Online bookings technology and “savvy email marketing” has seen cover levels increase by 67% at a La Tasca pilot site.
The company said it had partnered with Bookatable and Livebookings, as part of a wider growth strategy, to market its special dining offers and extend the availability of online and telephone bookings.
The trial site installed Livebookings by Phone, an automated service that converts missed phone calls made during busy service times, when the phone is engaged, or while the restaurant is closed, into confirmed bookings.
La Tasca made the decision to use the Livebookings product as it found a lot of calls were being taken when the restaurant was closed, potentially losing out on business. Within a month of installing the system, the trial site saw bookings increase by 67%.
The restaurant group also set up its own special offers for free using the Livebookings platform and distributed them on Bookatable.com and the other partner sites to attract and retain existing customers. 17% of bookings made for La Tasca’s pilot restaurant were offers based and a third of the total bookings were driven by Bookatable and partner websites.
The group said that the use of targeted email marketing and promotional campaigns delivered new customers who had never dined at La Tasca before. As a result, La Tasca has now introduced integrated systems into other restaurant sites including its Covent Garden site.
James Picton, group operations director at La Tasca, said: “Our decision to have our restaurants on Bookatable was simple - the ability to promote offers for free and gain access to a fantastic network of third party websites has delivered a huge impact in cover levels and new business to our pilot site. We’re looking forward to building on our existing relationship with Livebookings to promote new and exciting restaurants in the future.”
Joe Steele, chief executive at Livebookings, said: “The majority of the UK’s top restaurant chains today benefit from our reservations technology and marketing services as we deliver more diners to restaurants than any other online reservations provider. We are very pleased to be supporting La Tasca’s pilot site during this transformational time.”
