Page 54 - MENU Magazine - Jan/Feb 2018

OpenTable’s Three Pillars
J1ampol says their business model supports restaurants in three functional areas:
OPERATIONS
Naturally, OpenTable helps you fill seats. But their operational support goes further: their Guest Center provides data (such as turn times) that can help you compare your business to the aggregate of similar businesses in your area, and also against your own historical performance. (See sidebar, below, for more
2 examples of available data.)
HOSPITALITY
OpenTable helps you serve your guests by letting you access information on
diner likes and dislikes, and any noted allergies. For restaurants with multiple 3 locations, this information can be shared through the Guest Share feature.
MARKETING
You can use OpenTable and the data they provide to promote your restaurant by: • O ering diners extra points for dining on certain days of the week,
or at certain times of the day,
• Paying for a “promoted” tag to improve search status, or
• Notifying potential diners about specials or fixed
price meals.
And you can improve your marketing as you learn more about your diners. Do they use mobile or desktop? Are they local or from out of town? Are they new custom- ers or repeat visitors? The more you know about who eats with you, the better equipped you are to run an e ective marketing campaign.
What’s coming in 2018?
Going forward, Jampol says OpenTable will revitalize the Guest Center and provide more tools for restaurateurs to optimize business, focusing on seating more diners and getting more repeat customers. Special emphasis will be given to honing the traveller experience. And on the diner side, they will continue to work on matching them with the right restaurant, with the help of data scientists and artificial intelligence.
I asked Jampol if it’s di cult to serve large chains and independent oper- ators at the same time. “It’s less about chain vs. independent than the type of restaurateur,” he says. “For example, ‘Seekers’ focus on getting more new diners through the door, while for ‘Hosters’ it’s all about hospitality. A third group looks to optimize e ciency.” The secret to their success is finding a way to please all of thoseoperators. m
Data aggregation services
What kind of information does OpenTable give their restaurant custom- ers? Jampol provides a few examples. In Toronto between Dec. 1, 2016 and Nov. 30, 2017, the following held true:
• Seateddinersbooked via desktop 55% of the time, and by mobile 45% of the time.
• Ofseateddinerswho bookedbymobile,42% booked same-day reser- vations, and 15% booked reservations less than 90 minutes before the meal.
• Ofseateddinerswhobooked by desktop, 25% booked same-day reservations, while 5% booked within 90 min- utesofthemeal.
• Travellersfromoutside metro Toronto represented 19% of total bookings. The top three cities of origin were New York, San Francisco
and Chicago.