Restaurants are only as successful as their relationships with guests. That’s why more restaurant owners are turning to restaurant CRM (customer relationship management) software to deliver better dining experiences.
If you’re considering adding restaurant CRM software to your toolkit, you’re in good company. Many of the biggest names in hospitality now depend on it to delight guests and keep them coming back.
Here’s what you need to know about restaurant CRMs and how using one could benefit your business:
Quick links
What is a restaurant CRM?
Why do you need a restaurant CRM?
What are the benefits of using a restaurant CRM?
Top 5 CRM features
How do i choose the right CRM for my restaurant?
What is a restaurant CRM?
At the most basic level, a CRM is a souped-up database of information on all past customers. It includes guests’ email addresses and phone numbers. It records the details of when a guest last visited the restaurant, how much money they spent, and what they ordered. If there’s a customer loyalty program, those details should have a home in the CRM as well.
The two main things a restaurant can do with a good CRM are improving the customer experience and making marketing efforts more effective. To accomplish these goals, the right CRM solution must integrate with your POS (point of sale) system.
As you shop around for a CRM, be aware that the most popular CRMs out there (Salesforce, Zoho) aren’t designed with hospitality in mind. Restaurants benefit most from a CRM that’s designed specifically for them.
Is OpenTable a CRM system?
OpenTable is more than reservations—it’s your restaurant’s CRM, built in. We pack powerful guest relationship management (GRM) features directly into our reservation system, giving you a suite of customizable communication tools and unparalleled guests insights powered by the largest diner network.
Connect OpenTable with your POS and other systems, and you’ve got a single source of truth for guest data. No switching between platforms. No extra work. Just the information and marketing tools you need to deliver the kind of personalized service that builds loyalty.
Why do you need a restaurant CRM?
Loyal guests spend an average of 33% more per order than new diners. Moreover, 65% of business tends to come from repeat customers. That’s why capturing one-time diners and turning them into loyal guests is so important. And this is where really knowing your guests comes in handy.
Many restaurants have a hospitality genius on staff who seems to memorize everything about all of the guests. This person’s amazing brain was the original CRM. But when they go on vacation or move on to a new job, the restaurant is without this essential knowledge. Here is where technology can come to the rescue.
Think of a CRM as a way to get these details out of the brains of these human beings and into the cloud, where it can be accessed by a newbie server on their first day. With such a rich store of information at the team’s fingertips, it takes minutes not years to offer personalized hospitality to anyone who has dined with you before. That’s the power of a restaurant CRM.
What are the benefits of using a restaurant CRM?
Benefits go beyond having a simple record of facts and figures about guests. Let’s take a look at some of the most important perks of using a restaurant CRM.
Know guests on a deeper level
It’s not just dry guest information that goes into a CRM. To make the most of it, team members should record colorful details about guest behavior.
Guest notes allow you to know people on a level beyond food and drink. Rich guest data gives you a portrait of a guest over time. For example, if a guest tells a server about a trip to their hometown Chicago, you could seat them on a future visit with a server who also lived there. If someone has a known preference for a corner booth, they can be intentionally sat there until it becomes “their” booth.
These small gestures make people feel known and bring them back for future visits.
Offer better hospitality through personalization
A good restaurant CRM lets the team personalize service for each guest. If someone prefers sparkling water, servers can bring it to the table without asking during future visits. If a guest has a sweet tooth and always orders dessert, servers can tell them about any dessert specials right away instead of waiting until after entrees have been cleared. If a regular is fond of dessert wines and after dinner drinks, you can allow them a bit of extra time at the table to order these extras without feeling rushed.
Knowing guests’ order histories at this level of detail is essential for personalized service, and a CRM puts it at your fingertips.
Get better feedback
If a restaurant CRM provides you a single place to manage online rating and reviews, that’s an excellent way to stay on top of what people are saying. It’s a chance to strengthen customer relationships.
When you reply to a review, good or bad, you’re building a connection with someone. You have the chance to make missteps right. This kind of CRM is also a treasure trove of feedback you can use to improve service because it helps bring patterns to light.
When a CRM measures server performance, it makes small issues apparent so you can fix them before they become problems. Double down on what the team is doing right with positive reinforcement. Give team members specific feedback on improving their performance and guest happiness.
Turn one-time guests into regulars
All of these enhanced moments of connection and highly personalized service make for a better customer experience. And ultimately that’s what brings people back through the door.
The truth is 70% of retail and restaurant customers make only one visit. It’s worth trying to improve on this for your guests. If you drive up your repeat visit rate by 5%, you can expect profits to increase by 25% or more.
Marry off-premise and on premise intel
These days, many customers are just as likely to order takeout or delivery as they are to visit the dining room. Plenty of regulars dine in sometimes and take out at other times, depending on their schedules. A restaurant CRM, combined with digital ordering, ensures that online ordering data is captured in a single guest profile so you can personalize service whether someone dines on premise or off.
Run more targeted marketing campaigns
Guest relationships happen both inside the restaurant and while people are away from the restaurant. Keep a good thing going in between visits by staying in touch with guests via email marketing.
Restaurant CRMs empower restaurants to make marketing automations more effective (and more welcome) by making them highly personal. Slice and dice guest data to target specific segments with offers and information that appeals to them.
For example, you can invite the most enthusiastic wine connoisseurs to an upcoming wine pairing dinner. Target guests who haven’t been to the restaurant in a while with a “We miss you” campaign. Send regulars a special offer to celebrate their birthdays the month before it happens. All of these targeted messages work better than mass emails sent to the entire list.
Top 5 CRM features
A restaurant CRM should work effortlessly with your existing tech stack while providing specific features that enhance guest relationships. The most valuable CRM systems combine data collection with actionable insights that your front-of-house team can use immediately.
- Unified guest profiles that capture preferences, allergies, special occasions, and dining history across all touchpoints
- Reservation management integration that connects booking data directly to guest records
- Marketing automation tools for targeted campaigns based on visit frequency, spending patterns, and preferences
- Feedback management capabilities that collect, organize, and help you respond to guest reviews
- Real-time insights accessible to servers and hosts during service, enabling personalized interactions that feel natural and thoughtful
When evaluating CRM options, prioritize systems designed specifically for hospitality that integrate with your POS and reservation platforms. The right CRM becomes an invisible force multiplier, making every team member as knowledgeable as your most experienced server while streamlining operations behind the scenes.
How do I choose the right CRM for my restaurant?
There are plenty of restaurant CRM solutions available, each with different strengths and specialties. Some excel at detailed guest profiling while others offer sophisticated marketing automation or seamless POS integration. Finding the right fit depends on your operation’s unique needs and size, as well as existing technology stack.
OpenTable’s integrated guest relationship management connects your entire restaurant ecosystem through more than 200 partner integrations. Your front-of-house team gets detailed guest insights at their fingertips, helping deliver tailored hospitality that keeps guests coming back.
For a detailed comparison of top restaurant CRM systems that can help build your guest relationships, check out our guide best CRMs for restaurants.
It’s all in the relationship
The right CRM can make every team member just as knowledgeable as your longest tenured super server. Whether or not you have someone who seems to know every guest like a best friend, adding a CRM to the toolkit can dramatically improve your personalized hospitality and marketing efforts.
Learn more about our integration options, and see how OpenTable can help you grow your guest relationships.
