When we first designed TablePro well over 5 years ago, not many properties were managing seating based on floor plans, let alone multiple floor plans. In this article, we cover all the benefits of upgrading to TablePro 2.0.
When we first designed TablePro well over 5 years ago, not many properties were managing seating based on floor plans, let alone multiple floor plans. We had the concept in our development roadmap, but based on customer focus groups, many felt the need just wasn’t there.
Fast forward four and-a-half years later, more than ever, wineries and tasting rooms are being managed like restaurants, including seating capacities being managed by floor plans, but some less sophisticated properties still didn’t want to have to manage seating and servers. Well, that all changed in March when Covid struck and reservations became the requirement to stay open and on top of that, strict capacities had to be met.
Though our capacity management was suitable, our teams were already working on re-writing the TablePro app and saw the trend with floor plan management accelerating, we wanted to be sure to make this key feature was the foundation of TablePro 2.0. After nearly a year of development, CellarPass officially released TablePro 2.0 in December 2020.
Why is TablePro 2.0 Better?
Beyond making floor plan management the main feature, we spend many hours in customer focus groups and studied the technology landscape for the latest trends.
Highlights
- Get more bookings!
- Improved user interface to reduce taps
- Reservation party soft table assignments
- New table-level status (online, offline, walk-in only)
- Individual table blocking
- Override individual Table minimum & maximum table capacities
- SMS alerts & communications
Get More Bookings
Our original capacity management was a fantastic approach in the outset of our launch, but as properties launched more sophisticated and concurrent experiences, we knew we’d have to introduce a new level of capacity management through our floor plan manager.
The thought of floor plan management may sound complicated, but for most properties, this is a one-time configuration and only takes a few minutes to setup. With TablePro, inventory is ultimately controlled by the number of tables and seats you place on a floor plan, which is then assigned to an experience.
By adding the ultimate control of floor plans, you can also “govern” event capacity on a per-event basis as you always have, all without the risk of overbooking. All the original settings are retained such as event capacity, group capacity and minimums. By combining them all, no other reservation platform has this advanced level of table management.
Goodbye Locations, Hello Floor Plan Manager
We wanted to reduce the number of steps required to build and manage floor plans, so we’ve gone away with our original Locations Manager. The Location Manager is still available, but you’ll notice that you no longer have to create a Location to build a floor plan. With TablePro 2.0, you can simply add a floor plan and map it to an existing location.
Improved User Interface
As part of the redesign of TablePro, you’ll feel right at home as everything is where you expect it to be, but you can now get around to viewing reservation details and guest details much more quickly, with less taps. We’ve also spent months optimizing our code to allow the app to run faster, so not only are you having to tap less, the TablePro app is more responsive than ever.
NEW! Introduction of Soft Assignments
Unlike other apps that make you run like a restaurant and determine where guests should be seated, TablePro 2.0 does all the work for you. As reservations are booked, not only is the capacity reduced, you can also take advantage of the advanced features of what order parties are assigned to tables.
For example, perhaps you want to fill the front of the room before seating guests towards the back, TablePro can be setup to do so. Likewise, if you want to seat guests in a scattered pattern, providing more space between tables, TablePro can handle that, too.
NEW! Table-level Status
With constant fluctuations in visitor guidelines, we wanted to make sure it was really easy for you to set up how tables can be used for seating; online, offline and walk-in only. Placing a table in the online mode, allows you to offer the seating to reservations and walk-ins, while walk-in only holds back capacity to walk-in guests only. When you have the need to reduce capacity on a recurring pattern, simply mark the table as offline, making it unavailable to reservations or walk-ins.
NEW! Individual Table Blocking
There’s often times when you need to take a table offline, or hold it back for a special guest, but don’t yet have the reservation details to book it. Simply use the TablePro app to block a table for a specific day and duration and the table will no longer be available. This feature can be used to reduce capacity for a short time or when table is needed for a staff meeting and such.
NEW! Override Seating Minimums & Maximums
For larger tables, there’s times when you want to set a minimum in order for the table to be either available to be booked or soft assigned- or even reduce the capacity of a table. This is easily done via the admin panel’s floor plan manager at a per-table basis.
NEW! SMS Messaging & Communications Manager
In 2020, we saw the use of SMS messages blossom into a must-have feature. First built in TablePro in 2016, the SMS features got a major upgrade with TablePro 2.0 by adding more pre-built messages you can click in a couple of taps, but our new Communications Manager built into TablePro 2.0, you can view all conversations in one place, eliminating the need to view each reservation or wait list record, though the SMS messaging features are still there.
Want to alert the guest that their seating is going to be a few minutes late or perhaps they left something behind? Just open up TablePro and send them a text!
NEW! Reservations Timeline View
We’ve included a new timeline view on a per-table and per-reservation basis to help you better understand the assignment pre and post the reservation you are viewing. Click on a table and see when the table is assigned and when it’s open.
NEW! Total Covers (Seatings) Alert
As capacities have to be managed, we’ve provided all the tools to do so, but what if you want to know how many guests you’ve seated for the day so far? Simple! In TablePro we’ve always offered the number in “pending” covers, cancelled, no show- with TablePro 2.0, we’ve now included a “Total Seated Reservations” display option.
iOS 14 Compatible
While we saw many other reservation and industry apps struggle with the sudden release of iOS 14, TablePro 2.0 was already compatible upon release since this new iOS was already being used for testing. Today, TablePro 2.0 is compatible with iOS 10 through iOS 14.3.
Online Training Available
As new staff members are added to your team, let’s get them trained so they can be power users of the CellarPass admin panel and TablePro 2.0. With so many features to take advantage of, we recommend scheduling a complimentary training session and you’ll see bookings increase and your bottom line improve.
Comments
0 comments
Article is closed for comments.