Saturday confirmation calls for restaurants

Tomorrow’s Saturday book, still uncalled

Tomorrow’s Saturday names are on the stand. Two have no time. One wrote a name day for ten. You will not ring them. Both hands are on plates. You are at the pass, or in the room with a tray, or Sunday lunch is still going. Or you have already locked the door and gone home.

Tonight a four will not come. You keep their table empty. A walk-in sits down at the next place on the harbour. A name-day ten that never confirmed will leave a hole you cannot fill at 21:10.

These people already have a table. They booked yesterday, or last week, or a cousin put the name in. They do not need a new reservation opened. They need a call that asks whether they still come, takes a time if they never gave one, and says the hold you actually use.

Answering the inbound line does not do that work. The person ringing in wants Saturday at nine. This list is the people who already have it.

Why those calls never get made

Nobody rings them because the person who would has both hands on plates. First seating, second seating, the pass, the tickets. The phone that would make the outbound call is the same phone already ringing with a walk-in in the street.

After this table you are not free. You are back at the pass. You are resetting a four that just paid. You are in the kitchen window. In the evening last seating is still going. The Saturday names are still on the paper.

A second pair of hands does not appear in a room this size. A call-centre shift does not know your hold, whether Saturday night still does takeaway, or whether you take twelve on the phone. A sheet they were sent in May will say someone will find a table. You are carrying plates.

In the morning you find out who came. The ones who sat down next door do not leave a note. The ones who never meant to come still have a line in the book.

A confirm is not a new reservation

The first fact on this call is the table that already exists. Night. Time if they gave one. How many names are on it. Inside or terrace. The assistant names those facts and asks whether they still hold.

It does not open a fresh availability search. It does not ask “what time would you like?” as if this were a stranger. That question turns a guest who is already on tomorrow’s Saturday into a second table, or it talks past the name day and into a new night.

It takes a time if they never gave one. Approximate is enough: around nine, after the match, after the ferry. If they do not know yet, it writes that down. It does not invent a time that makes the book look tidy.

If they say the time has changed, the call is no longer a confirm. It is a request. The assistant takes the new time and a number. It does not say 21:30 is free unless the book you connected shows a table that fits. You finish the change. A yes on the phone for a four the book no longer has is two parties at the pass.

If they ask what dinner costs, it may repeat a listed main or a set menu you gave it. It must not invent a dinner-for-four figure, round catch of the day into a number, or guess what Saturday costs this week. If you did not type a figure, the door gives the price when someone can see the board.

A guest who already has a name in the book and a guest who is thinking of walking in are not treated as people who still need a table. The first needs the reservation that is already there. Ask which they are only if the list you gave the assistant is unclear. Do not let it sell them a second four.

Fifteen minutes, and the no-show

A name still inside the hold is not a pre-arrival with a later clock. They already have a table, or they think they do. They want to know how long you wait, and what happens if they are late.

The honest answers are short. We hold fifteen minutes past the time, if that is what you say out loud. After that the table can go to the next person. Or we hold longer, if that is your rule. Write the rule you already say at the door. If those lines are empty, it will promise a wait you do not keep.

It confirms they still come. Then it says the hold. Then it texts the same words. The text is the thing they will look at on the harbour, not the sentence they half-heard in a car.

If they answer and say they are not coming, and they are still inside the hold, that table can still be offered tonight. The assistant writes the cancel into the same book, the same hour, if you have said that is the rule. A cancel that sits in a notebook until Monday is a four you held empty through the service that needed it.

If they do not answer, the table stays theirs. A missed outbound call is not a cancellation. A voicemail with no reply is not a cancellation. “We might be late” is not a cancellation.

A no-show at 21:20 is a different job. The assistant does not release the table, offer it to the walk-in at the door, or put it back on the site unless you wrote that down and a person has marked the name as gone. Do not give it a sentence that sounds like permission. “We usually let it go after fifteen minutes” will be read out to the next caller as if the four were free.

A table it must not give away

The table stays theirs until a person who can see the book says otherwise. Offering the four to a walk-in from the same outbound call is how two parties meet at the pass.

If they answer and say they are not coming, the assistant writes the words they used. It does not tell the next person the table is free unless you have already said a cancel inside the hold goes back on the book at once, and the book has taken it.

A reservation that started on a booking site is not something the assistant ends on the phone. Time changes, “we will only be two instead of four”, and “can we move to Sunday” are requests. You or the site decide. A yes on your number for a table the site still holds is a fight at the door.

If a walk-in is standing in the doorway while the Saturday list is still uncalled, that is your decision, with the book open. It is not a decision for an outbound script.

Name day, twelve, and a note about nuts

A name on tomorrow’s list that says ten or twelve is not a confirm like the others. Some of you take eight on the phone and want a human at ten. Some of you want a set menu talked through first. The assistant follows the number you set. It does not confirm twelve on this call if you marked that as a callback. It does not confirm twelve on a voicemail.

If they want to add two people, that is a request. The assistant does not rearrange the room. It takes the new count and leaves the yes to you.

If they mention an allergy on a confirm call, the assistant does not decide if a dish is safe. It can write “no nuts” on the reservation that already exists. It cannot say the fish is safe, what they should eat, or whether something will make them ill. That is a note. It is never advice.

A complaint about last Saturday, or about a table a cousin had, is a note. It is not a free meal from the phone. You look. You decide.

The language on the reservation

The reservation already has a language. English on a booking from the harbour listing. German on a paper in the hire car. French, Italian, in the same week. Greek when a cousin reserved for someone else.

You are not free to ring them in that language at nine, with plates in both hands, and you are not free at midnight. The assistant starts in the language on the reservation. If they switch mid-call, it follows. The SMS goes out in the language of the conversation. You do not set a language per table.

A hold in Greek, sent to a guest who booked in German, will make them ring again during service. They will ask whether they are in, and nobody can pick up.

If a husband takes the phone and continues in English, it follows. The text still goes to the number on the reservation, in the language that just finished.

On a small Greek taverna in summer, a share of the outbound list is not in Greek. The call fails if the hold arrives in the wrong one.

The cousin who booked in Greek for parents arriving from Munich is the same house problem as on the inbound line. Ask who is coming, and in which language the text should go. The person who needs the hold is the person who will sit down.

What else arrives on a confirm

A confirm call collects extra questions. Can we sit on the terrace. Is there a high chair. Do you take cards. Can we bring a cake. How much is dinner for four. Can we pick up two gyros first.

Those answers live in the facts you entered. The assistant may repeat a listed main, the terrace months, the high-chair policy, whether you take cards. It may not invent a terrace in January, a dinner-for-four price, or a takeaway the kitchen has stopped.

If the door is on the side street, put that in the first things it can say. A guest arriving at 21:10 with a hold they half remember and the wrong facade will walk into the next place.

A takeaway on a confirm call is still a takeaway. It is not a reason to hold a second table. If Saturday night no longer does pickup, the assistant says so.

If they ask to move from inside to the terrace, that is a request. The assistant looks at the book. If the terrace is gone, the inside table stays until they agree to let it go.

How CITT handles it

1. You give it the lists you already have. Tomorrow’s Saturday names with no time. Tonight’s tables still inside the hold. Not last summer’s guests, and not people who already sat down.
2. It calls in the language on the reservation — 70+ languages — and introduces itself as an assistant for the taverna.
3. It names the table that already exists, then asks whether they still come and when they expect to arrive.
4. It says the hold you wrote — fifteen minutes past the time, if that is what you say out loud — and nothing you would take back at the door.
5. It checks the book you already use before it agrees a later time or two extra people. If the book does not show a table that fits, it takes a request.
6. It confirms by SMS, in the language of the call, including the hold, after they have said they are coming.
7. It escalates what cannot be finished on the call — a time change the book will not confirm, a twelve you want a human on, a “we are not coming,” an allergy question — as a tagged note.
8. You get the transcript, the summary, the time they gave, and whether the hold was sent.

What it will not do

It will not release a table because nobody answered. It will not offer the four to a walk-in from this call.

It will not invent a menu price, a wait, or a takeaway the kitchen cannot cook. It will not confirm twelve on a recording if you marked that number as a callback. It will not decide if a dish is safe.

It will not invent a terrace in a month you have it stacked. It will not take a Tuesday in November if you marked winter closed. It will not read a name-day yes into a voicemail. It will not offer a free meal because the caller is unhappy. It takes the request. A human decides.

What these calls sound like

The order is the table that already exists, then whether they still come, then a time if they never gave one, then the hold said out loud. There is no new reservation. There is no invented wait. There is no dinner-for-four price.

A cancel inside the hold goes back on the book the same hour, if that is your rule. A “we are not coming” that you have not released stays a note you can act on with the book open. If they ask not to be called again, that sentence is honoured.

What you set up first

Give it tomorrow’s Saturday names with no time, and tonight’s list still inside the hold. Connect the book you already use. Write the hold in the words you already say: fifteen minutes past the time, if that is yours, and how a cancel comes back.

Give it only the listed prices and house facts it may repeat — terrace months, last seating, high chairs, whether you take cards. Write one line that forbids a released table, a free meal, allergy advice, and a name-day yes on a voicemail.

Set the hours it may ring, and how many times it tries. Do not let it ring during Saturday service unless the table is that night and you chose that. Then listen to three confirm calls before you add a day-before pass for every name on the Saturday book.

Rates for the service live on the pricing section of the home page. They are not repeated here.