Everything you need to know about managing your restaurant

Trust us, we know that managing a restaurant is a complex task that involves many spinning plates – both literal and metaphorical. In this constantly changing industry, every decision you make will have an impact on your establishment’s success. Whether you're a passionate chef or a determined entrepreneur, effective restaurant management is the essential ingredient for growing your business.

To assist you in your gastronomic venture, we’d like to introduce your new ally: TheFork Manager, a comprehensive and powerful electronic reservation book and management tool that will simplify your restaurant management and time management.

Want to learn more about TheFork Manager? Our team is here to assist you!

Manage your reservations efficiently

Reservation management is one of the fundamental pillars of your restaurant's success that requires meticulous organisation to increase bookings and avoid no-shows. Here’s how TheFork Manager makes reservation management simpler than ever.

Centralise all your reservations

TheFork Manager lets you centralise all your reservations — meaning there’s no need to juggle between different reservation channels. All reservations, whether from a phone call, your website, your social networks, TheFork, or any other digital channel, are centralised in one place, meaning you can process reservations quickly and easily to save precious time.

Combat no-shows

No-shows aren’t just frustrating — they can be costly for your restaurant. TheFork Manager offers many integrated tools to reduce no-shows to only 0.8%*. You can configure automatic reservation confirmations to remind your customers of their bookings, activate a credit card guarantee, set up a virtual waiting list, and use the customer reliability indicator to identify customers likely to be a no-show and call them before their reservation.

*Data observed on TheFork reservations made with credit card imprint in France in September 2022.

Optimise your occupancy rate with Special Offers

No matter how brilliant your food and service are, no restaurant can be successful without a steady stream of customers heading through your doors. Fortunately, TheFork Manager helps you to optimise your occupancy rate with ease. For example, you can create personalised promotions to attract customers during off-peak hours, filling your restaurant when you need it most. Best of all, you have complete control: you determine the amount of the promotion, from -20% to -50%, on desired days and times.

Create an attractive menu

A well-designed menu sits at the heart and soul of your restaurant. Here are some tips for creating an irresistible menu that will delight your customers and tempt new diners.

Simplicity and quality

A concise and coherent menu, with a reduced selection of choices, simplifies order management with suppliers, minimises food waste, and makes it easy for customers to choose. Offer quality dishes, which include options for different dietary preferences (such as vegetarian, gluten-free, and halal) and made with fresh, seasonal products.

Menu refresh

Make frequent changes to your menu to surprise and delight your customers — especially those who dine with you regularly. Keep your offerings fresh by removing the least popular dishes from your menu and coming up with new culinary creations that incorporate seasonal produce.

With our best-in-class software, TheFork Manager, you can easily update your menu, manage availability, and track sales in real time. Customers can easily discover your updated menu by visiting your restaurant profile on TheFork.

Provide an excellent customer experience

Offering an exceptional customer experience is an essential ingredient for the success of your restaurant. Here's how to create memorable moments for your customers that stay with them long after they’ve paid the bill.

Personalise your customers' experiences

To create a truly personalised experience, you need a way to note down each customer's preferences, food allergies, and even special occasions like birthdays. With TheFork Manager, you can now build your own 100% private database containing essential information about your customers. This lets you personalise their experience based on information you’ve previously collected during each visit, giving you a potent opportunity to improve the customer experience and further build customer loyalty.

Reward loyalty

To keep your regular customers coming back time and again, rewarding their loyalty is crucial — and you can do exactly that with TheFork’s Yums loyalty programme. Each reservation made through TheFork lets customers accumulate Yums, which can then be exchanged for discounts at participating restaurants.

Interact with customers through reviews

Customer reviews are a goldmine for any restaurateur, offering an exclusive glimpse at what customers think about your restaurant and letting you gather all-important feedback. On TheFork, only customers who have honoured their reservation can leave a review — that means you won’t get any fake reviews or reviews after a no-show.

With TheFork Manager, you can not only check these reviews but also respond to them directly from the software. Responding to reviews, whether positive or negative, is essential for your restaurant. It demonstrates a real commitment to customer satisfaction, helps build a trusted relationship with your diners, and can attract new visitors.

Note: With TheFork Manager, you can also ask your customers to provide you with "private" reviews to receive concrete and constructive feedback.

Improve your restaurant's communications

A compelling communication strategy is essential for attracting new customers, understanding and retaining your current clientele, and strengthening your brand awareness. Here are some tips for managing your restaurant's communications.

Deploy a strong online communication strategy

You can use various online communication channels to reach a wide audience, for example:

• Design an attractive website
• Be active on social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram
• Create your restaurant page on TripAdvisor
• Complete your profile on TheFork to reach the largest community of food enthusiasts

Moreover, with TheFork Manager, you can easily install reservation buttons on all your communication channels, such as your website and social media (commission-free), Google, TripAdvisor, the MICHELIN Guide, and of course, TheFork. These reservation buttons let your customers book a table from all platforms quickly and seamlessly.

Maintain a special relationship with your customers through email campaigns

Staying in touch with your customers is essential to keep them informed about news, special offers, or upcoming events in your restaurant. With TheFork Manager, creating and sending newsletters and personalised offers becomes a breeze. You can even segment your customer database to send targeted communications, driving even greater engagement to increase customer retention.

Benefit from support from industry experts

Having support from experts can be a major asset for managing your restaurant. At TheFork, we don't just provide you with innovative software: we also offer personalised support from one of our 450 seasoned professionals in the restaurant industry.

Once you’re signed up to TheFork Manager, you’ll have a dedicated trainer assigned to you who will train and advise you on the best practices to adopt while answering your technical and operational questions. The goal? Optimise your use of the software according to the specificities of your establishment, your needs, and your challenges.

You will then be accompanied throughout your collaboration with TheFork by an account manager who will help you become more prominent on the TheFork platform and can address your day-to-day challenges.

If you need any additional help, our support service is available 7 hours a day, 7 days a week by phone or online chat to answer all your questions.

With TheFork Manager, you have best-in-class restaurant management software — adaptable to your needs and goals — and personalised customer service available when you need it most, helping you turn your passion project into a successful business.

Ready to get started? Discover what TheFork Manager’s restaurant management software can do for your restaurant.