No-shows in restaurants are presently still a problem for the hospitality industry. Every month restaurant owners have to deal with customers who don’t show up for their reservation, without having cancelled. Does sending a reminder by SMS offer the solution to decrease the number of no-shows?
Resengo recently conducted research amongst Belgian restaurants. The research showed that many restaurants face a no-show problem on a monthly basis. Worryingly, 43% of the restaurants who took part said the number of unannounced no show’s has even increased over the last year.
Measures
To reduce the number of no-shows in the hospitality industry, several measures have already been taken. This also includes asking for an advance payment. However, this tough approach does not seem to have the desired effect. Many customers choose an alternative restaurant when they are asked to pay an advance. Moreover, most restaurants taking part in the research thought that the image of a restaurant wouldn’t benefit from such measures.
Constructive measures are a better way to approach customers and a good form of communication with customers seems to be the best solution. By having people confirm their reservation once again, by filling in their customer details and by sending them a reservation reminder by SMS; customers are more actively engaged with their reservation. Due to this interaction customers become more aware of their reservation. They will show up more often or cancel the reservation in advance if they can’t make it.
SMS reminder
Sending out an SMS reminder also has many advantages when compared to a reminder via e-mail. For example, the delivery reliability for an SMS is many times higher than e-mail. Only about 20% of e-mails are opened, whilst the open rate for SMS is 98%. In addition to that there is a risk that e-mails may end up in a customers spam box or that the e-mail address to which the e-mail is sent isn’t their primary e-mail address and isn’t checked regularly.
Sending a simple SMS can prevent no-shows and therefore empty tables in restaurants. If your company is interested in sending SMS messages, Spryng will be happy to help you. You can send SMS directly via our online platform or via our API, which is easy to integrate into your own software. Contact us by telephone on +31 (0) 20 770 3005 or by e-mail at info@spryng.nl to experience the convenience of sending SMS reminders.
