Restaurantdiary & TISSL partnership launches new dining reservations and EPoS integration

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The forthcoming Restaurant Show (8 – 10 October 2012, Earl's Court 2) will be the showcase for a new partnership, and for the integration that two hospitality software specialists have built between their EPoS and restaurant reservations solutions.  TISSL and Restaurantdiary have created an interface they claim is "market-beating" in terms of data exchanged and reporting and intelligence generated.  Each company will supply the new integration interface free of charge to any company purchasing its solution at the Restaurant Show.

TISSL hospitality EPoS excels in fine dining, casual dining, fast food, pubs & bars, hotels and members clubs.   Demanding chef-patrons such as Heston Blumenthal, Rick Stein, Jason Atherton and Alexis Gauthier use TISSL, and in Restaurant Magazine's independent survey of 2,000 establishments, TISSL EPoS has been voted 'Chef's Choice' for the past three years.

Restaurantdiary is a web-based application, accessible from any browser or via the company's BooktoEat.com consumer portal.  Providing multi-user, real-time access, it gives restaurateurs complete control over every aspect of reservations.  It supports client communications via email and SMS, and also collects detailed data which can be used improve service, table utilisation and operating profit.

Explains Kevin Coetzee, co-founder and managing director of TISSL Limited: "This is the latest addition to our portfolio of third-party, 'best-of-breed' solutions. Our open-platform technology enables us to easily interface with other solutions where they have something to add to our customers' experience.   Restaurantdiary is a perfect fit.  Interestingly, it was a mutual client, chef Martin Wishart (The Honours, Edinburgh), who suggested the integration."

Continues Coetzee: "We've already proved the benefit of interfacing TISSL to restaurant reservation systems when it comes to turning tables.  The customer and reservation data is displayed from the moment the wait staff open the table. Staff update our EPoS system as they move through each course with each table and this information feeds into the reservation system, allowing the maitre d' or hostess to see in real-time what's happening on the floor."

Adds Mike Conyers, founder and managing director of Restaurantdiary: "We have a number of mutual clients, including a Michelin-starred group of restaurants in Edinburgh, a chain of Thai restaurants, and a fine dining restaurant in Bristol, so it made sense to integrate our solutions. Whilst interfaces exist between a number of EPoS systems and dining reservations systems, we feel we have with TISSL one of the best, if not THE best, in terms of functionality."

"Our integration tracks every stage of the customer 'journey'.  The data produced gives a complete trading snapshot and intelligence on each customer, which is invaluable for marketing and for personalising service.  This also helps operators to improve table and yield management," he observes.

Integrated systems have been proven to generate extra covers in 'outside' periods, by enabling restaurants to take more late bookings.  Not only is table utilisation increased but queues, walk-ins and bookings are managed more smoothly and wastage is minimised.

Continues Mike Conyers: "In the past, restaurants focused on the effectiveness of the booking process.  Now they're more concerned about mining booking data in order to fine-tune customer service.  We'll be able to pull through the items ordered from TISSL and hold this data in Restaurantdiary.  Our clients will be able to record spend and drill down to individual customer likes and dislikes, so they can offer the ultimate in personal service.  After all, who could fail to be impressed by a waiter recommending a dish or wine that you enjoyed in the past? And what a great tool for upselling."

Kevin Coetzee concludes: "We aim to give our clients time to do what they do best.  Whilst they're working their magic in the kitchen and making customers feel at home, they can be confident our solutions are taking care of the business.  Restaurantdiary helps to increase yield; TISSL makes workflow and data capture more effective.  Combine the two and you create an extra dimension – the ability to really know your business and know your customers, to forecast, budget and plan more effectively."