TouchBistro Expands Platform; Adds Reservations, Analytics

TouchBistro unveiled the rollout of its reservation and guest management platform, TouchBistro Reservations, with the goal of helping restauranteurs enhance every guest experience.

The offering is completely integrated with TouchBistro’s point-of-sale (POS) solution and provides restaurants with automatic insights about the behavior of customers that were not available to them in the past, such as drink preferences, spend and dining history, according to an announcement.

TouchBistro acquired Bookenda, Reso and the assets of YP Dine earlier in the year. Those products are being re-launched as TouchBistro Dine and TouchBistro Reservations, which the company said is a richer reservation and guest management feature set that fully integrates into TouchBistro POS.

“There has never been a real-time connection between a front-of-house reservations system and back-of-house POS,” said TouchBistro Founder and CEO Alex Barrotti. “While TouchBistro Reservations can be used as a standalone app, when integrated with TouchBistro POS, there is seamless communication, and updates are made in real-time, making it possible for restaurants to deliver an entirely new level of service.”

When waiters send orders to the kitchen, food is served and bills are closed out with the TouchBistro Reservations, and POS integration table status is automatically updated and can be seen by front-of-house staff that makes for more accurate wait times. Customer spend is also automatically recorded, as well as updated, so the restaurant can better serve its patrons with personalized services like preferential reservation time, allergy restrictions and seating location.

“There are a lot of solutions for restaurants with limited interoperability,” Barrotti said. “Managing multiple vendors with different platforms and hardware requirements or dealing with double-entry because one system doesn’t talk to the other is a manual burden for restaurateurs who are trying to use automation to increase efficiency in their venues. TouchBistro is breaking through this challenge by seamlessly integrating the essential functions and operational data restaurateurs need in an easy-to-use platform, as we have done with TouchBistro Reservations.”

According to the announcement, TouchBistro Reservations subscribers are published automatically on the TouchBistro Dine restaurant discovery app used by diners to find the best restaurants near them. This feature offers restaurants using TouchBistro with an additional channel to promote their venues without any additional reservation charges.