Restaurants and entertainment venues use reservation management software, mainly, for online bookings. But that’s not the only reason to booking widget…right?!

No, it isn’t.

The Servme reservation widget helps F&B concepts and entertainment venues in various ways. From increasing reservations to streamlining online and offline operations to improving guest retention, personalizing guest experiences, and much more.

Continue reading to find out how to make the most of the Servme booking widget for your venue, hotel, or F&B group.

11 reasons to use the Servme booking widget

As its name suggests, the ‘booking widget’ is for making online bookings for tables, special events, and getting tickets.

Aside from online bookings, there are 10 other reasons why you should use Servme's widget. 

1) Get reservations

The main reason restaurants use the reservation widget is to get online bookings. Some restaurants have the booking widget on their website, while others use it to get bookings from Facebook and Instagram.

Restaurants using SerVme can also use the widget to get bookings from Reserve with Google, Tripadvisor, and other platforms.

Apart from Tripadvisor which charges cover fees, all other platforms are commission free. This means, restaurants and guests don’t pay fees to book tables.

You can also use Servme’s UTM linking feature to improve your data tracking and booking sources. Especially if you partner with affiliates, run marketing campaigns, or have a partnership with a food influencer or blogger.

2) Build your CRM 

One of the major benefits of using a reservation widget is to build your restaurant customer relationship management (CRM) system.

Every time a guest makes a booking, they add their personal and contact information. This helps restaurants and chains build their guest CRM through automated guest profile creation with no chances of duplicate profiles.

Each piece of information your guest adds goes into the CRM, helps you tailor and improve your guest experiences.

For example, if a guest mentions they’re allergic to certain foods, this information is added to their guest profile. When making an order at the restaurant, the host or hostess can notify them if any dish needs adjustment based on their allergies.

Similarly, when guests choose outdoor seating, they get an automated tag indicating their ‘outdoor seating’ preference, to facilitate future bookings.

Further reading: Here’s How to Create Hyper-Personalization in Your Restaurant with SerVme’s Auto-Tagging Feature 

3) Build your newsletter

Email marketing is a great way for restaurants to engage guests and increase revenues and reservations. Research shows 60% of consumers subscribe to email newsletters to get promotions and special offers.

Using the Servme widget, restaurants can collect guest emails and use them to build the mailing list for their newsletter.

With an email newsletter, you can notify guests of upcoming special events, offers, new branches, and much more.

If you haven’t been collecting guest emails, enable the field from your Servme widget settings and prepare to launch your newsletter.

You can create your restaurant newsletter from the Servme dashboard, where you’ll find templates for newsletters and various restaurant email marketing campaigns.

Learn more about email marketing and newsletters in our Guide to Email Marketing for Restaurants

4) Collect reservation fees

Besides getting online reservations, the SerVme booking widget helps restaurants collect reservation fees.

Reservation fees are a great way to discern serious guests from unserious ones. They’re also a way for restaurants to secure a portion of their revenues in advance.

When the guests arrive and after their meal, their bill will show the reservation fees deducted from the final bill.

Reservation fees are one of our top recommendations from reducing no-show guests.

 5) Collect in-advance payments 

Apart from reservation fees, some restaurants and entertainment venues need to collect full in-advance payments. Whether it’s a ticketed event or a prix-fixe menu, or something else.

Golf clubs, wineries, beach-side restaurants and venues are among the top concepts that require guests to pay in-full upfront.

This is super easy to do with the reservation widget. Guests add their information, along with credit or debit card details. Once they submit their reservation, SerVme’s reservation software deducts the payment.

You can also enable this feature for specific or busy days or hours. 

6) Share your digital menu 

Use the Servme widget to engage guests from the get-go. Add a link to your digital menu(s) in your reservation widget.

For F&B concepts offering set menus or multi-course meals, guests can preview those menus, pick their dishes, and order in advance. 

7) Create and manage online waitlists

A major benefit of using the Servme widget is waitlist management. Whether you manage online or offline waitlists, the widget helps you streamline the process.

Enable waitlists from the widget settings in your Servme dashboard.

Got a busy weekend or holiday season? Special dining event? The Servme reservation widget helps you manage it all. You can enable or disable the waitlist based on your needs. 

8) Promote your events and special experiences

The reservation widget offers marketing and upselling opportunities if you manage special dining events.

When guests access your widget to make a booking, they’ll be able to see upcoming events. They can easily book tables for those events. (See the image below)

In addition, if one or more of your events become fully-booked. Guests can join the waitlist to be notified of a similar or repeat event. In addition, you can notify guests of tables made available when–or if–other guests cancel their booking at the last minute.

For example, if you’re Mexican Night Dinner gets book in full, guests can join the waitlist for that event. If you get in-advance or last-minute cancellations, you can reach out to guests on your waitlist.

Finally, you can use the Servme widget to gauge interest in your dining events and uncover your top events.

For example, if one or more of your dining events gets fully booked and there’s a long waitlist, this indicates this is a top-selling event that you should repeat more often.

9) Unify your branding 

A major benefit of using the Servme restaurant reservation widget is it helps you unify your branding.

A unified brand gives current and potential guests the feel of sophistication and professionalism. It also ensures you’re using your brand’s colors in all your guest interactions.

When guests make a booking, they expect to see the same colors, fonts, and feel of your brand across your site, marketing, and your reservation widget.

With SerVme, you can add your logo, images, choose your fonts, use themes, and much more.  

You can also choose the languages guests can see the widget in. SerVme currently supports 6 languages, with more to come.

10) Highlight restaurant policies 

Part of managing a successful restaurant and getting online bookings is clarifying your restaurant's policies.

These include:

• Opening hours

• Whether smoking is permitted or not

• Special event policies

• Reservation and cancellation fees

• Restaurant no-show policy

• Children-related policies

• Dress code

Among others.

Further reading: Grab our templates for creating cancellation and no-show templates here.

11) Let guests cancel bookings 

It’s easy to make an online booking. But what about canceling one? The Servme reservation widget lets guests cancel bookings easily.

However, guests can only see the ‘cancel booking option’ after they click ‘cancel reservation’ from your confirmation email or SMS. 

Make sure you include your cancellation policies in your widget so guests know when they’re getting their booking fees back or if a portion will be deducted after the cancellation. 

Wrapping it up

As you can see, though it’s called a ‘reservation widget,’ it’s more of a marketing, sales, and operations management tool built into one.

Not only does it help you improve your restaurant CRM, which is crucial for successful restaurants and chains, but also gives you insights into your guests, their preferences, and habits. This helps restaurant managers and hosts tailor experiences inside the restaurant.

You can also choose whether you want to centralize the data in your CRM across your branches and locations or make it location-specific.

With a centralized restaurant CRM, you have more opportunities for guest segmentation and personalization. Whether it’s through your email, SMS, or general marketing campaigns.

Want to explore the power of SerVme’s booking widget? Try it now!