OpenTable Experiences Support FAQs

What OpenTable Experiences support will Slang provide?

If a diner calls in asking about a reservation, we will always check for standard tables first. When standard bookings aren't available, Slang will connect diners with your available Table-assigned Experiences to book online. They'll get the option for a direct SMS booking link along with encouragement that they should act fast - Experiences are bound to sell out!

When booking online via the texted link, they can view all of your available menus and Add-ons to perfectly tailor their visit.

When will callers be invited to book an Experience online?

If you had a date open for standard bookings as well as a Table-assigned Experience, and all standard tables have already been booked but the Experience is still available, callers will hear about that Experience. Similarly, when your books are closed for standard bookings, but there’s an Experience available for the diner to book, Slang will tell the caller about the Experience. In both cases, Slang will direct the caller to book online and offer a text message to facilitate this booking.

Ticketed Experiences are not currently surfaced through the integration, and callers will hear that there is no availability if this is the only offering. Only Table-assigned Experiences are available for Slang to mention to callers.

What will callers hear?

If there’s only one Table-assigned Experience available for the requested date, we will read out the Experience name and offer a booking link. If there are multiple Table-assigned Experiences we will let the caller know they have multiple options and offer that same link.

Example:

On {requested date}, we do not have any standard reservations available. But we do have an Experience booking available called {Experience Name}. If you’d like to make a reservation for this Experience, it’s only bookable online. Would you like me to text you a link to view the details and book?

Yes, please!

Ok, I just sent it. Be sure to click the link and book right away, because Experiences can sell out quickly! Is there anything else?

I have multiple Experiences running at the same time, what will the caller hear?

We will let callers know that there are multiple Experiences available, and we will refer them to your online booking link saved in the Reservations topic where every potential booking option will be available for discovery and purchase.

Why is this good for restaurants?

This will connect callers to full event details, and enable them to understand every aspect of an Experience offering, as well as give them the opportunity to see and purchase any Add-ons or special menu differences that may exist. On the call, we will read out the Experience name only, so directing the bookings online will ensure that full context is delivered, while preserving the maximum revenue opportunity for your restaurant. Please ensure that your Experience name uses full words, no emoji or abbreviations.

What’s not changing?

Any callers detected as dialing from a Landline will be connected to venue staff via the method selected in the “Talk to Human” configuration on the Slang dashboard, as we can’t text any resources to these callers. This happens at the top of the booking call, before any booking availability checks are performed.

Can I provide a direct Experiences booking link?

At this time, we will offer the link saved to the Reservations topic on your Concierge tab of the Slang Dashboard. Please ensure that this link leads to your OpenTable booking widget or page to connect diners to Experiences. Diners trying to book through the widget links will also be offered available Experiences, so the choice of which link to use is up to you.

You can also save a direct Experiences booking link to the Seasonal Events topic along with details about your seasonal offering, as callers asking about a holiday may not route to the booking flow right away.

Will there be reporting available?

You will see "Experience Offered" on the Reservation Outcomes donut on our Reservations Insights page when callers have been offered a link to book an Experience on a Slang call. Since we aren't booking, we won't truly be able to trace from a call to a booked Experience at this time, but we will share how often we are finding exclusively Experience availability and telling callers about it.

Why won’t Slang book my Experiences over the phone?

OpenTable Experiences come in all shapes and sizes! This makes the gambit of booking them on an automated phone call an interesting challenge. There are multiple price points, menu options, and fine print details about taxes, gratuity, and other details that are much better suited to a visual purchasing experience.

The Experiences details that we get through the integration won’t include any Add-ons that restaurants may want to promote — like merchandising, a wine pairing, or a proposal package. This means that booking directly on the Slang call may prevent diners from getting the royal treatment when they arrive, contributing to lower revenue for the restaurant and potential disappointment for the diner who could have enhanced their experience with the venue if they had access to their options at the time of booking.

We also know that some Experiences will have different prices for different demographics (senior pricing, child pricing) which would be quite complex to navigate in the context of a phone call. Some venues offer Experiences that must be booked 24-48 hours in advance, but this detail may not be known on the call, which could lead to in-venue problems and subsequent last-minute booking changes or cancellations, reducing diner delight and risking the loss of repeat business.

For all of these reasons, we are connecting diners with your availability information and the opportunity to book their Experiences with you online.

How can I ensure that callers only hear about an Experience for a certain date?

You’ll need to be sure to disable standard in-house bookings for that date if you want all callers to hear about an Experience through Slang. This can be done in two different ways:

1. When setting up a Table-assigned Experience, on the third page after uploading photos for your OpenTable landing page, you’ll have the opportunity to Disable standard reservations.

   1. If you select “By table” you can quickly choose entire dining area(s) to ensure that dinars on Slang calls are alerted to Experiences-only availability on that date.

   2. If you select “By party size” you can ensure that certain party sizes are excluded from standard bookings, this may be leveraged for large party Experiences.

2. For Table-assigned Experiences, you can also access advanced settings in Availability Planning by clicking into the shift where the Experience is available.

   1. Make sure that you have Disabled standard reservations.

What about Cancel or Change Functionality?

There is no integration functionality through OpenTable for cancelling or changing an Experience.

Cancellations: Due to the fact that cancelling an experience usually would result in a refund, these actions will always need to be handled by your team. Slang is not going to initiate transactions between your diners and your business.

Modifications: Changing an Experience may result in cost differences and there is no method today for gaining or refunding incremental costs. As a result, this will also need to be facilitated by venue staff.

More questions? Reach out!

You can reach our team by emailing support@slang.ai