Restaurant messaging: bookings, and the thirty minutes before service

Bookings and confirmations are the win. The constraint is that the hour when messages arrive is the hour nobody can answer - which makes the automatic reply more important here than almost anywhere.

The confirmation that cuts no-shows

A booking recorded is not a booking confirmed. One message the day before, asking for a reply, converts a note in a diary into a commitment - and gives you the cancellation early enough to refill the table.

Hi Peter - table for 4 tomorrow at 7.30pm, under
Kariuki. Still good?

Reply YES, or tell me if anything's changed - we can
usually move it.

"We can usually move it" is the line that matters. It makes changing easier than not turning up, which is the trade you want - the same logic as any appointment reminder.

Service hours

The three questions are almost always:

• Do you have a table tonight, and for how many?
• Where exactly are you, and is there parking?
• Do you have something for a dietary requirement?

The first cannot be answered automatically without live availability. The second and third can, and they are most of the volume.

Orders need a record outside the chat

A delivery order that exists only in a conversation gets missed on the night it matters. Whatever the process, the order must end up somewhere the kitchen looks - a ticket, a sheet, a screen. The conversation is the correspondence, not the order, which is the same lesson as running a shop on WhatsApp.

The messages worth sending unprompted

1. Confirmation the day before. The one that pays for everything.
2. A cancellation you caused. Kitchen problem, closure, a delay - early and specific.
3. Nothing else, most weeks. A restaurant that messages its bookings list weekly with offers is teaching people to mute the number they need to confirm with.