Friday, 7:30pm. The restaurant is full, the kitchen is flat out, and the host is seating a table of eight. The phone rings. And rings. Nobody can pick up. The caller wanted a table for four tomorrow night. They hang up and open your website instead.
What happens next decides whether you get the booking. If your website answers their questions and makes booking easy, you do. If it shows an old menu and a contact form, they try the next restaurant on their list.
Why the website becomes the backup
During service, restaurants cannot answer every call. Guests know this, so many go straight to the website when a call rings out. It is not a replacement for the phone. It is where guests go when the phone is busy, and it needs to be ready for them.
To be clear about what SpideyChat does here: it works on your website only. It does not take phone calls, voicemail or messages on other channels. What it can do is answer the guests who turn to your website instead.
What those guests want
- Can I book for tomorrow night?
- Are you open on Sunday?
- Do you have vegetarian options?
- Is there parking?
- Can you take a group of eight?
The same questions they would have asked on the phone.
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Making the website ready
- A visible booking link. At the top of every page.
- Current opening hours. Including holidays.
- An up-to-date menu with dietary labels.
- Group and private dining information.
- Instant answers to questions.
SpideyChat for restaurants answers questions from your website at any hour and captures booking requests with the date, time, party size and contact details for staff to confirm. Guests who try the website late at night are covered in booking requests that arrive after the kitchen closes.
A message on your answerphone helps
Many restaurants leave a recorded message for busy times. Make sure it tells callers that they can book and ask questions on the website, and that group enquiries can be sent there too. That one sentence turns an unanswered call into a website visit, where the guest can get answers and book without waiting. Put the same message on your social media profiles and your listing on map apps, where many guests look for your contact details first. Point every route back to the same booking page.
Group and event enquiries
The most valuable callers are often organisers of groups and events, who give up quickly if they cannot get through. Capturing their enquiry on the website is essential, as covered in private dining enquiries worth more than a busy Friday.
What missed enquiries cost
Every guest who cannot get through and cannot get answers online is a lost table. The arithmetic is similar across industries, worked through for estate agents in what a missed property enquiry costs an agency. Salons face exactly the same problem when stylists are busy with clients, as described in an AI receptionist for beauty salons.
Check your website on a busy night
Next Friday, open your own website on a phone during service and try to book a table and find the menu. If it takes more than a minute, fix what slowed you down. Then try an assistant on your restaurant website, or see the features.