Reservation / Call Ahead Reminder

EnRoute bookings let you choose various options, which include sending a reminder to the customer and allowing them to update their arrival plans. These features allow for more efficient communication and can reduce phone calls.

Bookings can be classified as Call Ahead Seating or Reservations, which affects the messaging sent to customers, and the following settings apply to both cases.

Booking Settings

Under Settings / Booking, you can change the following settings:

Send Reminder Text Before Booking: Amount of time to send a text message to the customer before their booking (default 60 minutes). Leave blank to not send a reminder.
EnRoute Page: Allow Party Size Change: Whether to allow the customer to change the party size or not (default On).
EnRoute Page: Allow Arrival Window Change: Whether to allow the customer to change the arrival window or not (default On).
Allow Arrival Window Change Before: The amount of time before their preferred time (default 30 minutes).
Allow Arrival Window Change After: The amount of time after their preferred time (default 30 minutes).

How these settings are applied is explained in the following booking process sections.

Reminder Text

Using the Send Reminder Text Before Booking setting, you can choose when to send a reminder text message to a customer.

Reservation default text message:

[LocationName]: You are booked today at [Time]. Please confirm or cancel at [EnRouteLink]

Call Ahead Seating default text message:

EnRoute to [LocationName]? You must confirm your arrival at [EnRouteLink] or you can cancel

Changes and Confirmation

The link will open a page that can allow them make changes to their party size and when they expect to arrive. This is dependent on the EnRoute Page: Allow Party Size Change and EnRoute Page: Allow Arrival Window Change settings:

When EnRoute Page: Allow Party Size Change is turned on, customers will be allowed to change the party size. For large party bookings, the customer can only decrease the party size.

When EnRoute Page: Allow Arrival Window Change is turned on, customers can choose how long before or after their arrival time customers can change their arrival time, which is based on the Allow Arrival Window Change Before and Allow Arrival Window Change After settings.

In this example, the customer is letting you know they expect 6 people instead of 8, and to be 15 minutes late :

When the customer makes any changes and hits the Confirm, I'm Coming! button, the page will be updated with the message:

Success! Thank you for letting us know you are on your way! We look forward to serving you soon!

On the ArrivalList page in the Scheduled section, the customer's status will be updated to EnRoute, and it will show the change to the Party Size, as well as the new arrival time in the Notes section.

Before confirming:

After updating and confirming:

When customers provide you with updated information in an automated way, your staff can better manage the flow of customers without the need for phone calls.