Automated booking confirmation and reminders

Purpose

1.1. Automate the entire booking confirmation and reminders process for Marche restaurants, ensuring customers receive prompt and accurate notifications for their reservations.
1.2. Automating the relay of reservation details, confirmations, and reminders via multichannel communication (SMS, email, WhatsApp, etc.), reducing manual intervention and improving operational efficiency.
1.3. Automate reminders to decrease no-shows, update customers of any changes, and collect confirmations, creating a fully automated customer touchpoint journey.

Trigger Conditions

2.1. New reservation entered in restaurant POS or booking system.
2.2. Scheduled time-based automation (e.g., 24 hours/2 hours before reservation).
2.3. Manual staff confirmation trigger.
2.4. Reservation modification or cancellation event detected.
2.5. Customer confirmation reply automates feedback loop for updating reservation status.

Platform Variants

3.1. Twilio SMS
- Feature/Setting: Automate SMS sending via “Messages API”. Set trigger on new booking; configure personalized templates and scheduling.
- Sample: Trigger: Reservation webhook → Twilio Messages API (Send SMS).

3.2. SendGrid
- Feature/Setting: Automate email confirmation with “Mail Send API”; schedule reminder emails.
- Sample: Reservation created → SendGrid Mail Send API (Automated email).

3.3. WhatsApp Business (Meta Graph API)
- Feature/Setting: Automate WhatsApp notifications via “messages endpoint”; configure Business Template IDs for booking confirmation/reminders.
- Sample: Reservation trigger → WhatsApp Graph API (Send templated message).

3.4. Slack
- Feature/Setting: Automate internal booking notifications using “chat.postMessage” API to designated channel.
- Sample: New booking → Slack channel (Automated notification).

3.5. Google Calendar API
- Feature/Setting: Automate calendar invitation for customer; “Events: insert” endpoint schedules and invites.
- Sample: Customer booking → Google Calendar event (Automate invite).

3.6. Microsoft Outlook Calendar
- Feature/Setting: Automate event creation via “Create Event” API; includes reminder automation.
- Sample: POS reservation → Outlook event (Automated confirmation and reminder).

3.7. Mailgun
- Feature/Setting: Automate personalized booking emails and reminders through “Messages API”.
- Sample: Reservation → Mailgun API (Automated send).

3.8. SMSGlobal
- Feature/Setting: Automate booking reminders via “Send SMS API”; use placeholders for reservation data.
- Sample: Reminder schedule → SMSGlobal API (Automated SMS).

3.9. Pipedrive
- Feature/Setting: Automate contact and activity creation with “Activities API”; link reservations to customers.
- Sample: Booking → Pipedrive Activity (Automated reminder task).

3.10. Zoho CRM
- Feature/Setting: Automate reservation records in “Leads/Contacts” and schedule automated follow-up reminders.
- Sample: New booking → Zoho Task/Email automation.

3.11. Salesforce
- Feature/Setting: Automate workflow rules for booking confirmation/journey emails via “Process Builder”.
- Sample: Reservation data imported → Process builder triggers email/SMS.

3.12. HubSpot
- Feature/Setting: Automate contact update and use “Workflows” for sending automated reminders.
- Sample: Booking webhook → HubSpot Workflow (Automated communication).

3.13. Customer.io
- Feature/Setting: Automate email/SMS campaigns for booking confirmations using “Transactional API”.
- Sample: Reservation event → Customer.io campaign automation.

3.14. Intercom
- Feature/Setting: Automate customer messaging through “Messages API” based on booking events.
- Sample: Booking triggers Intercom Message (Automated feedback loop).

3.15. ActiveCampaign
- Feature/Setting: Automate sending emails and SMS from “Automations” module triggered by booking.
- Sample: New/updated reservation → Automated automation in ActiveCampaign.

3.16. SMSAPI
- Feature/Setting: Automate SMS reminders with “Send SMS endpoint”; schedule via cron expressions.
- Sample: Booking schedule → SMSAPI (Automated SMS).

3.17. Aircall
- Feature/Setting: Automate outbound calls for high-priority reminders using “Click to Call API”.
- Sample: Trigger: Important reservation → Aircall (Automated call).

3.18. Gmail API
- Feature/Setting: Automate email sending via “Users.messages.send” with dynamic booking templates.
- Sample: New booking → Gmail automated send.

3.19. Viber Business Messages
- Feature/Setting: Automate message campaigns for confirmations/reminders via “send_message” API.
- Sample: Booking event → Viber API (Automated send).

3.20. Telegram Bot API
- Feature/Setting: Automate direct booking confirmations and follow-up via “sendMessage” endpoint.
- Sample: New reservation → Telegram bot (Automated communication).

3.21. Plivo
- Feature/Setting: Automate multichannel voice/SMS notifications for booking events via “Message API”.
- Sample: Reservation created → Plivo (Automated SMS/Call).

3.22. MessageBird
- Feature/Setting: Automate omnichannel messaging for confirmations/reminders configured through “Programmable Conversations API”.
- Sample: Booking → MessageBird (Omni automation).

Benefits

4.1. Automates manual notification workload, freeing staff for guest service.
4.2. Automated, consistent multichannel confirmations minimize booking errors.
4.3. Automating reminders decreases no-shows, boosts table utilization.
4.4. Automated feedback loops update reservation status seamlessly.
4.5. Highly automatable across SMS, email, chat, and voice channels.
4.6. Automation ensures 24/7 response, improving customer experience.
4.7. Easily scalable, automating thousands of bookings without extra staff.