simpleERB: now even better at being your Christmas helper

Working in the restaurant trade, there’s a good chance that already, you’re getting a bit fed up with Christmas. Sure, the restaurant might be busy for the whole of next month, but it also puts a strain on your staff that isn’t there for the other 11 months of the year. Don’t even mention those friends who want your chefs opinion on the best way for them to prepare their Turkey. Like you have time for that!?!
Thankfully, simpleERB has a lot of features, many which are perfect to get you through the festive period. Since last year, we’ve added deposits and credit card holding to our features with Christmas being the perfect time to start using it.

Take deposits easily online to prevent payments getting lost or forgotten

simpleERB now lets you set up rules so that on certain bookings, customers are required to make a deposit payment on their reservation. You can set this up to be for parties of a certain amount, at particular dates and times or for all bookings. The rules are easy to switch on and off and you can have multiple rules for different amounts running at the same time. You can also choose if you want to charge a blanket amount or if you want to charge a set amount per cover.
If customers book online through your simpleERB widget, they will be advised about the deposit and that the booking is provisional until the deposit is paid. You can set up in your rules a date by which the deposit needs to be paid and any unpaid deposits will be clearly shown in your diary. Customers are sent a link via email where they can enter their card details which means that you and your staff don’t need to handle any card details keeping them safe and secure.
We handle payments through stripe and you can set up an account with them quickly and easily.

We can ensure there are no accidental bookings on your closed days

Use the simpleERB closed days feature to make sure your diary is completely blocked off on any days you are not open. This not only removes your availability from the booking widget but also completely removes timeslots from your diary, meaning none of your staff can add in an accidental booking you won’t be able to take.

We can allow you to be flexible with your Christmas availability hours

The simpleERB partial opening function allows you to split your opening times on certain dates. Perfect around the festive period if your restaurant operates ‘sittings’ on busy nights. Also ideal for amending your hours on certain days, for example if you are finishing early on Christmas Eve.

We can help keep your staff updated with extra Christmas info

You can use your simpleERB message function to add staff notifications to specific dates, such as reminders to advise customers you are only serving your festive menu or that deposits are needed for large bookings for December dates. The messages appear at the top of your diary page as well as at the top of the customer details page when entering a booking.

We can prevent empty tables

Can’t afford an empty table in your busiest month of the year? Add some booking reminders so simpleERB automatically sends a message to a customer to remind them they’ve booked a table in advance. You can send these by email or by SMS. If you need to buy SMS credits, drop an email to help@simpleerb.com
Of course, simpleERB isn’t just for Christmas, it can make your restaurant run smoother all year round. To give us a whirl, sign up to simpleERB (it’s free for small restaurants and easily affordable for bigger ones)
Oh, and if those friends are still going on about how to cook a turkey, ask them to give this a try.