Plein Publiek has two locations in Belgium; Antwerp and Brussels. We visited Antwerp, where Lisa manages the restaurant and night live event location. They begin with the restaurant in the evening, which flows into nightlife events. They’re situated on an eco-positive industrial estate, where the restaurant runs on a concept named the Food Club, which means that every couple of weeks, they invite a new restaurant to work with and change up the menu.
Why switch?
Lisa, hospitality manager at Plein Publiek; “The reason that we took the step to switch was that we were looking for a system, a reservation tool, where we could combine selling tickets or prepaid tickets, with effectively reserving tables. In our old system, this was not an option. Since we switched systems, I noticed that it had reduced the number of no-shows. The possibility to effectively pay for tickets in advance ensures that people show up. And otherwise, people definitely will notify you beforehand. I can schedule my staff more efficiently because I have better insight into how many people come every night. Before, often, the expectation was that many people would come and that sometimes was not the case. But then, I had already planned out the staffing for that night. Which is, of course, very unfortunate when that happens.”
Saving time
“There was no waitlist function with our past system. We are usually swamped and fully booked for the weekend, especially on Friday and Saturday. Now people can add themselves to the waitlist without contacting me, which had happened a lot before and took away a lot of my time. Guests will be notified of a spot automatically, so that is one of the aspects that I see as a great benefit.”
“I think one of the other perks that I see with Formitable is that there is effortless communication with the guest via the chat system. And if there is something unclear to me, or if the staff has comments or questions, it is easy to ask those questions. We could also always reach the helpdesk; the system is super user-friendly, the interface is also very intuitive en pleasant to work with. Integrating the system and also explaining it to others was very straightforward.”
Personalize the online guest flow
“I find it very beneficial that there is the possibility to create different tickets, especially with our Food Club concept. On top of that, I find it very pleasant that I, personally, can set up so many things and settings. So in the confirmation mail, I can add a personal message, which is also possible in multiple languages. Because we have quite a lot of guests who come from elsewhere.”
About Plein Publiek
| @pleinpubliek | |
| Location | Antwerp, Belgium |
| Website | www.pleinpubliek.be |
