“Restaurants are one of those industries that just get nickel-and-dimed by many vendors,” says RJ Tursi, owner of Exile Brewing Co. in Des Moines, Iowa. “It’s a low-margin business where you really have to do your best to control your costs.”
Around three years ago, Tursi had to make a choice to keep the cost of Exile’s reservation platform under control. At the time, he used OpenTable, which was set to increase fees—a monthly charge in addition to per-cover charges as high as $1 for each guest.
With multiple dining spaces and special events offered throughout the year—including its popular SnowGlobe Des Moines holiday pop-up—Exile Brewing needed a reservation platform that could do it all for a lot less than OpenTable was charging. It was time to go in a different direction.
After Tursi got a look at Tock’s features, he realized that the versatile, all-in-one table management tool could seriously enhance Exile’s operations for one flat, affordable monthly rate. “As I was seeing all the features Tock had, I realized we could exploit those to really dial in our pop-up SnowGlobe experience,” he says.
Now, Exile uses Tock year-round for everyday dinner reservations, beer garden bookings, one-off beer dinners, holiday events, and weekly brewery tours.
Here’s how Tock’s robust, customizable tools helped Tursi and his team increase covers by more than one-third in their first year on the platform—32.97%, to be exact.
Challenge
Reduce overhead costs for table management software.
Tock Solution
When OpenTable’s fees were set to increase, Tursi knew it was time to make a change. In addition to a monthly fee to use the platform, he recalls that Exile had to pay $1 for every reservation made on OpenTable and $.25 per cover for bookings through other sources. With a high-volume, revenue-driving event like SnowGlobe—which takes over Exile’s entire space for several weeks with eye-popping Christmas-themed decor—the costs became astronomical.
“When you’re running thousands of people through, that adds up,” Tursi says. “There’s no reason to be charging like that. When Tock came along for $250 a month, period, it was a no-brainer.”
By switching to Tock, Exile cut costs significantly and made budgeting that much easier with a low, flat rate.
Results
- No per-cover fees, cutting overhead and increasing profitability.
- Flat monthly fee simplifies budgeting.
Challenge
Boost profitability and streamline the flow of guests for a high-volume holiday experience.
Tock Solution
Guests responded to SnowGlobe in a big way—which meant that parties wanted to spend longer than their allotted 90 minutes among the colorful Christmas lights and holiday cheer. But the impact on turn times meant longer waits for other guests.
“People want to hang out for a really long time because the place looks incredible and it’s a great atmosphere, and that was really holding us back,” Tursi says.
Staff customized the experience pages and guest reminders for SnowGlobe to emphasize the 90-minute limit when booking and in pre-visit emails. The increased communication helped manage guest expectations and keep turn times on track.
On the back end, Exile used Tock’s automatic pacing function to turn over the entire restaurant every 90 minutes, evening out the volume of guests and preventing the staff from getting overwhelmed.
“With that 15-minute pacing function, we wouldn’t just get blasted at certain points and then kind of slow at other points,” Tursi says. “We just had this nice steady flow of people coming through.”
Results
- Customizable experience pages and guest communications help set expectations.
- Automatic pacing ensures even guest flow, even for a high-volume experience.
Challenge
Manage high-volume experiences alongside everyday service to smooth operations and maximize revenue.
Tock Solution
SnowGlobe isn’t Exile’s only holiday pop-up. Throughout October, the business’s beer garden and upstairs dining room host The Haunting at Exile, with Halloween-themed decor, drinks, and food, plus ticketed events like a beer dinner and a pumpkin carving contest. Elsewhere in the space, regular service continues as usual.
Exile needed a table management tool that would offer the flexibility to manage multiple experiences taking place throughout the space. Tock features, like Multi-Experiences Tables, allows them to do just that.
“It’s great how you can assign experiences to tables and then offer those experiences during the same availability window,” he says. “It makes taking reservations way easier than writing it down on paper and trying to lay everything out. The way Tock puts the puzzle together for you automatically is pretty sweet.”
Results
- Robust features enable businesses to pull off ambitious, creative experiences alongside regular service.
Request a demo to learn more about switching to Tock. If you’re already a customer, talk to hospitality about launching an experience today.
