A reservation already booked online
Plenty of calls create nothing: they change something. She asks first whether a reservation already exists and under what name, so your floor plan does not end up holding two entries for one table on one evening.
Table-service restaurants
During service, one party wants to arrive later and another asks for your patio. Your receptionist records the name, any existing reservation and the group’s needs. Your team receives the context to handle the request within the restaurant’s seating capacity and rules.
$35 CAD / month · 50 Standard calls · 1 local number
When calls spikeLunch and dinner servicePatio seasonDecember and its office partiesThe January lull
For the requests you receive
An ordinary reservation
Two, four or six covers on a weeknight. Your receptionist takes the name and a callback number first, then the date, the service, the wanted time, and the seating area you actually offer — patio, dining room, counter.
A small group or an occasion
A birthday, a team dinner, eight or ten people. She records the occasion, the announced head count and any special needs, then passes anything outside your capacity rules to your team instead of accepting it on your behalf.
Other requests you can delegate
A question that has nothing to do with seating
Holiday hours, parking, access, lunch menu, gluten-free options. She answers from information you approved, and takes a message when the answer is not in it.
The table request with its original reservation attached
The request reaches the host station and the app: name, number, Saturday 7 p.m., eight covers, birthday, peanut allergy, flagged for the dining room to confirm. The host confirms between two services and the caller gets his text.
Read the full conversation
Thursday, 6:40 p.m. Two servers on the floor, the host is seating a party of six. A caller wants Saturday night.
ReceptionistBistro Sainte-Rose, good evening. Let me take your name and a callback number first, in case we get cut off.
CallerNicolas Bergeron, 514 555-0188. I would like a table for eight on Saturday.
ReceptionistFor Saturday, what time would you like to come in, and is it for a special occasion?
CallerAround 7 p.m. It is a birthday. One guest has a peanut allergy.
ReceptionistNoted. Eight people Saturday around 7 p.m., with the peanut allergy passed to the kitchen — they will tell you what is possible. From eight guests up, the dining room confirms the table: you will get an answer by text tonight.
What she does for your dining room
The moves she makes on your calls during the rush — the table, the group, the question about the menu — then what stays with your team. Every line is a call your restaurant gets.
In the middle of service, when nobody can pick up
She answers between 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. and between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m., while the host is seating a table.
Restaurant calls land at the hours the room is running; she takes the call instead of letting the caller dial the next restaurant.
She holds two conversations at once on your line.
Friday at 6:40 p.m., the second caller does not fall into a void while the first finishes a sentence.
She asks first whether a table is already booked online, and under what name.
Plenty of calls create nothing: they change something. Your floor plan does not end up with two entries for one table on one evening.
She records party size, date, service, time and the seating area you actually offer.
Patio, dining room, counter: the areas are those in your configuration, not the ones the caller imagines.
She answers about your hours, access, parking and menu, prices included, as you configured them.
The restaurant preset is the only one in the portfolio where menu prices are spoken on the phone; she invents neither a dish nor an amount.
When it is a group, an occasion or a complaint
She alerts the manager by text as soon as a party of ten or more, a private event, catering or a complaint comes up.
Your hot-call rule, written once; the other calls wait for the summary, not for the manager.
She records the occasion, the head count and special needs, then flags anything beyond your capacity rules for the dining room to confirm.
A birthday of eight, a team dinner of ten: she does not accept on your behalf what falls outside your rules; she passes it on.
She passes an allergy to the kitchen, word for word, without saying a dish is safe.
It is the strictest guardrail in the restaurant preset: the wording is recorded, the kitchen answers.
Outside service hours, she takes the request and delivers it to you; a group or a complaint wakes the manager, not the next morning’s summary.
After-hours setting: a message for a table or an event wanted, an alert for a large group or a complaint.
The table, written in your system or confirmed by your room
She books, changes or cancels a table in the supported system, within real capacity and your rules.
The Table-service role of the base: standard booking, on the capacity your system declares.
When availability cannot be checked, she offers another time slot or the waitlist rather than announcing a table.
Or she passes on the official booking link when direct confirmation is out of reach: the caller books themselves, with no duplicate.
She sends the caller a confirmation, then your room’s message once the table is confirmed by your team.
Anything that depends on your capacity is announced as to be confirmed, and the host’s answer goes out by text between two services.
Between two services
Options added separately, when they are useful to you.
- Add-on
She offers a table freed at 7:15 p.m. from your waitlist, once capacity has been checked.
Waitlist and cancellations, a table proposed after verification; filling the room stops being a paper pad. Waitlist and groups
- Add-on
She coordinates group requests and special requests with your team.
Included in Waitlist and groups; standard booking stays in the base. Waitlist and groups
- Add-on
She sends the payment link to hold a group’s date, follows up until it lands and passes cancellation rules to whoever is in charge.
A group’s deposit follows your policy; she does not bend it and does not set the amount. Deposits and payments
- Add-on
A large group or a buyout becomes an event file, with its brief and its proposal version.
The Quotes and events option, the one venues and caterers use: date, guests, format, stated budget; the person in charge approves price and capacity.
- Add-on
She asks for a Google review after a reservation honoured in the dining room and drafts your reply to the reviews you get.
Even a full restaurant loses reviews when nobody answers; the reply is published after your approval.
When your customers write, and if you already run OpenTable or a till
- Channel
She answers your Facebook Page’s questions about groups and opening hours.
Optional Instagram and Messenger channel: group requests often start there; a confirmed table requires actual availability.
- Software
With OpenTable, she passes on the official booking link as a fallback as long as writing is out of reach.
Partner network and documentation reviewed; no Zenvox approval exists, and writing a reservation is not assumed. OpenTable
- Software
With your till or your event tool, the floor plan and real availability still have to be established with the vendor.
It is a family of requirements, not a certified till; until then she works in native mode and your team confirms. My software is not in the list
What she does not do in your dining room
- She does not confirm a table without checking availability.
- She does not take responsibility for an allergy and does not guarantee an absence of traces.
- She does not bend your deposit or cancellation policy for a group.
- She invents neither a dish nor a price: the menu is spoken as configured.
- She does not run the floor plan live: seating, shifting and holding a table stay your host’s work.
- She does not negotiate a group menu or price: she qualifies and schedules the manager’s callback.
- She does not replace your online booking system: she answers the phone, which the widget does not.
What you can ask her yourself
She answers from the calls, requests and records of your restaurant you are allowed to access. A question about an option only applies once you have switched it on.
The questionWhich groups requested a patio table?
She retrieves party size, date and requested area. She distinguishes an enquiry from a confirmed reservation.
Which reservations taken by phone tonight are still waiting for the room’s confirmation?
She reads each request’s state: passed on, confirmed by the team, or changed. She does not confirm in the host’s place.
Which allergies were passed to the kitchen for Saturday?
She retrieves the wording recorded verbatim and the table concerned. She does not say what the kitchen decided.
Which groups have a deposit link sent and not yet paid?
Add-onWith Deposits and payments: the real status of each payment request. Without the option, she tracks no deposit.
What happens to the request
You write your rules once
Your services, your hours, the seating areas you offer, the head count above which your team decides, who gets alerted for a group or a complaint, and what your receptionist may not say. All of it changes from the app.
She answers and qualifies
Name and callback number first, in case the line drops. Then: new reservation or existing one, date and service, wanted time, party size, preferred area, allergies and occasion.
Your dining room confirms
A written request reaches the host station and the app: who, how many, when, and what has to go to the kitchen. Anything that depends on your capacity is flagged for confirmation rather than announced to the caller.
What the Restaurants and events base covers
A receptionist who answers for you, in French and in English, from your hours and your approved menu, and who sends you a written request. No setup fee, and you keep your number.
- Calls answered in French and in English, following the caller
- Answers drawn from your hours, your access details and your approved menu
- The kind of request and the stated constraints identified on the call
- Reservation, change or cancellation requests taken, within capacity and your rules — confirmation happens in your own system, done by your team
- Confirmation of what was accepted, and exceptions passed to your team
- A written summary after every call, readable in the app, and the option to ask her what happened
She does not confirm a table without checking availability: she offers another time slot or the waitlist instead.
Decisions that stay with you
- She does not take responsibility for an allergy. She records it and passes it to the kitchen, without guaranteeing an absence of traces.
- She does not bend your deposit or cancellation policy for a group.
- She quotes menu items and menu prices as you configured them, and invents neither a dish nor an amount.
- She does not run the floor plan live: seating, shifting and holding a table stay your team's work.
Ask your receptionist, too
This is included in your base plan. She answers using the calls, requests and business information you are allowed to access.
Talk to your receptionistA question you can ask
Which groups requested a patio table?
She retrieves party size, date and requested area. She distinguishes an enquiry from a confirmed reservation.
What else you can hand to her
Beyond the base plan. Each one is added on purpose, separately from the base. None is switched on unless you choose it.
When your customers prefer to write
You can add a channel so she can continue the conversation with your customers. Any action she takes follows the same rules and the options you have chosen.
Optional customer channel
Facebook Messenger
Answer your Facebook Page’s group and opening-hours enquiries; a confirmed table requires actual availability.
The transactional messages provided by your base plan and your own questions to the receptionist remain included.
Keeping your current software?
Check the actions supported, connection requirements and how to work when your software cannot perform the requested action.
Partner network and public documentation reviewed. Restaurant authorization and the token model require a partner contract, and no Zenvox approval exists: writing a reservation is not assumed to be reachable.
This is a family of requirements, not a certified till. Floor plan, real availability and write access still have to be established with whichever vendor you already run.
Service starts, and so does the phone
Restaurant calls land exactly when nobody can answer them: between 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., then between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. That is when your host is seating a table, when servers are running across the room, and when the kitchen is plating. A call taken between two plates usually ends up as a note scribbled on a pad.
And someone calling for a table has very little patience. Reaching voicemail, they hang up and dial the next restaurant: they have an instant substitute, which someone waiting on a renovation estimate does not. That is what makes answering speed matter more here than almost anywhere else.
Your receptionist answers for you, from your hours, your access details and your approved menu. She records the party size, the wanted time, and whatever has to reach the dining room. You read a written request between services, and your team confirms it.
In the same section
The other lines of work in this section run on the same engine, with their own requests and their own rules.
Restaurants & eventsTables, orders and events
Table-service restaurants — your questions
Can she confirm a table on her own?
She takes the reservation, change or cancellation request and passes it on complete, within real capacity and your rules; your team confirms it in your own system. When availability cannot be checked, she offers another time slot or the waitlist rather than announcing a table that does not exist.
We already take reservations online. What does this add?
A booking widget takes reservations from people who book online. It does not answer the phone. Your receptionist covers what the widget cannot: last minute, changes, groups, questions outside the standard flow, and guests who would rather call.
What about allergies?
She records the wording verbatim and passes it to the kitchen. She does not confirm that a dish is safe and does not guarantee an absence of traces: your kitchen answers that. It is the strictest guardrail in the restaurant preset, and it cannot be bypassed.
Do we keep our number?
Yes. You forward your line to Zenvox whenever you want — all the time, only when nobody picks up, or on your service hours. A local number can also be added for a separate reservation line.
What happens outside service hours?
She takes the request and delivers it to you. A large group, an event enquiry or a complaint triggers an alert to the manager instead of waiting for the next morning's summary.
Your rules, before the first call
Start your free trial with your email. Your website can help prepare your business information, but it is optional. Confirm the facts, choose a first task and test your receptionist. You can try options too, starting with the ones you need.
Keep my phone numberTable-service restaurants