Typical operators look out at the dining room and notice the filled tables. Smart operators take notice of the empty tables! Do you realize that every table shares in the general overhead associated with your establishment? That means an empty table is not only earning you nothing, but it is causing you to lose money!

Josh and Matt Ruppert operate the Chart House Restaurant in Lakeville, MN, a family-run restaurant that’s been open since 1968. Josh and Matt realized that they could always use some empty tables filled. When they learned back in 2006 from their SYSCO Business Review Specialist that partner company Restaurant.com offered a program that would cost them nothing out of pocket, they figured, “How can we go wrong?” Well, over the next 12 months Restaurant.com helped them fill nearly 400 tables, adding thousands of dollars in increased business every month!

“What I find intriguing is that most of the hundreds of patrons Restaurant.com sends to us tell me they only came in because of the certificate they got from Restaurant.com! I was afraid people wouldn’t abide by the rules and terms of the certificates, but we’ve had no problems with that,” said Josh. “In fact, we’ve been so happy with the program that we recently added higher denomination certificates which are driving larger parties and bigger table checks for us!”

Josh and Matt take full advantage of the program by validating every certificate via the simple-to-use telephone validation line. Consequently, every customer receives a professional thank-you e-mail, sent automatically by Restaurant.com. The Rupperts also make sure to review the detailed patron survey data Restaurant.com collects for them along with the valuable customer feedback. “If I see consistent messages that the service was a bit slow, I know there’s a problem in the front of the house I need to address,” added Josh. “I might otherwise not notice this, as I am running around the kitchen on a busy night!”

The bottom line is that Restaurant.com is good for your bottom line! The most costly items in your restaurant are empty tables, and Restaurant.com does all it can to fill them for you—one table at a time.