On our second anniversary I had planned to take my wife for a nice romantic dinner at a restaurant we frequently visited. I had reserved it a day before just to make sure that nothing went wrong. But, as luck would have it, the person in charge booked us on the wrong date. The restaurant was already packed so we decided to go elsewhere. 

But as you may guess, it was a major bummer considering we had made memories in that restaurant. Ever since, I have made it a point to double check the reservation everytime.

I recalled this memory, when I got a call from the Operation Manager of a famous chain restaurant. Due to legal reasons I will keep the client anonymous. For the sake of this case study we’ll call her Sky. We discussed why they wanted to redesign the restaurant’s operations team. The request had come from the admins who daily use the system for reservations.

What was wrong with the previous design?

The previous operating system didn’t have an updated layout of the restaurant with the proper number of tables. The reservation booking form was also too simple for their function. Along with this, with time the response time had increased slowing down the entire operation and efficiency.

The admin team needed something that could match their speed.

How does the new design help?

The new design comes with a refreshingly new and updated layout. Here the admins can see the layout while reserving tables and avoid mistakes. There are layouts available for all 3 places — the Main Dining Room, Terrace and Outdoor.

Along with it the admins have access to a serialised list of all upcoming reservations, separated in categories like “Lunch”, “Dinner” etc. They can see the number of people, time, confirmation status etc.

With one sign click on the reservation, the admin can view the detailed form. Here I have updated the old form to include more information. The admin sees the details of the current reservation with offers, special requests and number of guests. There’s also a brief history of that client’s reservation that shows how many reservations they have booked, denied, cancelled etc.

A wrong booking or double booking can be disappointing for both the customer and the restaurants. It is not the best example of customer service and if it happens a little too frequently it can ruin the reputation of the establishment.So the goal of this project was to provide a clean dashboard for admins  and make their work process smoother.

Did it actually help?

After the design was submitted a group of admins beta tested the design.The overall opinion was overwhelmingly positive. On their request, I added a final feature— a live chat option so admins can communicate with one another.

The new design has increased efficiency by almost 26% and has significantly reduced cost. The number of overbooking or booking missed have become barely mentionable.

Whenever I hear about a cancelled reservation or a date gone wrong, I think about that anniversary and the disappointment in our faces. That’s why while working on this project that memory was always present at the back of my mind. I designed a better and efficient tool that will make the operations smoother and avoid any such disappointment on both sides.