2024 has been a remarkable year for Servme, driven by our unwavering commitment to innovation and customer success. Our product team has worked tirelessly to deliver groundbreaking features and integrations that redefine how restaurants operate, connect with guests, and grow.
From enhancing guest experiences with personalized communication to empowering restaurants with dynamic tools for marketing and operations, we launched a series of new features and impactful updates designed to streamline workflows, boost revenue, and delight guests at every touchpoint.
As we look back on this incredible year, we’re excited to spotlight the most impactful product launches that shaped 2024 and set a strong foundation for an even more innovative 2025.
Let’s take a look!
Marketing
WhatsApp Messaging for Restaurants
We launched one of our most widely-anticipated and requested features: WhatsApp Business for Restaurants. Designed to enhance direct communication between restaurants and their guests, the WhatsApp Messaging launch brings numerous benefits to restaurant operators, including:
Direct Communication: Servme's WhatsApp integration enables restaurants to reach their guests where they are most active, ensuring timely and direct communication that strengthens guest relationships.
Increased Engagement: Known for its high open and response rates, WhatsApp means more guests are likely to see and respond to your messages. This means better guest engagement and fewer no-shows and cancellations.
Cost-Effective Solution: Leveraging WhatsApp through Servme offers an affordable way to communicate with guests, reducing costs while maintaining a high level of service.
UTM Source Tracking for Enhanced Online Reservation Insights
Track the origin of online reservations with UTM source tracking and get deeper insights into your marketing campaigns' performance. Restaurants can now identify which marketing channels drive the most bookings, enabling data-driven decisions.
Supercharge Marketing Efforts with Dynamic Lists
Servme will now segment your guests using filters and create dynamic lists, making it easier than ever to do targeted marketing. By bridging the automated guest tags with dynamic lists, the system will do all the heavy lifting for you!
Dynamic Lists: Automatically update lists with guests who match specific rules. Future guests who match your criteria will be added to these lists, ensuring your campaigns stay relevant and up-to-date.
Static Lists: This option provides a fixed selection of guests for one-time campaigns, capturing those who match criteria at the moment of creation.
Reserve with Google
We’ve introduced the Reserve with Google booking integration and made updates to the interface, ensuring a smoother and more personalized booking process.
Enable/Disable Reserve with Google: Restaurants can enable or disable the Reserve with Google integration based on their peak hours and foot traffic.
Section Selection with Real-Time Updates: Guests can select specific dining sections during bookings, with real-time updates on the backend enhancing the overall booking experience.
Hyperlinked Policies and Notes: Restaurants can now include important notes and hyperlink reservation policies directly within the Google booking interface, providing guests with clarity and reducing confusion or cancellations.
Marketing Opt-In/Out for Guest Cards
Users can now opt guests in or out of marketing campaigns, offering greater flexibility and control over marketing preferences. This aligns with privacy regulations and enhances guest trust.
Marketing Templates
We’ve added new marketing templates across email, SMS, and WhatsApp, so you can easily clone templates for faster and create more efficient workflows.
Efficiency and Time-Saving: Cloning templates allows users to set up campaigns quickly without starting from scratch, saving valuable time.
Consistency and Brand Integrity: Reusing templates ensures every message aligns with the brand’s voice and design, delivering a professional and cohesive experience.
Table Management and Floorplan
New iOS Mobile App
Managing your reservations on the go has never been easier. Our latest iOS app is here! Access comprehensive guest profiles, reservation details, floor plan views, and an intuitive guestbook - right from your phone. You can download or update the new app from the App Store.
Servme iOS App for Restaurant Managers
Revamped Cover Flow
Cover Flow provides an in-depth analysis of your restaurant's reservations and walk-ins, enabling you to manage your capacity in real-time. With a host of features designed to simplify the management of reservations and walk-ins, the Cover Flow makes it easier than ever to stay on top of your daily shifts and operations.
Reservation Status: Pre-Service and In-Service
During peak seasons, restaurants experience high volumes of bookings, which makes it challenging to keep track of every reservation’s status. With color-coded reservation statuses (Pre-Service and In-Service), operators can quickly glance at their dashboard to understand where each reservation stands—whether the guest is waiting, seated, or wrapping up.
Smart Recommendations for Combined Tables
Optimize seating arrangements with recommendations for combined tables during the booking process. This feature maximizes space utilization and guest satisfaction.
Payments
Payment Packages
We introduced payment packages and payment groups to enhance the online booking experience by offering businesses greater flexibility in managing their operations and pricing structures.
Personalized Service Offerings: Restaurants can define specific time slots that align with their operational needs and customer preferences, moving beyond standard booking intervals. This customization allows for more precise scheduling and efficient use of resources.
Expanded Payment Options: By creating various payment packages, restaurants can cater to different customer segments and preferences. This includes offering bundled services, discounts for multiple bookings, or premium packages, thereby attracting a broader clientele and increasing revenue opportunities.
Minimum Guest Covers
Restaurants can set a threshold for the number of guests required to make online bookings with and without upfront payment. This has several implications:
Secure Revenue: By requiring payments for larger group bookings, restaurants can protect their revenue by reducing the risk of no-shows and cancellations.
Operational Efficiency: It streamlines the booking process, ensuring that only serious reservations are made for larger parties, allowing better table management and resource allocation.
Operational Enhancements
Guestbook V2: A Comprehensive Upgrade
The revamped guestbook ensures a superior user experience, seamless data management, and more robust marketing capabilities. Guestbook V2 represents a significant leap in managing guest relationships effectively. Here’s what you can look forward to:
Customizable View: View and arrange additional guest details such as created date, total and average spent, membership ID, marketing opt-in, last visit and more.
Merge Profiles: Simplify your guest database by merging up to 4 guest profiles at once.
Advanced Filters: Apply filters based on guest tags, last visit, spending information, reservation status, and more.
Enhanced Top Clients Report
The new top client report offers a customizable and actionable view of your most valuable clients, enabling you to make data-driven decisions and strengthen your marketing and operation strategies.
Extended Client Ranking: Analyze up to 500 top clients to gain deeper insights into client behavior.
Advanced Sorting Options: Sort clients by various metrics to identify your most valuable clients and tailor your marketing efforts.
Seamless Marketing List Creation: Create targeted marketing lists directly from the Top Clients Report page.
Faster Guest Profile Creation and Management
We've made several enhancements to what you can do with guest profiles and manage guest book effortlessly.
Create a guest profile in a single click: Add new guest cards with just one click, saving time and effort. This simplification ensures faster guest management during busy service hours.
Faster guest profile creation: Create guest profiles with a name or email, merging easily with existing profiles. This feature simplifies guest onboarding and avoids duplicate records.
Manage guest profiles with the same email address: Assign the same email address to multiple guest profiles for faster and more accurate bookings. This simplifies the reservation process, especially for frequent guests with different profiles (for families and businesses). This speeds up the booking process and avoids duplication of data entry, ensuring a smoother and more efficient experience for your team and guests.
Activity Logs
Activity logs are now accessible directly from the reservation details page. This feature provides quick access to view the activity associated with each guest card, making it more convenient for managers and hostess to track and manage guest activities efficiently.
Universal Search
A busy restaurant needs quick access to reservation details, and Universal Search provides just that by enabling staff to look up upcoming bookings via guest name, email, phone, or membership ID. This feature:
Improves Speed and Efficiency: Staff can locate guest details instantly, making it faster to address booking inquiries, changes, or cancellations.
Enhances Reservation Management: It’s easier to pull up specific reservations, manage changes or resolve guest queries.
Partnerships and Integrations
Booking Channel Integrations with Zomato, The Chefz, Webook, and Afternoon Tea
In 2024, Servme added more booking channels to enhance restaurant guest experiences and increase reservations. New restaurant booking integrations included platforms like Zomato, Webook, and The Chefz, offering a powerful combination that benefits restaurants. Here's how:
Broader reach and more bookings: Using booking platforms means benefiting from the channel’s extensive network and an opportunity to reach more guests.
Simplified booking process: Servme’s integration with booking platforms simplifies the reservation process for guests and restaurants, enhancing customer experiences and filling more tables.
Real-time guest data: Using booking integrations, restaurants can capture and analyze guest data in real-time, helping them understand customer preferences and personalize the dining experience to boost loyalty.
Payment Integration with MyFatoorah
Servme announced its partnership with MyFatoorah, a leading payments platform, to enhance payment adoption for restaurants across the Middle East.
The MyFatoorah integration allows F&B concepts in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to collect online reservation deposits and prepayments. Transaction details are automatically logged into Servme’s guest CRM.
POS Integration with Revel
Easily link or unlink reservations to the Revel Point of Sale system at any time, giving you control and flexibility in managing your operations.
Looking ahead to 2025
2024 was a year of growth and innovation for our platform. Each feature release was designed with one goal in mind: to help restaurants enhance guest experiences and streamline operations.
We’re thrilled to be on this journey with you – thank you for your support here’s to an even more exciting 2025!
Mohammed Rafy
Updates
