked or forgotten, can throw everything out of whack.

When I get a phone call from a prospective customer, it’s usually because they are drowning in Post-it Notes and file folders, lost in a
sea of scratched up and wrinkled reservation book pages, or simply tired of bouncing between three or four computer programs to get one report printed. They are exhausted and looking for a better way to do business.

We know that, as a true solutions provider, we can’t make sweeping generalizations about that individual’s business. We can’t assume they
follow the same processes as other establishments, subscribe to similar business models as industry peers, or service the same demographic as a local counterpart. We treat them as individuals and pay attention to the details they share – the very same, very specific details they pay attention to every single day.

But that’s just the beginning. Once we talk with them and learn more about their needs, it’s time to share how our software can help them
more successfully manage those details. With ReServe, our customers can capture important bits of information to create an exceptional guest experience. And when our customers are too busy to ask for the details, we remind them. We want them to be able to treat all of their guests like VIPs from the get go because when our customers are successful, we’re successful.

We’ve always prided ourselves on our ability to offer superior technical and product support to our customers. Our employees have proven over and over again that they are among the best of the best, and our customers say the same. From training to product support, development to sales, absolutely everyone in our organization is critical to our overall success and each and every person has gone above and beyond to make a difference.

“Lynn is very knowledgeable and understanding of the experiences we face with customers.  Once I started working with her I was completely put at ease about having made the right choice with the ReServe’s software.  She is an asset to your company!  Thank you Lynn!”

“Joe and Keith are 1st class employees. You should feel blessed to have them on your team. It is because of the type of service I receive from them that we continue using ReServe and recommending it to people. Another job well done!”

“Beth was very helpful. One question required some more info on her part, so she opted to call me back rather than have me hold. Very prompt in her return call. Super great customer service! Thanks!!!!”

“Leslie is the epitome of both great service and professionalism and I wanted to let you know that as long as she is representing your company I have no doubts that your business will continue to grow and grow.”

“Melanie is a rock star! She is incredibly responsive and an expert at her job. We can’t thank you enough for the great support!”

“Our trainer was very knowledgeable and really took the time to make sure we understood each step in the event life cycle. All our employees have given me positive feedback about their training session and about the capabilities of the ReServe software.”

“The representative I worked with was so helpful and kind. I so appreciated his ability to quickly resolve the issue so that I could get back to my work. I was working for a few hours at home on some things that HAD to be done right away. Thanks again!”

I was watching TV the other night and heard the word ‘intuitive’ used in reference to a computer, a car and a healthcare system, all within a matter of 15 minutes. It’s a word that bubbles up more and more frequently. The companies in these commercials can more than likely back up their claims – their reputations are built on them. However, there are some companies that make the claim, but fall very short.

For example, other hospitality management software products on the market today offer to collect tons of information, as well as interfaces that look like other well-known software products, and tout their ease of use. Many of our customers have used these products in the past and have willingly shared their experiences with us. After listening to their evaluations, intuitive wasn’t a word they used to describe the products. Functional? Yes. Easy-to-use? Sometimes. But just because a product looks like Outlook, doesn’t necessarily make it easy to use.  More importantly, it doesn’t make it intuitive.

At ReServe Interactive, intuitive means that we understand our customers’ businesses inside and out, top to bottom, and with that knowledge we’ve created a smart software system that is designed to become an integral part of a company’s day-to-day processes. It means we’ve built our software on a proprietary platform that was developed by professionals with years of experience in the design and development of effective user interfaces for high-tech products in a variety of industries. These individuals have an instinctive knowledge of user-centered design processes and, partnered with people that have extensive hospitality experience, were able to design a product that incorporates human interface technologies with the specific, real world needs of the hospitality industry. Our software was created by people who have stood in the customer’s shoes. We know what our customers need because we know what we needed when we were standing at the hostess desk or taking calls in the sales office. Our software speaks their language, understands what they need moment by moment, and anticipates what they will need down the road.

We know that when we say intuitive, we mean it, and we can prove it.

Who doesn’t want to make a good impression? I think it’s innate to who we are as human beings. We want to be liked. In business, it’s all about making a good impression. Good impressions lead to customer satisfaction which leads to repeat business which leads to long-term customer loyalty. The result is recurring revenue and business growth. The challenge is in continuing to make good impressions on your new customers while still wowing your existing customer base.

Ask yourself this – do you offer your guests a meal or a complete experience? Do your customers feel special each and every time they visit? What do you know about your customers? Is it more than their name? Do you gather enough information to make each visit a special event?

Ask yourselves these questions:

1. Does my customer request the same table for every visit?
2. Does my customer request the same reservation time on the same day of every week?
3. Do they always order a specific dish or bottle of wine?
4. Does my customer routinely request the same server?
5. Does my customer celebrate special events like birthdays and anniversaries at my establishment? What special requests are made for those events?

Excellent customer service is a cornerstone for restaurant success. Our customers know this and pride themselves on the service standards they set for themselves. They have the right people in place and they use our Dining Reservation & Table Management software to gather the right guest information at each visit. Then they use that data to provide the level of service that only they can – the service they’re customers have come to expect.

“The ReServe system has improved everything from sales to guest relationships.” – Mike Frampton, The Melting Pot, Sacramento.

At ReServe Interactive, our product services and technical support staff members notoriously go above and beyond to help our customers. I’d like to share just a few of the latest comments we’ve received from our customers about our team.

“Thank you! It’s especially nice to call the help desk and get a live person without having to wait or press a bunch of buttons on the phone!”  Holly Young, Event Sales Manager. Butte Creek Country Club

“Of all of the companies I’ve worked with, I’m most impressed with ReServe’s customer service. They quickly understand my needs and deal with my concerns right away. They work hard to correct core issues, not just slap band-aids on them. They are a well-trained organization. I always know what I’m getting and where I stand with ReServe. I wish everyone’s support was like yours.”  Mark Chapman, Owner. The Melting Pot – Tulsa

“The representative I worked with was so helpful and kind. I so appreciated his ability to quickly resolve the issue so that I could get back to my work. I was working for a few hours at home on some things that HAD to be done right away. Thanks again!!” Saundra Tidswell, Sales Manager. The Aerie at Eagle Landing Golf Course

Since the beginning, we have been lucky to have dedicated, hard working employees who have gone above and beyond any job description to service our customers and represent ReServe Interactive. Each individual has committed themselves to our mission of creating and supporting best-in-class technology solutions that significantly improve our customers’ everyday lives.

We hope you have the chance to work with our team at some point. They’ve elevated customer service to true customer care.

Check out our latest press release:

ReServe Interactive Launches ReServe Gateway - Web Services Enabling Third-Party System Integration and Aggregated Data Analysis

ReServe Interactive, an industry leader in hospitality management solutions, has launched  ReServe Gateway™, a robust web services platform enabling enterprise customers to integrate and share operational and financial data stored in their ReServe Interactive software with third-party software applications to streamline operations, improve productivity and enhance guest services.

“Many of our customers require our software to share information with other systems that help them manage their business such as POS systems, CRM programs and financial applications,” explains Mike Edmeyer, Vice President of Sales for ReServe Interactive. “ReServe Gateway is a reliable, responsive and cost-effective engine that enables on-demand communication with any of these services and is seamless in even the most PCI compliant environments.”

ReServe Gateway supports ReServe’s entire software suite including Reservation Management functions such as the facilitation of checking dining availability, making and cancelling reservations, and reporting reservation activity; Table Management services including the checking of wait times, changing table status, recording dining preferences, and reporting turn rates; Event Management services that facilitate the reporting of event scheduling activity and financial details, and checking availability and booking events, as well as Contact Management services that facilitate account and contact detail management.

“Web services is a standard communication protocol used across a variety of industries which means it’s proven, efficient and effective. And it’s easy to integrate with any desktop or hosted application,” explains Lynn Carter, Chief Technology Officer. “It enables us to focus on our core competency, which is designing productivity software for restaurants and catering operations, and efficiently sharing important data that our systems accumulate with other business functions. ReServe Gateway transforms how our software is used within an organization, and we expect the resulting links between ReServe and other systems to expand rapidly, providing great value to our customers.”

There’s a general consensus that customer service makes or breaks a restaurant. Industry professionals, insiders and outside consultants agree that exceptional customer service can result in the following:

• trust, confidence and a solid reputation – all can lead to long-term customer loyalty
• happy customers who spend more with less consideration of cost – and they keep coming back
• happy employees who enjoy their jobs and have positive things to say about their place of employment. They tend to stick around longer which means you can decrease the costs associated with hiring and training
• an advantage over your competitors who may not provide the same level of service in the same way
• a better bottom line – it’s less expensive to keep a customer than it is to get a new one. In addition, excellent customer service creates buzz and nothing costs less and means more than word-of-mouth marketing. And, most companies that offer exceptional service are often more profitable overall

We provide our restaurant customers with all of the tools they need to provide incomparable customer service – with the exception of good employees and the drive to stand above the rest. That’s up to them.

Do you have the drive and the staff to take your service to the next level? What about the right dining reservation and table management software?

Part of my job is educating customers about ways to improve operations so that they can see an immediate impact on their bottom line. Our customers need to run leaner, manage operations successfully and build business consistently. Without the right tools, these tasks are challenging to say the least.

Take, for example, dining reservations for restaurants. Restaurant staff needs a way to manage reservations so that they can take advantage of their entire table inventory. They need the assurance that when their guests go online to make a reservation, they find accurate information and can book a reservation easily. They also need a way to keep guests in their restaurant when they find their requested dining time to be unavailable.

When I’m speaking to prospective customers about reservation management, I ask the following: “Can you rely on the reservation software you are currently using?” The answer is usually “That depends.” For a variety of reasons, customers are unsure. They are spending quite a bit of money on some of the systems out there. There is some benefit to the marketing tools these systems provide, but it’s hard to gauge how much business is lost because guests have been redirected to other area restaurants that may have availability. In some case, there is no benefit at all; rather the restaurant feels it’s something that they need to do because they’ve been told it is good business sense to have some sort of system in place.

We end up discussing things like functionality, integration, marketing, and estimated ROI. Ultimately, I end up walking through the features of our software. What’s exciting is that we’ll soon be able to offer more dining reservation tools for restaurateurs. We will launch ReServe Q, a platform that will allow restaurant guests to make dining reservations or add themselves to a wait list using a restaurant’s website or a mobile device such as an iPhone, Android or Blackberry. As part of the ReServe Q offering, we’re forging strategic partnerships with mobile application aggregators and online dining guides to expand marketing reach for restaurants.

Most importantly, we’ve created a tool that will benefit our customers to the fullest with increased business and a better bottom line.

Will you Q?

We have several contract management companies as customers that manage food and beverage functions at stadiums, arenas, convention centers, cultural institutions and academic facilities. And the dynamics between some of these organizations is unique.

For example, when the Georgia Aquarium, the world’s largest fresh and marine water aquarium located in Atlanta, Georgia, opened its doors to the public in November of 2005, event staff was prepared to execute approximately 200 events through the end of 2006. But demand for the venue was high and more than 750 events took place. Before the aquarium opened, management’s goal was to streamline the booking process in order to maximize the facility’s expansive event space, which includes a configurable 16,000 square foot ballroom, pre-function space and building-wide accommodations, in order to execute as many events as possible while still remaining efficient and profitable.

To achieve this goal, Will Ramsey, director of group sales for the Georgia Aquarium, together with Wolfgang Puck Catering, a subsidiary of Compass Group North America, provider of the facility’s special event catering services, implemented ReServe Interactive’s Catering and Event Management software.

Ramsey and Wolfgang Puck’s catering director worked directly with ReServe to tailor the software to the aquarium’s unique event management needs. The software is shared between Georgia Aquarium staff, which handles back-of-house event operations, and Wolfgang Puck Catering event staff, which manages front-of-house activities, to ensure real-time event information is accessible to everyone from first customer contact through event follow up.

For more information, click here.

Our software has allowed contract management companies to partner with their customers to efficiently manage hospitality operations, as well as reap the benefits of a flexible solution that allows them to share data, manage labor, and provide superior customer service.

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.