There are many challenges we face working in the restaurant industry. Supply and demand, increased costs, and hospitality are just a few to be named. One of the most difficult challenges a restaurant can face is dealing with no shows, short shows, and cancellations from guests. At Innovo Kitchen, we have implemented measures to track no shows and cancellations to avoid losing opportunities for the restaurant.
We are in the restaurant industry, which means we are in the business of renting chairs. We need to rent them as often as possible, for as much as possible, to maximize opportunities for the restaurant. You may be wondering; how do no shows and cancellations affect the restaurant. When a customer reserves a table and no shows or cancels at the last minute, and there is not a walk-in at the same exact time to fill that spot, we lose the ability to maximize that revenue from that table for the shift. The biggest expense in the restaurant is an empty chair or table for a service.
To avoid these situations and maximize opportunities for the restaurant, Tina has implemented measures to help manage the number of no shows and cancellations. When a customer no shows or cancels at the last minute, detailed notes are made on the guest profiles. Whenever they make a new reservation, the system will alert staff to press the customer about times and guest count a little extra. It will also alert staff to follow up and confirm with the guest the day of the reservation to avoid any last-minute changes. These changes have greatly reduced the number of no shows and cancellations that we experience in the restaurant.
These changes have not been implemented to penalize our guests. We understand emergencies can happen and plans can change. They were solely created and implemented to track repeat cancellations and no shows and to tighten our follow-up protocol with our guests regarding their reservations. We encourage our guests to make a reservation once they know their full guest count and let us know immediately if there are changes to the count, if they need to reschedule, or if they need to cancel the reservation altogether. Letting us know with as much notice as possible gives us the opportunity to make that table available and satisfy another customer.