Never Lose a Booking: Cross-Sell with a Restaurant Availability App

Your customers don’t just want a table – they want the table at the time they prefer. So, when one of your venues is fully booked, potential customers often give up and look elsewhere.  

But what if there was an easy solution? With ResDiary’s new Cross-Sell feature, you can ensure diners don’t lose interest in booking with you by cross-selling to your other venues instead.

What is Cross-Selling?  

Put simply, cross-selling is offering customers related options that they may be interested in.  

If you’re a restaurant group or a brand with multiple sites, this can be an effective tactic for driving additional reservations to your other venues, ensuring you never miss a booking opportunity if your location is at full capacity.   

Did you know that customers who are engaged when they’re trying to book are far more likely to complete the transaction? That’s where cross-selling comes in. 

By cross-selling to a potential customer when their desired reservation isn’t available, you’re offering them an immediate solution to their problem and ensuring their booking momentum doesn’t disappear. This way, their experience with your brand is improved and you gain the chance to capture more bookings. 

The importance of using a restaurant availability app with a Cross-Sell feature 

Most restaurants nowadays use a restaurant availability app to accept online bookings and oversee table management, but not all these tools offer a cross-selling function. 

ResDiary’s new Cross-Sell feature allows diners to seamlessly find restaurant availability across your portfolio if their initial booking request hasn’t been successful. 

With the Cross-Sell feature, there’s no need for diners to go back off the booking page, and no need for them to go onto a different website - they can easily check restaurant availability across your other venues in one place. 

Why is this important for your business?

It’s simple: the smoother the experience, the more likely the diner is to stay within your brand, driving bookings that would’ve otherwise been lost, and therefore increasing your revenue potential.  

And here’s the data to prove it: 

Across a two-month period, a ResDiary customer who operates multiple restaurants within one city was able to generate 270+ additional bookings by instantly redirecting diners to available timeslots at an alternative venue within their portfolio. Think of the extra revenue that could equate to for your restaurant group!

These reservations were all from diners who were unable to complete their initial bookings due to lack of availability, who then completed a successful booking at another group site via the Cross-Sell capability. 

Read more about how ResDiary customers achieve success here.

Here’s a quick overview of how ResDiary’s Cross-Sell feature can help diners find restaurant availability easily: 

The Cross-Sell feature can check restaurant availability by capturing the guest data provided at the initial booking inquiry: 

• Preferred booking date
• Group size
• Time slot chosen 

If the diner’s chosen venue doesn’t have any availability, then alternate venues that do meet the supplied preferences will be displayed. The diner can then book directly through here instead of having to go to a separate website and booking form, simplifying their journey and improving guest experience.  

This convenience boosts booking conversions and helps you retain diners who might otherwise give up and go elsewhere. Your diners get to eat at their restaurant brand of choice, and you drive more covers across your wider business – win-win!

Summary: The Benefits of Cross-Selling 

1. Drive additional bookings across your venues by enabling diners to find available restaurants instantaneously within your restaurant availability app.
   
   
2. Check restaurant availability across any of your venues in real time, ensuring your customers have an easy path to booking at your other sites if their original choice is full.
   
   
3. Boost conversions by simplifying the booking process, making it easier for diners to book at your venues instead of going to competitors.
   
   
4. Keep diners engaged by offering a seamless and efficient user experience, preventing them from abandoning your website or leaving your business for other options. 
   
   

Ultimately, the less time your customers spend looking for a place to eat and the easier you make it for them to book, the more likely they are to successfully complete a booking with you.  

Want to see Cross-Sell and the other exciting features of ResDiary in action? Try ResDiary today.