Improperly set inquiry forms can hurt your revenue and the restaurant's reputation! Ensure your customers make inquiries at the right time... and learn how to update the available hours for reservations and orders!
Contents:
The Importance of Up-To-Date Hours
WATCH: How to Block Off Days & Hours
The Importance of Up-To-Date Hours
Imagine a customer placing a takeout order only to be met with a "Sorry, we’re closed“ message. That not only makes you look unprofessional, but it results in bad customer experience and lost revenue.
Your inquiry forms are your revenue drivers! Making sure they’re always up-to-date is essential for maintaining your restaurant’s reputation.
A few clicks are all it takes to properly set the hours that will show on your inquiry forms. Follow the next steps for repeat business and satisfied customers!
Changing Your Operating Hours
The hours shown on your inquiry forms are the hours you set under "Operating Hours." To set/update them, log into your SpotHopper account and navigate to "Hours" under "Your Info."
Click on the plus sign to expand the "Operating Hours," as shown in the image below.
Next, simply add your hours of operation there, and click on "Save Operating Hours." These will be the hours shown on your website (unless you have descriptive hours set) and used for your inquiry forms.
Customizing Other Settings
Now that your Operating Hours have been set, the platform recognizes your "Open" hour as the first time slot on the inquiry form. Vice versa, your "Close" hour is the last slot available.
For every time slot in between, it is assumed that your restaurant is open to receive new inquiries. Unless you further customize the time settings.
Block-Off Hours
Blocking off hours means blocking specific times on the calendar, so your customers can't make inquiries during that time.
If you have a separate lunch and dinner working schedule with a close time in between, then block-off hours are necessary to prevent reservations or orders.
To add Block-Off hours, go to the "Hours" page from "Your Info," and click on "Block Off Time."
You can add block-off hours for specific dates or days of the week.
Click on "Add Blocked Hours" and you will be prompted to add the hours you wish to block there.
After that, just toggle the sections you don't want to block, as the default setting is that all of your Inquiry forms, plus walk-ins, are blocked.
If the restaurant is closed during the blocked hours, then leave everything toggled to "Closed."
If, for instance, you only wish to block orders, make sure to toggle the rest to "Open." Then hit "Save."
You can always check or update the blocked hours directly from the "Settings" tab on each of the Inquiry pages.
For more information on blocking hours or entire days, read this article.
Timing Settings
In addition to the operating hours and the block-off function, other timing settings allow you to customize the time slots on the Inquiry form.
If you go to the "Settings" tab on each of the Inquiry pages, you will see different settings that further limit the inquiries.
Private Parties and Catering
For private parties and catering, you can choose a time increment for the inquiries, which determines how far apart the time slots will be. For instance, if you have a 15-minute time increment, the time slots on the calendar will show as 1:00 pm, 1:15 pm, 1:30 pm, etc.
Reservations
For reservations, you can choose a time increment, how close to your closing time the last reservation can be made, and also set a lead time.
The lead time determines the time between making the reservations and actually arriving at the restaurant. For instance, if the lead time is set to 1 hour, your customers cannot make a 7 pm reservation after 6 pm.
Orders
For order inquiries, there is an option to set different timing settings for pick-up and delivery orders. You can choose how long after opening or close to your closing time orders can be placed.
You can also set the turnaround time, which determines the amount of time your restaurant needs to complete the order.
How to Block Off Days & Hours